World's Apart (Miracle)

Night Changes (prelude)

"But at the same time, there were things that his ex-teammate just didn't understand. It wasn't that he didn't care to, but he didn't know the feeling of creating a family and watching it all crumble."

1985 - Eveleth, MN 

"The price of gold keeps going up, just remember that!" Jim Craig laughed, concluding his speech at the dinner banquet.  

"I think he makes that joke every single time we do one of these things," John Harrington joked, whispering across the round table he was seated at with several ex-teammates and family members. 

Both the 1960 and 1980 US Olympic Hockey Teams were having a reunion at the US Hockey Hall of Fame. For the latter, it had been five years since the young college boys overcame regional flares and conditioned themselves to take gold in Lake Placid. After a gold medal game and lunch with the president, the team had gone their separate ways. All twenty guys had never been under the same roof since that day. They had seen each other in small groups, such as the summer after the Olympics where the largest turnout before today had been at Mark Johnson's wedding. 

Chuckling, Jack O'Callahan got up to grab another beer from the open bar in between speakers. As he looked around, it hit him how much the young college boys had grown up into adults in a matter of years. They all had professional careers (about half still played in the NHL), most were married, and many now had children. The years were more noticeable on some, and less on others. 

There were guys like Buzz Schneider, who had chosen to go overseas and make it big with European hockey. He had been married for five years now, and had two young children that were already being groomed into hockey players. Jack knew he hadn't been great about staying in touch with anyone except his Boston teammates, but whenever he saw Buzz and his family, it always gave him hope for his own future. 

There were also guys like Mark Wells who completely gave up hockey. He uncovered that he had a spinal disease and ended up in the process of a line of surgeries. He had recently sold his gold medal just to make ends meet and now worked at a gas station. That was about all Jack or any of the other guys knew of him.

Then, there were guys like Mark Pavelich who just went completely off the radar. Pav had come off of a star season with the NY Rangers, but his whereabouts were never known. He would never come to an event like this, which did disappoint Jack, as he had struck up a good relationship with the quiet forward during their Olympic journey and had hoped to find out how he was doing. 

Jack, however, had chosen a completely different path from all three. Since saying goodbye to his mid-western teammates in New York five years ago, his life had seemingly changed overnight. He aimed straight for the NHL, where after two years of working his way up the minor leagues, he was now entering his third season with the Chicago Blackhawks. He had also been one of a handful to get married soon after the Olympics. As far as he was concerned, he was living his own ideal of the American dream. 

As he sat back down in his seat, he had felt someone come up behind him. "Don't move, I'm checking my reflection," a voice teased, placing two hands on Jack's shoulders.

In classic hockey player fashion, the team reunions were always filled with jabs of who was balding, fat, broke, or divorced. At this point in time, Jack was guilty of the first. His hair had been thinning since the '80 Games, so he knew it was inevitable. Turning around, he was met by the face of Dave Silk. 

"Careful who you're talking to there, hotshot," Jack teased back. "How you been Silky? Pull a chair over." 

As Dave joined Jack's table, the two caught up on life since they last saw each other. It reminded Jack of how happy being around his Olympic teammates made him. Even if they didn't stay in contact, they were all his friends, even the Minnesota guys. There were people he had been close with and people he hadn't, but there wasn't one guy that he didn't like or get along with.