Top 5 Team Canada Hockey Team-describing songs

To quote Jon Bon, these 5 words I swear to you: Last hockey countdown for now!

A final list had to be done to acknowledge the double Gold performances by the Canadian women & men in Sochi.

My list of the Top 5 Canadian Hockey Teams of all time & the songs that describe their respective journeys.  Most of the lyrics are of course used well out of intended context, enjoy!

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5. 2002 Olympics (Women)
Song: Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, Starship

Being a referee is not easy.  It’s up there on the list of thankless jobs.  Therefore, I’m not usually one to criticize officials but this game was one of those games that I understand the anger some fans have towards referees. The Team Canada ladies overcame eight consecutive penalties in the final game to win the Gold.

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4. 1991 Canada Cup
Song: With or Without You, U2

The original undefeated Team Canada, the ‘You’ in this case meaning Wayne Gretzky.  For those unfamiliar with the name, he’s Paulina’s dad and was kind of a big deal in the 80s and 90s.  The Canucks won/tied the first several games with Gretzky and the final pair without #99.  So I suppose they could live with or without him after all.

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3. 2002 Olympics (Men)
Song: Lucky, Radiohead

It was between this and Britney Spears’s song of the same name.  Either way, lucky refers to the loonie (a Canadian $1 coin!) buried under centre ice.  It’s direct impact is hard to quantify but a double gold medal was an agreeable end result.

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2. 1987 Canada Cup
Song: Just the Two of Us, Dr. Evil

The two of us in this case: The Great One (Gretzky) and Mario Lemieux (whose last name in French accurately means ‘the best’).  It wasn’t even fair: Gretzky had 21 points in 9 games, Lemieux 18.  The next closest player on Team Canada had 8 points.

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1. 2014 Olympics (Men)
Song: Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley

‘You’ in this case: the lead.  Canada played 6 games and was tied or leading for the entire tournament.  They allowed 3 goals total and shut out the Swedes and the Americans.   Oh there’s probably some recency bias (seeing as the tournament has been over for all of a few hours) but this team was truly dominant.  Other teams have been more exciting (’87), had better stories (’02), but this was the definitive team effort.

Olympics, done.  Back to regular reviews this week, including an ‘audience-participation is required’ look at Led Zeppelin II!

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