MILAN — Tom Wilson remembers being a kid in school when everything would shut down.
They’d wheel in those big, boxy TVs, put the antenna up to get a signal.
Or maybe he’d be at the rink, attending a watch party.
That’s where he was in 2010, at age 15, when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal against Team USA.
That’s what it’s like in Canada when the men’s hockey team plays at the Olympics.
“And that’s why we’re here,” Wilson said. “We’re here for our country. We’re here to try and make them proud. I think if you ask any single guy in that room, it’s way bigger than us. All I can do, all we can do at this point, is just leave it out there for our country.”
Canada, as you well know, is the world’s preeminent hockey superpower.
It has won damn-near every best-on-best tournament in history, the last loss coming at the 2006 Torino Games.
Even with Team USA bringing a historically good roster to Milan, and even after splitting two games with the Americans last year, finishing in second after Sunday’s gold medal game would be something like a national crisis.
“I think obviously as Canadians we take a lot of pride in this sport,” Connor McDavid said. “And the guys that have come before us have done a great job representing the country. I think we’ve played good hockey and hopefully put ourselves in a good spot to do the same.”
The country will pretty much shut down on Sunday morning.
Bars and restaurants in Ontario have been given license to serve alcohol starting at 6 a.m.
Every TV in the nation will be tuned in.
“We know there’s 40 million people at home on the edge of their seat waiting for this to happen,” coach Jon Cooper said.
Even Macklin Celebrini, the youngest player on the team at 19, can feel the weight of history on his shoulders.
He was too young to have watched the 2010 Vancouver Games live, just 3 years old when the Olympics came to his home city.
Still, he’s watched that USA-Canada final plenty over the years.
Not the highlights — the whole game.
How many times?
“Oh, ever since it happened, a lot,” Celebrini said.
