Twenty-five (twenty-five???? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???!!!???) years ago tonight, I was screaming, cheering, crying, jumping, and not daring to breathe for, golly, it felt like hours as Team USA beat the Soviet Union 4-3.

Yes, this victory--and the gold-medal win over Finland two days later--did make me believe in miracles. But to say this was a "miracle" really doesn't do Herb Brooks and those 20 young men justice. What's that saying? "The harder I work, the luckier I get"--that is the essence of this Miracle On Ice. There was not a team in that tournament that worked harder than Team USA. Every coach in Lake Placid was woefully out-coached by Herb Brooks--even the legendary Viktor Tikhanov who unbelievably pulled Vladislav Tretiak after the first period of the USA/USSR game.

To this day, I cannot watch footage of Mike Eruzione's game winner, or those last seconds of the game (or all the boys with their gold medals singing the national anthem) without dissolving into a puddle of tears. Those are tears of pure joy and pride. It is one of the best models I've ever had that working hard and believing in yourself matters more than any assessment any "expert" talking-head can give.

Yet, looking back on this, then comparing it to the state of hockey (particularly the NHL) today, it makes me so sad to see how the game has degraded. What happened to that passion? What happened to that vision? Where are those coaches who truly think outside the box and find ways to win hockey games without boring spectators to death? Where are the players who simply want to play the game for the simple glory of knowing that, win or lose, they left everything they had on the ice? I've just been trying to think of the games that I've seen over the years that left me truly satisfied that I've just seen a competitive hockey game, and after the 1980 Olympics, I can't think of very many.

So, on this 25th Anniversary of Team USA's "Miracle on Ice," it is my sincere hope that every NHL player, coach, GM, owner (and even Bob Goodenow and Gary Bettman) watch a replay of this game and remember WHAT HOCKEY CAN BE--if only they cared as much about what they put INTO the game as they care about what they can get out of it.