Olympic hockey hero Eruzione ready for another American winner

Did you see the pictures of skating at Fenway Park? May your heart be light. It was fantastic, Bobby Orr and Terry O'Reilly gliding past the area Dustin Pedroia usually patrols. And on Jan. 1, when the Bruins play the Flyers at Fenway, the U.S. Olympic Hockey team will be announced.

"We will be young, and Canada, with enormous pressure on Sidney Crosby, will be gunning for the gold," Mike Eruzione said of the brilliant Canadian center who plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Central characters from the 1980 classic: Mike Eruzione, Russia goaltender Vladamir Myshkin and U.S. goalie Jim Craig. (Getty Images)

Eruzione, America's Olympic ambassador for nearly 30 years, once played baseball at Fenway Park in a high school all-star game. He'll skate at Fenway this week, then come back on New Year's Day for the game and finally a week later for the college double-header when BC plays BU and the women from Northeastern face New Hampshire.

"Seeing the NHL and then the college games should get people talking about the Winter Olympics in Vancouver," Eruzione said.

Not a day has gone by in the last three decades that Eruzione hasn't been asked about the 1980 "Miracle on Ice", the U.S. gold medal in Lake Placid that is often listed as the greatest achievement in the history of American sports.

"I think part of the reason we've never won another gold medal is the way the teams are set up now," said Eruzione, never one to pull punches. "You know how long the Olympic team will practice together? One day. Everyone is on an NHL team and there isn't time to develop enough chemistry. We practiced together for six months."

Eruzione acknowledges how difficult the scenario is for the U.S. The best talent in the world now comes here to play, and the Americans don't have a Crosby or an Alex Ovechkin, the magnificent Russian left wing for the Capitals.

"The NBA wasn't played all over the world at a higher level than it's been played here," said Eruzione, "so when foreign players came, they had to lift their game. Hockey's been a huge sport in some countries for a hundred years."

Eruzione goes so far as to say that maybe there should be a return to the amateur game.

"I think there should be talk to at least consider it," said the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey captain who was the final torchbearer at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake when the U.S. hockey team won a silver medal.

That silver stands out because it's the only hockey medal earned since 1980. The U.S. won gold in Squaw Valley in 1960, and another silver in 1972, which was significant because it's the only U.S. Olympic medal captured on foreign soil. Those games were held in Sapporo and that team was captured in a book called Striking Silver, written by CBS' Jerry Caraccioli and his brother Tom.

"It was groundbreaking for the United States to win that medal," said Jerry Caraccioli. "After watching the Russians closely for so many years, the U.S. adopted a European style of play and totally surprised everyone. It became a great foundation for U.S. hockey."

The wide open style played on international rinks, which are 98 feet wide by 200 feet long, makes for longer shots and little checking. But the Winter Games being held in Vancouver in February are going to be contested on the home ice of the Canucks, which, like all NHL rinks, is only 85 feet wide.

"That will make it a much more physical game," said Eruzione. "We'll need some bruisers."

Goonies in the home of the loonies, as the Canadian dollar coin is called?

"Well, we need big, fast bodies," said Eruzione, "but here's another problem -- if you are from Sweden and you're playing Russia, are you going after a guy who might be your teammate in the NHL? Are you going to risk injury when both of you are getting paid a lot of money to compete for the Stanley Cup?"

The entire panorama will be there for all to see. Because hockey is the No. 1 sport in Canada and the No. 1 team sport in the Winter Games, every moment will be televised. The burden on Team Canada will be enormous. With Crosby, the pride of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, and with home ice, anything but gold will be unacceptable. And Crosby is in the same boat as many American players. He has a Penguins game on Sun. Feb. 14, he'll practice on the 15th and play Norway on the 16th.

"I just think there's got to be a better way," said Eruzione. "Our Olympic coach, Ron Wilson, is excellent, very successful, and he'll send a team to Vancouver that he thinks, that he knows, can win a medal. We're young, but we'll compete. And maybe one of the goaltenders, [Tim] Thomas or [Ryan] Miller, can get hot for two weeks. No one will be rooting harder than me."