There is always something that I seem to find deep inside whenever I see team representing the United States in competition on TV.
Be it softball, soccer, or heck even curling, I find my attention being drawn to the competition and pushed away from the remote.
Case in point: hockey’s World Junior Championships. Sure, I heard a little about it and kept it ever so slightly in the back of my mind this past weekend when I learned the USA was taking on Canada in group play, but the thought then became lost behind New Years plans, traveling back to Buffalo, and the final Bills tailgating of the season which I was highly anticipating for the sheer fact it was the last Sunday I would need to be away at ungodly hours of the morning to begin the pregame festivities.
When the game and weather turned to be completely miserable, my roommates and I decided to head home and try to fight the lake affect snow that had set up shop over the greater Buffalo metro area.
Following a 2 hour shoveling session which was 1 part shoveling the driveways and pathways to our apartment, and the other part being spent laying the foundation for a snow table in the back yard, we took to the couches for something entertaining to watch.
Enter the WJC: Canada vs. Switzerland semi-final game. While I will lay my personal take/bias aside for this particular article, it was during this game we found out about the USA-Sweden game later this same evening
When 9 pm rolled around, we begin to flip to the game during the commercials of an entertaining animated show on a certain network station, but once the show ended, our remote became locked on the hockey game.
Our living room quickly filled with armchair coaches, and analysts providing our own insight to the game while still sharing a common bond of pulling for the red white and blue. Cheers, boos, swears were just a few of the utterances coming from the trio of die-hard hockey fans who suddenly wanted to know anything and everything about the players on the ice.
Even after learning that 3 of the talented teenagers were prospects of the hated New York Rangers, my displeasure quickly vanished when the US took a 3-2 lead in the 3rd period.
Following the 4th goal by the Americans, we began discussing changes in our plans for Tuesday night in order to compensate for the 8 pm start of the USA Canada rematch.
It truly is quite remarkable, at least for myself, when just the fact an American team is in contention for a championship, how quickly many will jump on the bandwagon trying to somehow will the team to victory.
