Team USA is back from Milan, coming home from the Winter Olympics with gold medals. As players such as Auston Matthews prepare to return to NHL play, the legacy of this gold medal-winning team is being discussed.
As the impact on future generations of hockey players from this team is debated, Al Michaels spoke on the impact the last gold medal team, the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice' team, played on this one, while appearing on the Dan Patrick Show on Monday.
“So when I'm a kid in the 50s and 60s in New York, and I loved the Rangers, and in the NHL in those years, there were like two or three or four guys born in America, and in 1980, I think I looked it up, there were like 8% of the rosters were American-born,” Michaels said. “Now it's 30%. So what '80 did, and I think what yesterday did, is it makes kids more excited. More kids are going to play hockey now because of what took place yesterday.”
Michaels points out the growth in hockey following the 1980 Olympic gold. Research done by the Sound of Hockey shows the spike of the 1980's Olympics and its impact on US-born hockey, seeing a jump of just over ten percent of the NHL being from the United States, to nearly 30 percent today. There was another spike in US hockey play in the early 2000's, specifically play in non-traditional hockey states, something that Michaels also pointed out.
“They play it all around the country now. And again, when I was a kid, the number one draft choice in the NHL would always be a kid born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, or in northern Manitoba. But one of the seminal moments to me was the American captain, Auston Matthews, who was drafted number one by the Toronto Maple Leafs about 10 years ago. You know, played extremely well in the Olympics. Auston Matthews grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona,” the hall of fame broadcaster continued.
Matthews was born in 1997, in San Ramon, California, but moved to Scottsdale, Arizona when he was under a year old. He then began attending Phoenix Coyotes games as a young child and started to play shortly after the age of five. While Matthews was born well after the Miracle on Ice team won gold, the impact of the 1980 team went well beyond just a quick spike in interest.
“There's no question that in 1980, that made a lot of kids more interested in playing. I thought HBO did a fantastic documentary in 2001 that helped. Miracle came out in 2004 with Kurt Russell. That certainly helped because all the kids have now seen that,” Michaels continued.
USA Hockey membership saw impressive growth after the initial boost from the first gold medal team, and then again as interest around that team surged 20-years later.
Hopefully, the same will happen again following this gold medal victory for Team USA in 2026. If so, maybe it will not be 46 years between gold medals for Team USA men's hockey at the Winter Olympics.
