THE OLYMPICS

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“I’m always excited to play any game in Canada. It’s always exciting, always sold out … it’s just one of those feelings and it’s always exciting to be part of it,” says Mike Richards, a 2010 Canadian Olympian.

Though the NHL is the most dominant organization in all of hockey, international tournaments unite fans unlike any other event. A fierce rivalry like the Flames versus the Oilers will dissolve if Jarome Iginla and Taylor Hall are both wearing the maple leaf on their chest. Similarly, Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin may be bitter rivals during the season, but when it comes time for the Olympics they’ll join forces to upend Sidney Crosby or Niklas Backstrom.

This is the nature of hockey, the only one of the big four sports that has branded itself so well around the world.

Hockey’s first truly international stage was the 1924 Winter Olympics. Rather than being the superstar-laden squads we see today, teams were primarily amateur clubs or collegiate players. Even the famed Miracle on Ice team comprised players who weren’t quite “NHL ready,” and Canadian squads were largely players like Chris Kontos or Dave Archibald, who wouldn’t crack NHL lineups on a regular basis.

JON WALDMAN

But as the profile of the Olympics grew in North America (and the marketing opportunities and merchandise dollars grew in turn), pressure came down on the NHL to join the NBA in allowing its players to compete in the Games. As far back as the 1988 Games in Calgary, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had allowed athletes of all competition levels — including professional — to take part in the tournament, but the NHL had been reluctant to let their players take part, lest it affect the regular season (and playoffs). Finally, the decision was made that NHL clubs would stop play amid the 1997–98 season — putting play on hold for two weeks — to allow selected players to go to the pre-eminent international tournament.

And as soon as the announcement was made, you could practically smell the money being printed. While the IOC had been open to an extent with licences (it still trumpets its longstanding relationships with the coin and stamp collecting industries), the 1998 games were the big floodgate-opener for souvenirs and memorabilia. While more than 30 companies were given licensing rights for the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, more than 100 licences were approved in 1998. The result was a glut of collectibles the likes of which had not been seen since the hobby’s boom in the early 1990s. Longtime Olympic partners like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola planned and executed on Olympic-themed memorabilia such as medallions and miniature jerseys, while newer companies like McFarlane Toys went through the (expensive) process of gaining the coveted Olympic licence. By the 2010 Vancouver-hosted games, expectations were that each Olympic journey would be outfitted with a bevy of promotions, and, to their credit, memorabilia companies delivered each year with both high-end and easily afforded swag for anxious Canadians.

But the collectibles market probably would have died very quickly had it not been for two important moments in modern Canadian Olympic history — the Lucky Loonie and the Golden Goal.

The tradition is now alive and well for Canadians to place a gold-coloured one-dollar coin in the ice during international competition following the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. For the final games for both the men’s and women’s teams, a loonie was embedded in the ice by the Canadian who was charged with surfacing the rink. The currency piece sparked fervour unlike anything seen in history. Replica and commemorative coins were issued by the Royal Canadian Mint, while the original was housed in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Originally open to public touching (again for good luck), the coin later was completely sealed away from human hands because its surface was fading away from the rubs it received.

Eight years later, the Olympics returned to North America, this time in Vancouver — and there was no way that Canada was going to lose in front of its home crowd. While the other sports produced Canada’s highest ever medal count (and its first gold medals on home soil by the bushel), the expectations for Canadian teams were higher than ever. While the women did their part handily (creating a controversial moment of their own by smoking cigars and drinking beer on the ice following their victory — a moment of missed marketing opportunity for Molson Canadian), the men had to battle past the last second of regulation to secure their gold medal.

And it couldn’t have come off the stick of a better player — Sidney Crosby. Sid the Kid was already a household name before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, in part from his play with the Pittsburgh Penguins but also from his experience playing for Hockey Canada in the World Junior Hockey Championships. But his overtime goal past Ryan Miller put the young phenom into a whole other echelon. Soon, magazine covers, signed jerseys, and photographs of every size were produced, commemorating the so-named “Golden Goal,” which became a new generation’s Paul Henderson marker.

THE MIRACLE

But international success isn’t limited to Canada. In the United States, the “Miracle on Ice” produced some of the greatest hockey memories for American children. The story of a group of ragtag amateur players, guided by Herb Brooks to battle against the mighty and rarely defeated Russians, has become the stuff of legend, gaining attention not before seen for U.S. hockey, and it still ranks among the most memorable moments for American Olympic competition. The game, as Pat LaFontaine explains, inspired another surprise U.S. victory on the ice — the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. The Hall of Famer remarks that the group of players who were together on that squad were motivated by that legendary run to the gold medal.

“At the World Cup, we were down one game in Philly and we had to come back and win two in Montreal,” LaFontaine recalls. “All of us were a product of the 1980 team. We were young boys, looking at Mike Eruzione score this miracle goal that really inspired us who were there. We were a generation that watched that game. So for us to maybe make history again, inspiring more boys and girls, was really special. I’m just proud to be part of a generation that inspired more boys and girls to want to pursue and set their sights high, maybe want to play professionally or represent their country.”

MEIGRAY

While the World Cup team has not quite become as heralded, the Miracle on Ice continues to be one of the most heavily chased themes. Players like Eruzione and Jim Craig, whose NHL careers didn’t gain much attention from hobbyists, are highly in demand for their autographs, while the team-signed jerseys and large group photos are some of the most demanded collectibles in the market.

American hockey has also jumped on the memorabilia bandwagon, albeit not quite as prominently as its Canadian counterpart. Licensing for the U.S. squads has come more under the banner of the full Olympic program than that of the single sport, such as when the Miracle team was commemorated early on in a U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame trading card series produced in the early 1990s and, more recently, by Topps. One of the exceptions to this is a series of bobblehead figures produced in 2002 by Alexander Global Promotions. Initially available only in Salt Lake City — the site of those Winter Games — the figurines are harder to unearth than those created for Team Canada.

EUROPE

Similar to North American markets, Olympic memorabilia across the pond is a big industry but with one difference: European markets look for more traditional souvenirs such as pucks and jerseys. Even Russia, whose teams were so incredibly dominant, have had few commemorations for their powerful squads, save for game programs and unlicensed pieces that have surfaced in recent years.

The real exception to this, however, has been in crossover markets like pins and stamps, and none are more prominent than one that commemorates the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

In the final Olympics before the NHL became part of the largely amateur competition series, there was a marked excitement surrounding the tournament, particularly in Sweden, where Peter Forsberg was already considered the top player outside the NHL. Forsberg had been drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers and traded to the Quebec Nordiques, but he still had not shifted to North American ice. It’s a good thing he hadn’t, otherwise he might not have been on the ice in the gold medal game, and certainly would not have scored the overtime goal that handed Tre Kronor the gold medal during that year’s Winter Olympics. Forsberg’s goal was captured several times over, most notably in a stamp that is still considered one of the top international pieces for any collector.