February 2010: The Anaheim Ducks bring home an NHL most 7 Olympic Medals
In light of the rosters being selected for the 2014 Olympic games, this week’s moment looks back on a history-making performance by the Anaheim Ducks‘ representatives in 2010.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics the Ducks sent Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Scott Niedermayer, Bobby Ryan, Ryan Whitney, Saku Koivu, Teemu Selanne, Jonas Hiller, and Luca Sbisa as representatives to play for Teams Canada, USA, Finland, and Switzerland. A total of 9 players, the Ducks were tied with the Detroit Red Wings for most players sent to the Olympic Games in Vancouver by an NHL team.
Niedermayer was chosen to captain Team Canada, while Getzlaf and Perry were virtual locks given their stellar play during the regular season. Ryan was selected to play for Team USA going into the tournament as the 3rd highest scoring American forward, while Ryan Whitney was selected to play for the team due to an injury. Koivu and Selanne have been long time participants at the individual level for Team Finland and their place on the team was secured from the very beginning. At the time, Sbisa was still fighting for his place on the Anaheim Ducks roster, but he still had more NHL experience than most of his countrymen so he was chosen, along with Hiller (who played as Switzerland’s starter in goal) to play in Switzerland’s top 4, where his strong play against the best players in the world left his positive mark on the Anaheim Ducks coaching and management staff. Randy Carlyle even told Luca at the conclusion of the tournament that if found a way to play like that every night, the Ducks wouldn’t be able to keep him off of the team.
In the group stages, most of the Ducks would eventually be pitted against each other with the USA, Canada, and Switzerland sharing a group with Norway. The two most notable matches were USA-Canada and Switzerland-Canada. Led by an opening period and tournament opening goal by Ryan, the Americans stunned the hockey world by defeating the Canadians 3-1. At the other end, Hiller made his mark on the tournament keeping the Canadians to 2 goals leading the two teams to a shootout that Canada eventually won. The United States would exit the group stage with a perfect 3-0 record, while Canada qualified with a 1-1-1 record. Finland on the other end went 2-0-1 only dropping one contest against the powerhouse Swedish team.
In the playoff round Team Switzerland defeated Belarus, but were shutout 2-0 by the Americans en route to a 6-1 thrashing of Finland in the Semi-Final. While the Canadians ripped through Germany and Russia to face-off against the unlikely semifinalists in Slovakia who narrowly defeated Sweden (who were considered the favorites on their side of the bracket) 4-3. Canada would go on to beat Slovakia by a score of 3-2 to qualify for the Final against the United States, Finland was left to play Slovakia for Bronze.
Finland guaranteed the Ducks two more Olympic medals to the 5 medals guaranteed to come out of the Canada-USA tilt after they defeated Slovakia 5-3. Selanne and Koivu were held scoreless in the game but still came back to Anaheim as Olympic medalists. The USA played Canada for the Gold with 3 Ducks on Team Canada and 2 on Team USA in what was one of the most watched hockey games of all time. Canada opened the scoring with 2 goals from Jonathan Toews and Perry in the first half of the game. Canucks center Ryan Kesler put the Americans on the board 5 minutes after Perry’s goal. Despite USA’s best efforts they just weren’t able to get past Canada’s defense and Roberto Luongo. It looked like Canada had secured the gold medal up until there were just 25 seconds left in the game and New Jersey’s Zach Parise tied up the game. Unfortunately for the United States, the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar got the puck past Ryan Miller at the 7:40 mark of overtime to give Canada the gold medal, known now across Canada as “The Goal”.
The Anaheim Ducks made history through their representatives’ individual performances. Only two other teams in the history of the National Hockey Team have been able to boast 7 Olympic Medals from one single tournament, the 1998 Pittsburgh Penguins and the 2002 Detroit Red Wings. Anaheim’s total equaled an NHL record. Ryan Getzlaf shared a four way tie with countrymen Jarome Iginla, Sidney Crosby, and Dany Heatley for the 4th most points scored in the tournament.
This year the Ducks will send 7 players to the Olympics. Cam Fowler, Getzlaf, Perry, Jakob Silfverberg, Sami Vatanen, Selanne, and Hiller who will represent Teams USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland. That’s 5 possible countries to bring back home a medal to the city of Anaheim. Hopefully Team USA can bring back a Gold Medal for Sochi, but regardless of who wins, we’ll be sure to be cheering on each one of our 7 Olympians. As well as cheering for a healthy tournament for all of these key players.
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