No, that wasn't to alert you to birthday-gift-buying-season (though I am anxious to get that new Bobby Fuller Four boxed set...), but to move the story along.
Another thing you have to know -- my great-uncle, Buddy Kessel, was the equipment manager at the University of Minnesota. Oh, and on a couple of Olympic hockey teams, including the 1980 one.
Understand where this one's going? As if Olympic hockey weren't far enough in my blood through my blood relations, I also had the fortune to be born exactly five years before Mike Eruzione and the boys defeated the Soviet juggernaut on the ice at Lake Placid, NY. On my fifth birthday, I got to watch my uncle on TV, and see a victory that captivated a nation. And though that victory for my country meant a lot more later on in my life than it did then (then, I understood almost none of it), it has since become one of those legendary moments in my life, one I think about an awful lot.
See, hockey itself has become so much more a part of my life. I played it (street hockey at least) through high school and college. I've followed the NHL closely for 10 years, and now have had the good fortune to get to cover a minor-league team as part of my career. But there's something that transcends the leagues, the games, the business, as a whole when it comes to international competition. It's different. It's more than the sport -- it's an event, a huge coming-together -- especially in the Olympics, when even the women in my family come together to watch a sporting event. That team out there is playing for you, for your country, for your flag. It sounds corny, but when you get swept up in it, you feel it all the way down to your heart. I rooted for Team USA at the 1996 World Cup as if they were my brothers.
In 1996, I even rooted for a guy named Pat LaFontaine, whom I'd hated when I was a kid. I was a Ranger fan; he was an Islander. Oil and water, doncha know. But it was Team USA. It was a continuation of Uncle Buddy's teams (heck, he'd worked with the '84 team, with whom Patty played). A year later, with LaFontaine playing for my favorite team, I got that chance again, but it was a different kind of support. It wasn't better or worse, just different: in the NHL realm, it's rooting for good friends, instead of for family.
But now, for a couple of weeks in February, it's family again. Uncle Buddy won't be there; unfortunately, he's no longer with us. But 18 years after his team won a gold medal, a group of Americans are in Nagano with a great chance to win another gold medal. And one of those Americans will be Pat LaFontaine.
By the way, the third thing you need to know is that Patty and I share the same birthday, though he is 10 years older.
And the fourth thing is that the Gold Medal Game of the Olympic men's hockey tournament will be played on February 22.
You better believe I'll be rooting for a golden birthday for both of us.
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