the biggest reason is the scale. someone touched on it but didnt hit the nail on the head… while the summit series was international and important to the game and canadians… it wasnt that the americans rallied behind the miracle team… the WORLD did. the stage was set for it… due to the scale of the cold war, the times set (remember there were american hostages being taken in iran days before the games) the boycott that russia was threatening…

also, the russians had just embarrased the NHL in a country wide tour… canadian teams also…

and the “legendary tretiak” in the summit was not the eight year later veteran that had won the last 45 games straight….

the situations up to the two events are what separates the miracle as the more important world and sporting event, in that order.

peace.

Let’s also get the fact that I’m an American and therefore am bias in favor of the Miracle.

These are hard events to compare, as they were so different in nature. The Summit Series was 8 games, while the Miracle on Ice was one game. It was one game on the world’s largest athletic stage though. Everything pales in comparison to the Olympics. It is a worldwide event. Everybody has got pride at stake and the political implications are immeasurable. With the world’s two superpowers staring down the barrels of each other’s guns, the college kids from the USA played their hearts out and knocked off a team that by all rights should’ve handed it to them. Forget the hockey implications, there’s world history implications here. The Miracle on Ice was a key catalyst in America regaining the sense of national pride that had absolutely taking a beating in Vietnam and the rest of the 70′s. I had an economics professor in college who was a former advisor of Gorbachev who declared the 1980 Lake Placid to the Americans not a “thorn in the side,” as I saw it described in a previous post, but (and I quote here), “a kick to the balls, an absolute embarrassment.” The Soviets were never on the same political or economic footing as the Americans, but they had used their athletic dominance to kick dirt in our faces and leave the thought in our minds that if it came down to a fight, we couldn’t beat them there either.

To cut myself off before this really becomes a history lecture, I’ll sum it up like this: To view the Miracle on Ice from only it’s hockey-related implications is absolutely trivializing what that event really meant.

i will say this, the movie miracle is not that bad. it could have been a lot worse. at least it didn’t make a love story out of it like disney is prone to do. kurt russell was great as herb brooks. my only problem with it were teh game scenes, they made me a little dizzy b/c it changed from a fan perspective to an on ice perspective too often. all in all it was good and i would see it again.

I’ve heard an argument that made sense to me. If canada lost that series we would not have been so cocky as to what style wins hockey. Dump and chase is not that fun to watch.Especily [sp] when the goalies grab the puck and shoot it out it kind of helps the trap.

And if the miracle didn’t happen we would be watching 80′s hockey with no money involed The original 21 yeah baby!!!!!! old time hockey.

On a side note the Oilers payroll was 3 million when they won there first cup 84. Gretzky made a million and Charlie Huddy made 60,000 …..

Bubbles out

If you’re talking about sports events, all sports events, the the Miracle is the bigger of the two in sports history. College kids pulled off upset after upset, coming back to win several games they had no business even being in. The win over a(for all intents and purposes) professional Russian team is and always will be the focal point, but you can’t forget they were outmatched in the other games as well.

Like some have already said, your answer depends on what country you are from. To Canadians, the Summit Series was the bigger accomplishment. To Americans, the Miracle. You can’t really argue against either. Each event made a very significant impact, brought a nation together and greatly influenced players and fans alike. The most defining hockey moment for each nation, with very little doubt.

You can argue the relative impact that each event had on the game itself. The influences mentioned tend to be a bit abstract, so it is very difficult to say with any certainty which had the greater influence. We could argue until we are blue in the face, and still not come close to a convincing argument that would sway this in any one direction.

Let’s just say they are the two defining moments in the history of North American hockey, and be very glad that both of them happened.

As an aside, I do remember watching the ’80 Olympics. I was only a wee lad, so I didn’t completely understand what it meant at the time. Later I did. But I do remember my hair standing on end, again for reasons I didn’t really get. But that one event, those relatively few games played by the US, turned me into a hockey fan for life. So the Miracle holds a very special place for me, and I’ll probably always be a little biased towards it.