MIRACLE

If you ever see a player wearing pads, helmets and swinging umbrella sticks and that too, on a skating rink, then of course he is not playing Rugby or Cricket or Golf, but the Ice Hockey. Oho, can you see a totally demoralized and dejected ice hockey team of USA. These players have lost so many matches, that they have lost faith in themselves. They forgot the definition of the word ‘victory’. The Coach and the Assistant Coach are annoyed, but they never gave up. They reduced the entire team size, with the approval of Mr. Walter. All the players were now requested to do the practice sessions with new strategies.

Well, let those players practice for some days. Within that time, let us have a brief idea about Ice Hockey. This game is basically the game of hockey on ice rinks, but here, fighting of rugby is allowed and instead of a ball, a small disk shaped item is used, which is popularly known as Puck. In this game, there are only 6 players, out of which there are 3 strikers, 2 defenders and 1 goal keeper. The rink is surrounded by long glasses and Goal posts are not situated at the end of two sides. That is, you can play the puck behind the goal post also. Players can be substituted at any time of the game. The game continues for 80 minutes, with 20 minutes in each of the 4 periods. In a team, there are around 18 to 20 players.

Oh, my goodness, there is no unity among the players of this USA ice hockey team. They are fighting among themselves. Look at these two fools. They are yet to forget their college life rivalry. The funny thing is that one of them is a striker and another one is a defender, but Mr. Herb is the real coach to give them an herbal treatment on their mentalities. The coach is feeling demoralized with his entire team members, but his wife Patti gave him the moral support indirectly. See the fun. The beautiful chicks are causing some distractions on the players’ mind. The players need to concentrate on their game only. It is easier said than done, but still they tried to do it.

The exhibition match was a like a rugby match, where the USSR team players were pouncing on the USA players. As a net result, one of the strikers of the USA team was badly injured. Not only have that, it was a very humiliating defeat in the hands of Soviet Union players. After all; how can the USA media tolerate that defeat, as USSR has always been an arch-rival of USA? Patti told Mr. Herb to relax and try again from the scratch. In the Christmas party, all the team players gifted a whip to the coach. Mr. Herb does not require a whip to make a united team. By the way, who is the best goal keeper? Is it Steve or Jim Craig? Well, the time will tell it.

The Winter Olympics has begun. USA is going to play against Sweden in the first match. Really, it is again a poor performance by the USA team in the first half. During the break, there was a war of words between the Coach and the Striker. Mr. Herb told them to ‘Play it hard’. He is quite right. To combat any attack, you need to counter-attack with some extra force, otherwise, the word ‘attack’ has no meaning at all. That drawn match lifted the morale of USA Ice hockey team. The Czech team was totally thrashed. Step by step, the USA team started defeating all the other teams to emerge into the Semi-Final.

The Semi- Final match between USA and USSR is on. It is a deadly war or you can say it as a roller coaster ride, with lots of suspense. Even a fraction of a second was accountable, because both the teams were playing the match with superb speed and utmost agility that deserves a round of applause. Is Jim Craig injured? Why USA team was termed as Underdogs in this Winter Olympics. Why Mr. Herb went into that quiet room to celebrate about something after 5 minutes. Someone announced inside the ice hockey stadium that Mr. Herb’s team has produced a “MIRACLE” of Gavin O’ Connor, which features Kurt Russell and others.