Few people know the intense emotions of international sports rivalries better than Mike Eruzione, who scored the game-winning goal for the U.S. against the heavily favored Soviet Union during the ice hockey medal round at the 1980 Winter Olympics, a triumph known as the “Miracle on Ice.”
Eruzione said the buzz around Thursday night’s final of the 4 Nations Face-Off between the U.S. and Canada has exceeded anything he’s ever witnessed. Even his own defining moment. “I didn’t get this many [phone calls] after the Olympics in 1980,” he said in a phone interview.
At the behest of current U.S. hockey leadership, the former national team captain traveled to Montreal ahead of the group’s round-robin win against Finland on Feb. 13. Eruzione dined with the team and spoke with players before they decimated the Finns in a 6-1 victory. While deeply honored to have that time, it was a bigger deal for his grandkids.
“They said, ‘You’re gonna meet Auston Matthews! You’re gonna meet Matthew (Tkachuk)!’” Eruzione recalled. “My 9-year-old grandson chews his mouthpiece because of Matthew.”
The 1980 team, a group of collegians coached hard by the late Herb Brooks, willed their way against grown Soviet players. Eruzione believes that his team built a foundation for future American success, yet he has been blown away by the skill level and work ethic of this current squad.
“If they can win this thing Thursday night,” he said, “they probably will go down as the greatest American team that we’ve ever put on the ice. That team in 1996, they won the World Cup of Hockey. But you know, to compare our team in 1980 to these players is night and day.
“After the Olympics in ’80, we opened the door for American players and probably even college players. But the players after that knocked the door down. And these players haven’t just knocked it down. They’ve created a whole new atmosphere for U.S. hockey.”
It’s not just his leadership of the 1980 squad that gives him this perspective. Eruzione spent a lengthy spell as a hockey color commentator for NBC and FOX, including calling the action for five Olympiads, which put him up close to the intensity of international play.
The popularity of the entire 4 Nations event, with games played in Boston and Montreal, exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. The first U.S. vs. Canada tilt scored an average audience of 4.4 million viewers, and even the Americans’ 6-1 shellacking of Finland performed well on the Nielsen meters with 1.55 million viewers.
Eruzione said he hadn’t expected the competition to be such a big deal outside of the hockey hotbeds of Boston and Montreal. But scheduling has worked in its favor. “You got to remember, there’s nothing really going on in sports, right?” he said. “The Super Bowl’s over. Baseball hasn’t started. Basketball is getting in their little break. So I think everybody’s eyes are on this particular situation.”
He predicted the momentum of 4 Nations would carry over to 2026 when NHL players return to a fully global competition after the league kept players out of the 2018 and 2022 Olympics. “I guess it’s a little disappointing that the Russians and the Czechs and other countries aren’t playing in it, but they’ll get that,” Eruzione said. “This is gonna create a more excitement for the next Winter Olympics in Italy. I think it’s just great for the sport of hockey, and it’s clearly great for hockey in this country.”
Eruzione, who grew up a stone’s throw from Boston’s Logan Airport in Winthrop, is one of thousands of New Englanders showing their excitement with their wallets. Even with his alma mater Boston University winning the Beanpot earlier this month and the Bruins in the mix for a wild card spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there hasn’t been anything like this at TD Garden for a while. According to ticketing technology company Victory Live, resale values for the 4 Nations final leapt from $254 on Feb. 11 to $2,287 as of Wednesday evening.
Eruzione notes that “this little tournament” has gone global as he’s fielded media interviews about the 4 Nations tournament across North America as well as Germany and Italy. Combined with the 45th anniversary of “the Miracle” coming this Friday, the Face-Off final seems to have Eruzione, who has long worked on the motivational speaking circuit, in high demand.
Yet in his trademark frankness, Eruzione doesn’t really care if the attention raises his stock or not. “So if this does something for me, OK, that’s all right. I don’t care,” Eruzione said. “I was telling my wife the other day, years ago we talked about how long is this going to last, and it’s carrying me 45 years later.
“Life is good, and I’m very happy with the things that are going in the direction they’re going in. But you know what? This doesn’t affect my life. I just hope the U.S. can win and just show the world again how far we’ve come with the sport of ice hockey.”
(This story has been updated in the fourth-to-last paragraph to reflect the most recent ticket resale values.)
