VANCOUVER — Ryan Miller enjoyed a couple of victories yesterday during the opening hours of the Olympic ice hockey competition. One was routine: Miller faced 15 shots and turned away 14 as the United States gritted its way through a 3-1 win over Switzerland despite looking very much like a team that had been introduced to each other about 10 minutes before the opening faceoff.
The second was a stunner large enough to recall another upset pulled off by another hockey team 30 years ago. Only this time, instead of the fearsome Red Army, Miller’s triumph came over an even more elusive foe: common sense.
Specifically, basic logic as it applies to the International Olympic Committee.
Miller had commissioned a facemask specifically for this competition, one that features a very modern-looking Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves, a standard white goatee on his face and a new-age “USA” tattoo on his left bicep. He also included a couple of shamrocks, a tribute to Jim Craig of the ’80 Miracle Boys, and a cartoon bulldog wearing an UNcle Sam hat.
It’s a busy helmet, no doubt. But the part that sparked the IOC’s attention was on the back of the mask, where above the Spartan sweater-wearing canine it reads “Miller Time,” and beneath it “Matt Man.” The first one, while a longtime slogan for a beer company, is an obvious play on the goalie’s surname. The second was a bit more personal, a tribute to Miller’s cousin, Matt Schoals, who died two years ago after a fatal reaction to treatment for leukemia.
The IOC immediately cited “Rule 51” of the Olympic Charter, which forbids “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” And the IOC wanted both “Miller Time” and “Matt Man” gone from the helmet before he took the ice for good in these Olympics.
“Look, I get why the one phrase could be misinterpreted,” Miller said yesterday, the helmet propped victoriously on his head. “But the other one … I had to explain why it was important to me, and to my aunt, and to my family. I hoped they would understand.”
The IOC, of course, has been a governing body notoriously light on understanding through the years — whether it was encouraging the U.S. to sit Marty Glickman in a gesture of appeasement for their Nazi hosts in 1936, or resuming the Munich Games 36 years later only one day after 11 Israeli athletes were murdered, or encouraging the notion earlier in these games that blame for the fatal luge incident should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the deceased.
But Miller had to try. So he quietly explained the story of his cousin, who had been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at age 16 and fought hard to beat it into remission. But then a bone marrow procedure led to graft-versus-host disease, in which immune cells in the transplanted marrow began attacking Schoals’ body, and his health deteriorated. His lungs soon gave out. Two months past his 18th birthday, he was gone.
And Miller has worn “Matt Man” on the back of his Buffalo Sabres helmet ever since. It only made sense that he would do so at the Olympics because “this is as great an honor as you can enjoy as an athlete and I wanted him to be a part of it.”
Hours before yesterday’s game, a most remarkable thing happened: The IOC relented. It succumbed to common sense. It told Miller the “Miller Time” slogan would have to be painted over but “Matt Man” could stay. Then Miller went out and played near-flawless goal against the Swiss, stoning a couple of early chances by the underdogs while the Americans were still finding their sea legs.
“It wasn’t a violation of the IOC rules,” Dave Fischer, Team USA’s spokesman, said in explaining the back end of Miller’s doubleheader sweep. Teammate Jonathan Quick’s message “Support Our Troops” will have to go, and that’s another piece of idiocy to be dealt with on another day.
With the IOC, you take your victories where you can find them, small as they may seem.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com
VAC’S WHACKS
* Mike Eruzione made an appearance on the big screen between the second and third periods at the U.S.-Swiss game and was given his usual rousing greeting by the crowd, which makes me wonder: Has anyone ever received more standing O’s in one
lifetime?
* The U.S.-Switzerland hockey game stayed at 0-0 for exactly 18 minutes and 59 seconds before Bobby Ryan broke the tie. And it begs the question: Shouldn’t all games involving the Swiss be 0-0?
* From the official report of the Germany-U.S. curling match: “Trailing 7-5 playing the 10th end, USA tried to set up a steal and had two rocks sitting on the back of the button behind guards after Shuster’s first shot. But Kapp ran one of the guards back with his first shot for a double takeout, ending the game without having to throw his last rock,” and I ask: Who says the game story is dead?