MILAN — Mike Eruzione had just left Il Duomo, Milan’s towering cathedral, when he picked up the phone on Saturday. It’s fitting, in a sense, because the reactions Eruzione still inspires 46 years after making the most famous play in U.S. sports history bring to mind another American who resides some 350 miles south of Milan, and preaches from the Vatican.
“I’ve got people come up to me and start crying,” Eruzione told The Post on Saturday, one day before Team USA took on Canada, looking to bring home gold for the first time since the 1980 team he captained. “And, depending on their age, they’ll say, ‘I remember where I was when Kennedy was assassinated, I remember where I was when the Challenger blew up, I remember where I was on 9/11, and I remember where I was when we won.’
“I always go, ‘We? I didn’t know you were on the team.’ But that’s what that moment was. And that’s what the Olympic Games are.”
The 19 other players who participated in the Miracle on Ice can attest: It’s a shared experience.
“I’ve had many people tell me that was the first time they ever saw their dad cry,” Ken Morrow told The Post, “watching that game.”
Sunday will not be as big as the game that took place 46 years ago to the day, when Eruzione scored the game winner in Lake Placid to beat the Soviet Union and inspired movies, documentaries and a generation of hockey players that, Matthew Tkachuk said Saturday, included his father, Keith. But it may well be the biggest hockey game America has seen since, and if the men and women both take home gold in a historical first, it may well have the same effect.
Eruzione was in the house Thursday when Megan Keller scored in overtime for the women’s gold medal. He will be here again Sunday.
“I told Hilary Knight, the captain of the [women’s] team: Do you know how many girls are sitting at home across the country and saying I want to be a hockey player?” Eruzione said. “So those moments like that resonate throughout the hockey world. I think you’re gonna see it with our men’s team.
“I’ve got seven grandkids. There’s five boys. The oldest is 13 and the youngest is 4. I guarantee you they’re gonna be glued to the TV … watching because they want to be hockey players. They want to have that moment. And that’s what this is gonna do for the sport of hockey and this team.”
Eruzione sent Team USA a text on Saturday morning, telling them this is the game they’ve dreamed about since they were kids, and this is their chance to make it come true. It sounds like exaggeration and cliché. It is nothing of the sort. Charlie McAvoy was asked Saturday how long he’s been thinking about this.
“Since the first time you watched [the] Miracle on Ice,” he said.
This year’s team, Eruzione said, “is the best team we’ve ever had.”
“I do think we’re a little better depth-wise. We’re a deeper team than Canada,” Eruzione said. “But I said that at the 4 Nations. Canada was able to win that game. They do have the best player in the world in Connor McDavid, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody like him. But I think our depth is gonna be solid. I think our defensive corps is really good.
“I expect us to win. I hope we win.”
Team USA’s players talk constantly about how much it means to them to represent the flag. Eruzione shares the same sentiment.
“I’ll say this till the day I die: Other than being a police officer, a firefighter or somebody in the military who protects and serves our country, there’s no greater feeling than putting on a USA jersey,” Eruzione said. “You’re not playing for the Islanders or Rangers. You’re not playing for New York or Chicago. You’re playing for our country.”
The Miracle on Ice served as a unifier for a country in what Jimmy Carter infamously called a crisis of confidence. The moment now is not the same, but Eruzione is not wrong, not at all, to say we could use something similar now.
“Is it gonna change the world and the mindset? I don’t know,” Eruzione said. “But it sure as hell is gonna make people happy and proud to be an American, and proud to live in the country that we live in. Maybe the women did a little of that the other night by winning.
“If the men can do it — [Sunday is] the anniversary of us beating the Soviets. That would be pretty cool.”
