When Was Last Time You Saw The Golden Goal?

Yesterday we relived some of my youth by talking about the 1987 Canada Cup.

We talked about the famous winning goal - Gretzky to Lemieux


And, of course, you can't talk about that goal without comparing it to the dramatics and importance of Paul Henderson's famous goal in 1972:




"There is a generation of hockey fans who have grown up not having seen the 1972 Summit Series," said tournament head Alan Eagleson. "But the 1987 tournament bridged that generation gap. It was that good. To a new generation it will be their 1972 series."

That generation gap was again bridged in 2010, when Sidney Crosby scored the dramatic Golden Goal to give Canada Olympic gold on home ice at the Vancouver Olympics, completing the epic trilogy of Canadian hockey greatness.

I would like to show you it, but it is really hard to find on YouTube. And how many times have you seen Crosby's famous goal since 2010? Almost never. Why? Because the crooked International Olympic Committee owns the broadcast rights. And apparently if Hockey Night in Canada or NHL.com ever wanted to use it to celebrate hockey greatness, it would cost them a ridiculously prohibitive amount of money to do so. Instead this great moment in hockey history is reduced to the same one or two still images, or more likely just ignored altogether.

1972 transcended the game due the political climate at the time. In terms of just what happens on the ice, 1987 may have been the greatest hockey ever played. But Crosby's Golden Goal 2010 - with all the pressure Canada faced on home ice - may truly have been the most iconic moment in Canadian hockey history, but it's legacy has been completely smothered by the greedy IOC.

Not only does a generation of hockey fans not get to enjoy it, but the moment is lost forever. Future generations will have their own great hockey goals and victories, but the generation gap is now broken.

The IOC is doing no one any favors with their ridiculous policies that do nothing to advance sport. Let the great moments in sporting history live on, and maybe the Olympics will be relevant again.