[Lechium]

Quote: (Originally Posted by benkenobi)

Lechium,

Because the great thing about sports is it never has to go a "traditional" way. In 1980 the USA hockey team beat USSR. Everybody knows that story. We were the certain underdogs and shocked the world by beating the Soviet team.

Yeah, that was one isolated event.
For last man decades best hokey teams had been: Russia, Sweeden, Finland, Czeck Republic, Canada. US has always been decent, but aside of little bit here and there, was never a top team.
That's just the way it is. That's why most of top NHL players are not Americans.