Greetings friends.  If you’re like me you’re starving for any kind of hockey.  While there isn’t any live hockey to watch, there’s a ton of recorded on that’s on You Tube.  Thank goodness for You Tube.

I’ll be posting periodically some of what I call the “greatest”: games of the past.  This will hopefully help you pass the time, appreciate this great game that we love, and maybe give you a chance to see a game you never did.  Or just forgot about.  Obviously these are my choices, and I’m sure you have yours.  If you do, make some suggestions.

At the very least, I’m hoping that our community of fans and friends can watch these and have some social discussion about them.

Today’s game is from the 1996 World Cup of Hockey when Team USA beat Canada for the championship.  This is game three, which Team USA won 5-2.  What a set of rosters between these two teams, as well as all the others in the tournament.  Here’s the rosters of all the team.  Look at some of those names!

Love the broadcast of the game by Doc Emrick and John Davidson. There have been a lot of good broadcast pairs over the years, but I always enjoyed listening to these two.  Davidson, a former goaltender was so informative and easy to listen to.

Mike Richter, the goaltender for Team USA was outstanding in this series, and especially during this game.  His performance is exactly where the term, “stood on his head” comes from.  he was superb.

There was some interesting physicality here.  Chris Chelios,Keith Tkachuk, Adam Foote among the culprits.  There were some interesting battles between the two teams, and it give you a very good description of what hockey used to be like.  The physicality has certainly been lacking from the game lately.

However, there was still some excellent skill on display.  The game during this era was a great combination of skill, physicality, and hard work.  Some say that this was likely the most talented team that the USA ever put together.  You wouldn’t be wrong if that’s how you felt.

I hope you enjoy this one.

I have another probably even better game for you on Sunday!

Thanks for reading.

You can follow along with Panther Parkway @pantherparkway on Twitter! You can also follow our writers: @FrankRekas, @Josh_LOPanthers, @JacobWinans8, @prudentia0, @Spencer_hoag, @Mister_Joester! Make sure to follow and listen to our podcast @LOPanthersPod All images unless otherwise noted are courtesy of @KimSmithImages