TURIN -- We came to bury the women's game, not to praise it. We ended up with the Little Miracle on Ice, the reference natural enough and in memory of the upstart Americans who in 1980 won the men's hockey gold. We ended up with mud on our faces.
Since the Olympic hockey tournament began a week ago with a 16-0 smoking of the host Italians by the rude Canucks, the writerly chatter has been all about who would say first that perhaps it was time to give the women's game the boot from the Games. The competition was so thin, went this sophisticated thinking; it was always only the Canadians and the Americans; none of the other clubs had really significantly improved since Nagano eight years ago, yadda yadda yadda, you get the drift.
Even International Ice Hockey Federation boss René Fasel was musing aloud this week that perhaps it was time for some fiddling -- tighten up the qualifying standards, make the host nation qualify, eliminate the goal differential as the preliminary-round tiebreaker to avoid teams running up the score, as the Canucks were criticized for doing against Italy -- to make the competition better.
Then came the blond bombers, beating the Yanks 3-2 in a shootout yesterday in what no less a superstar than Canuck Hayley Wickenheiser called "the greatest upset in the history of women's hockey."
More Stories
The Swedes now head into Monday's gold-medal game against Wickenheiser et al, marking the first time in Olympic history, and the first time since the inaugural IIHF women's tournament in 1990, that the two traditional North American powerhouses haven't met for the big prize.
Yet even the stunned Americans were quick to suggest that perhaps the loss would serve the greater good of the women's game.
"I'm in shock," three-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero said. "It hurts, it stings . . . a lot of people were looking forward to that game [against the Canadians], it would have been a great hockey game.
"But if you're talking long term, maybe, yeah, it's good to see other teams out there. It will give hope to other European teams and maybe they'll put more money into their programs."
It was a sentiment echoed everywhere at the Palasport arena yesterday.
The Swedish women were bursting with the sentiment.
"It was awesome," said Pernilla Winberg, the winsome teenager who will turn her number -- 16 -- next week and who scored the winner in the shootout. "Just think about it: Everything can happen. If we can beat the U.S., we can beat Canada."
Her elder by a decade, Joa Elfsberg, was outright ecstatic. "It means a lot," she said. "I think it will bring in a lot of new players, it's great for women's hockey in Sweden, it's great for women's hockey.
"A lot of teams are pretty equal now. The Russians played pretty good against us, and we made history last time [with their bronze at Salt Lake] and now we're in the final this time. It's amazing. Now, instead of just the U.S. and Canada, everyone is getting closer, and it's not the same teams every time."
This may be gilding the lily just a tad, because while there are now at least four reasonably competitive teams -- the Canadians have had some close calls against the Swedes, for instance -- the gap between the top four and the rest of the world is still enormous, unsurprising since most of the women who play hockey play in North America. If it is fair to say the Swedes have gone some distance to enlivening the women's game, they have hardly saved it.
Ruggiero, for one, suggested that perhaps the Great White North could do a little more by changing the restrictions upon imports in the National Women's Hockey League, which is based in Ontario and Quebec, so that young players don't find themselves without a high-level place to play at the age of 22.
"The NWHL is the best league in the world, in my opinion, after the [National Collegiate Athletic Association]," Ruggiero, who played a half-season in the NWHL with the Montreal club, said yesterday. Yet the clubs allow only two non-Canadians a roster, and while as Ruggiero said that's obviously to protect their league, "in the long term, maybe they can start a couple of clubs in the States, like Buffalo, or loosen the restrictions.
"The onus," she said, "is on Canada. How do you grow the game? How to make all teams better? Canada, with its history and its devotion to the sport, has a responsibility. And it's easy, the structure is in place."
After finishing college, and Ruggiero pointed out that plenty of Canadian women go to U.S. schools on scholarships, Canadians can return to the NWHL, but Americans and Europeans are usually left with their careers at a dead end.
Well, perhaps the NWHL might do a little something along Ruggiero's suggested lines.
But don't expect the Canadians to subscribe to the "greater good of the game" philosophy if, God forbid, they were to lose to Sweden here on Monday. That notion was put to Wickenheiser yesterday after she and her teammates trounced the traditionally plucky Finns 6-0 to move on to the big game.
"Would you think it would be good for the game if you lost?" I asked.
A flush appeared on her already ruddy prominent cheekbones.
"No chance," Wickenheiser snapped. "We came here to win a gold. There's no other focus."
I mean, let's not get ridiculous.
11