United States goaltender Ryan Miller led the upstart Americans to the gold medal game in the 2010 Olympics.

Hockey fans and players across the United States were very disappointed in Team USA's loss to Canada in the men's hockey gold medal game on Sunday. Hatred towards Sidney Crosby, deserved or not, has hit an all-time high and somewhere in Massachusetts, Minnesota or Michigan, a man opts for Budweiser instead of his usual six-pack of Molson or Labatt's.

And that is a great thing for hockey in the United States. No longer are the Americans expected to be medal hopefuls, instead they will be medal favorites. There will be no more contentment with second best or second place, no more almost or this close.

The tide has shifted. A gold medal would no longer be a miracle, it's a goal. Russians, Canadians and Swedes are no longer superior, no longer feared. The United States does not hope to beat Finland or the Czech Republic with rabbit's feet and horseshoes any longer. Because it works better when they attack them with a relentless forecheck and a lot of team speed. Young men from Seattle to Atlanta will take a minute in their driveway, where a moment ago they were Dwyane Wade, and start to think that maybe they could be Ryan Miller.

The players and coaches should take a lot away from this game. Team USA head coach  Ron Wilson, ridiculed for playoff failures in San Jose and what has so far been a pathetic season in Toronto, proved he can guide young players to their best hockey, as individuals and as a team. Patrick Kane can be clutch, Zach Parise can outplay Sidney Crosby in six out of seven head-to-head periods and Ryan Miller can dominate.

There has been a lot of talk about the Sochi Olympics in 2014. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will ultimately make the decision as to whether NHL players compete. There are strong points on both sides.  Bettman's goal from day one on the job, and his legacy, has been to try and spread hockey across the United States. Putting teams in California, Georgia, Carolina and Florida has drawn a lot of criticism and yet Bettman sticks to his dream - that one day boys and girls in Scottsdale, Tallahassee and Austin will want to be on skates.

There is no better way to accomplish this than to send the boys to Sochi, where this very young team will be older, more mature and ready for revenge. We saw in 1999 what patriotism can do for a sport when Brandi Chastain nailed the final penalty kick in Pasadena. She sparked a powder keg for women's soccer, the effects of which are still being seen, as girl's flock to soccer with a passion that the WNBA could never match.

 The U.S. is now just as much a hockey country as Canada, Slovakia, or Russia. Hockey will never compete with football, basketball or baseball, but with 300 million people in the country, there is enough to go around. A recent study showed that in the youth hockey ranks, under age 21, Canada may have less than 50,000 more hockey players than the U.S. does. If those numbers continue to climb, and the U.S. continues to do a superb job of cultivating and developing talent, there is no reason Ryan Kesler cannot return to his family back home in Livonia, Mich. a national hero with gold around his neck. And who knows, maybe one of his teammates takes his gold back to El Paso.

Photo by s.yume

By Doug Sears Jr.

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