My single greatest piece of gear

[Rustpot 1]

Just in case, DTW is the airport code for Detroit Metro International, a likely stopping point coming from Minnesota on the way to New York.

[x107metallica 0]

amazing....

[santiclaws 0]

Wow. Just wow.

[cbart 1]

Don't want to start a new thread on this but have to share a Herb Brooks story...

Summer of 2003 (June) my wife is out with her sisters at the local watering hole down the road. Herb is from my neck of the woods in Minnesota, so not unusual to see him out and about at the same place. The wife sees him but doesn't want to bug him as he is having dinner. She comes home and tells me and my at the time 10 year old son that they saw him. I asked her if she got his autograph and she said "no". We had just recently picked up the HBO documentary on the 1980 team. So my wife's sister brings my son and the DVD back down to see him at the bar. My kid is nervous but asks him to sign the DVD. Herb tells him he doesn't have the right kind of pen to sign it, but asks my son if he lives nearby. He tells him to come back tomorrow and he will drop the DVD off with a signature for him to pick up.

Next day rolls around, we go back to the place and tell the owner our story. He looks at us and says, "You are not going to believe this.." In addition to the DVD signed with a gold pen, he leaves my kid an autographed picture of the 1980 and 1992 Olympic hockey teams. All 3 are now mounted in the living room. Little did we know, just 2 months later he would be gone. What a class act.

[MLSman 22]

Seeing that bag gave me goose bumps. I grew up idolizing Mark Pavelich as a die hard Rangers fan as a kid. That tag with the #16 on it...wow. Made me feel like I did watching the Olympics as at age 7. Funny, but at such a young age I can remember KNOWING that what I was watching was very special. As such, that bag belongs in a very special place.

[DarkStar50 679]

Mark Pavelich was an awesome Olympian, he set up Eruzione against the Russians, and an amazing Ranger. He walked away from it all in the prime of his career. He was extremely underrated as an NHLer.

[Hipster 5]

Seeing that bag gave me goose bumps. I grew up idolizing Mark Pavelich as a die hard Rangers fan as a kid. That tag with the #16 on it...wow. Made me feel like I did watching the Olympics as at age 7. Funny, but at such a young age I can remember KNOWING that what I was watching was very special. As such, that bag belongs in a very special place.

I know what you mean about idolizing that team. I was 14 and playing a game that day. We stopped our game to watch what was a tape delay of something we already knew had happenned, but we needed to see it to believe it.

A few years ago during the frozen four, I had the opportunity to play in a charity pick-up game. I'm no star, but I don't have to worry or get nervous about embarassing myself on the ice too much in a pick-up game.....but when I walked in the locker room I damn near froze up....Mark Johnson in the flesh. I felt like I was 14 again. At the time I was 14 he was my absolute hero in hockey, way more than Gretzky, just based on his 2 goals in the game. I wanted to tell him that, but shit he's only 6 years older than me, so I played it cool and smiled and shook hands.....and played like a nervous girl.

But what struck me is he's just a hockey guy like us. Just a rink rat who believed all that stuff the coaches tell you about practicing like you want to play.

Now that I'm older, I idolize Brooks. Coaching is a lonely gig. You gotta stand alone and stand tall when the live ammo is flying in playoffs and tournaments.

My son is two years younger now than I was when it happened. Its about the age where he can start to appreciate that it was more than normal coaching and practicing that produced that team. It was an unshakeable commitment by 20 kids and one coach to a superior set of values. As corny and Hollywood as that sounds, it really was something you rarely see in a lifetime. And it happened in a hockey game. Hell yeah.

[roscoe6 1]

That is awesome. Simply amazing. Like noted before by others, this gives me goosebumps.

[-brady2 0]

That is awesome. Simply amazing. Like noted before by others, this gives me goosebumps.

I'm not even American, and it's giving me goosebumps too. And to just hear the stories makes me wish international hockey was as amazing today as it was back then. I wish I could of been around for something like that, or the 72' summit series.