Miracle was one of the few movies for me recently that lived up to the hype for me. I'll admit that knowing so much about the team, Herb Brooks, and the games took a little of the suspense out of it, but that's about all that disappointed. I could have done with more "Brookisms" The only one that they used in the movie was "The legs feed the wolf, boys." There's not a whole lot of plot to give away. I think most everyone knows how it turns out. It was kind of hard to see the dedication to Herb at the end of the movie. He was one of those celebrity deaths that hit me very hard, almost like Herb was a distant member of my own family. Granted, I'm not from Minnesota and never met Herb personally. I think the closest I came to Herb was sitting several levels away in the arena when he coached the Pittsburgh Penguins. But, he still meant a lot to the game of hockey and more specifically, the American game of hockey. Watching the movie on Sunday made me realize that all the more. America sunk all their trust into Herb Brooks and those kids and they paid them back in spades. Kurt Russell came pretty damn close to making me believe that he was Herb Brooks. I'm glad he cared enough for the movie and the game of hockey to take it so seriously. Kurt is one of those celebrities that you see at the All-Star games and this year was no exception. He was there hyping the movie, but he was also there as a fan.
Which brings me to the other topic of the weekend. The All-Star break. Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik did pretty well in the Young Stars game. Ryan had a nice goal even though the East didn't pull it out amongst the Young Stars. The skills competition was pretty typical and even though I can't stand Philadelphia, I had no choice but to be impressed when Jeremy Roenick went 4 for 4 on the shooting accuracy drill. The East dominated the skills competition and then won the game surprising me. Usually the West is faster and more skilled or so it always seems. It was sad to have the Penguins shut out of the All-Star game, but they'll be dominate in a few years with the young talent that they've accumulated.