Every USA Olympic hockey team, ranked by miracles on ice

4. Salt Lake City Olympics, 2002

Salt Lake City, Utah is not Lake Placid, New York. But you know what both venues had in common? You guessed it. Both are cities in America.

With the Winter Olympics back in America for the first time since 1980, the Americans search for a medal for the first time since 1980. They had thoughts of nostalgia and acted upon it by tabbing Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 squad, to coach the 2002 team.

It was obvious what Team USA was trying to do. They did everything short of having Mike Eruzione suit up.

But you know what. It almost worked.
The 2002 team, captained by Chris Chelios in his best Olympics ever, won silver. They made it to the gold medal game against Canada but didn’t have the firepower of the Canadian squad.

The forwards matched up pretty well, but Canada had a big edge in defense (sorry, Aaron Miller, Gary Suter, and Tom Poti) and a bigger edge in goal. Mike Ritcher is good. Martin Brodeur is arguably the greatest goalie of all-time.

Team USA tried to capture the 1980 magic in a bottle and recreate it in 2002. It didn’t work, but it did remind the world that the United States is pretty good at hockey. After failing to medal in five straight Olympics and turning in a rather embarrassing effort in the first NHL Olympic year, the 2002 team captured the heart of Americans once again. For those few short weeks, The country watched hockey taking place in the United States.