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n the stillness of an empty Hockey C a n a d a C e n t e r, h o u r s b e f o r e a n O l y m p i c c o n t e st t h a t w o u l d c a pt i - vate audiences around the world, Jim Johannson contemplated the impact that the 2010 gold-medal game between the United States and Canada could have on potential hockey players back home. Before long the eyes of the world would be on Vancouver and the U.S. team that was one step away from completing an unlikely rise to the top. All that stood in their way was a powerful Canadian team that the underdog Yanks had already beaten in the preliminary round of what had been hailed as the greatest hockey tournament in history. Players once known only within the rel- atively closed-knit hockey community had suddenly became household names, rivaling Eruzione, Craig and Broten for a sacred spot in the American sports psyche. More than that, they were suddenly the inspiration for a new generation of potential players. And that, more than anything, made Johannson smile. " I h o p e t h a t f a m i l i e s w i l l w a t c h t h e [ gold-medal] game and boys and girls turn to their moms and dads and say 'I want to play hockey,'" said Johannson, himself a two-time Olympian who would go on to serve as the assistant executive director of hockey operations until his passing in 2018. "The game sells itself and hopefully kids, wherever they are, will say 'that looks pretty neat—I'd like to try that game.'" It's a game plan that has propelled the growth of the game dating back more than 40 years when a group of no-name college hockey players shocked the world in Lake Placid, N.Y., on their way to inspiring the next generation of American hockey players. Two of them lived in the Chicago suburbs where Tony Granato and his sister Cammi, along with their brothers Don and Rob, would wage epic hockey battles in the driveway and basement of their Downers Grove, Ill., home. "In those games, we were Stan Mikita, B o b b y H u l l , To n y E s p o s i t o a n d K e i t h M a g n u s o n . A n d t h e n w e b e c a m e M i k e Eruzione, Mark Johnson, Jim Craig, Jack O'Callahan and Mike Ramsey. The game has turned from pro hockey to Olympic hockey and Team USA," recalled Tony Granato, whose hockey dreams once fueled by his hometown Chicago Blackhawks were sud- denly transformed by the heroics of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team. "The memories are just as good in those games and those times as they were when I was playing in the Olympics or in college or in the NHL." T h e e x p o s u r e t h a t comes with Olympic hockey taking cen- ter stage every four y e a r s o p e n s t h e g a m e u p t o a n e w g e n e r a t i o n o f h o c k- e y f a n s, m a ny o f w h o know very little about the game. Despite a 15-year NHL c a r e e r a n d n u m e r o u s appearances with U.S. N a t i o n a l a n d O l y m p i c Te a m s, o n e o f G r a n a t o 's f o n d e st h o c ke y m e m o r i e s w a s s i tt i n g i n t h e B i g H a t A r e n a i n N a g a n o , J a p a n watching Cammi and her 19 teammates win the first gold medal in women's Olympic hockey in 1998. I OCTOBER 2020 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM // 27 "The game sells itself and hopefully kids, wherever they are, will say 'that looks pretty neat — I'd like to try that game.'" —Jim Johannson 'If you see it you can be it.' That game plan has helped fuel the growth of USA Hockey for more than 40 years.