We were just trying to win a hockey game

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Craig Patrick remembers the "Miracle on Ice"as a "Herb Brooks story" first and foremost.With the 40th anniversary of the 1980 United States Olympic men Joe Kelly Jersey 's hockey team's gold medal win on Feb. 22, Patrick  who served as Brooks' a sistant coach for one of the most memorable moments in American hockey history  reminisced on what the "Miracle"means to him and to the country so many years later via a conference call earlier this month. For the man who went on to win two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins, it all started with a hockey legend in Brooks and his master plan."The effort of all the players for seven months - Brooks pushed them hard for seven months and I witne sed every  Kobe Bryant Jersey second of it," Patrick told reporters. "What stands out strongest in my mind is they definitely deserved a gold medal. It didnt matter that they beat the Ru sians, Andre Ethier Jersey  they definitely deserved to have the gold medal with the effort and time they put in to making it all happen.Patrick complimented the 2004 Disney film Miracle's true-to-life depiction of how Brooks approached developing a roster that could win the 1980 tournament, saying the coach first approached him for a job on his staff nearly one year in advance. When Brooks decided who would comprise his roster of amateurs to go up against the Soviet Union's pseudo-profe sional team, he knew the college players more used to competing against than with one another ."He said the guys on the team dont like each other,'" Patrick said Corey Seager Jersey . "Theyd been competing against each other for national championships for years and the only way Brooks know how to make them a team is to do exactly what he did. Just Justin Turner Jersey  as you described it in the movie  he wanted them to unite against him."NHL TRADE RUMORS: The United States, of course, upset the Soviet Union  which had won five of the previous six Olympic gold medals at that point  in the medalround and won goldby defeating Finland. The win made the team and its story rise to the stuff of hockey legend, something  Blank Jersey Patrick remembered being struck by when they returned from that year's tournament in Lake Placid, New York."We were four people to a trailer in the Olympic village, no TV, no newspaper," Patrick said. "We had no idea what was going on around the country. President Carter sent Air Force One to pick us up when they returned and go to D.C. for lunch in the White House.""We were just trying to win a hockey Manny Machado Jersey  game, a hockey tournament," he added.No matter where Patrick's memories of the 1980 team wandered  from the 13 players who to flying to Washington to meet Jimmy Carter  he always went back to Brooks, who died in 2003 at the age of 66.Herb was a special guy. He kept a lot to himself, but I roomed with him for seven months so I got to know him pretty well," Patrick said. "I remember many, many nights, waking up at two, three oclock in the morning and he had all the lights on in the room and hed be scratching stuff on his paper. Hed look  Curtis Granderson Jersey at me and say what? You dont get ideas in the middle of the night?