What makes a team a dream?

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What's a Dream Team?

 

You may think there's no dictionary entry for these words joint venture, but there is. When you enter "dream team" in the Cambridge Dictionary's search tool, you're redirected to the following definition:

 

A dream team is "a group of people who have been specially chosen to work together and are considered to be the best at what they do".

 

But what makes a team a dream? In hockey, there's an agreement as to who is the greatest team to have ever stepped foot on the ice, the Red Machine. The USSR's product that had previously won five gold medals in the Olympic Games (and went on to win the next two) was a frightening well-oiled unit, but what made the 1980 Soviets great? 

 

Was it that they trained better or longer than anyone else? Was it the understanding between the players, or maybe their coaching tandem of Arkady Chernyshev and Anatoli Tarasov, the father of Russian ice hockey?

 

This era of domination and great results is a combination of all these factors and ended up being the greatest run ever made by a nation, and that domination was due to the Soviet-style of play which wasn't based on having and building a team around its' star player, but instead utilizing each players' strengths for the collective good.

 

Even though this style sacrificed individual skill when the International Ice Hockey Federation chose its Centennial All-Star Team, there were 4 soviets chosen, 3 of which are still regarded as some of the best to ever play their position.

 

At this point, we can start to make a few assumptions as to what made the Red Machine, the symbol of what a dream team should be... a group of people who have been specially chosen to work together and are considered to be the best at what they do. It seems to be the same definition as the dictionary.

 

Now, where can we find the team that most resembles this definition and conducted themselves with the same work-ethic shown to us by the Soviets, for it's not simply choosing the best players, expecting them to work perfectly together, but searching for those who have already done this before.

 

We must go back 62 seasons to find this team, the S20 Riga Reign, comprised of league leaders in the plus-minus column, Alex Stoyanovich (C), J.D. Stormwall (LW), Max Kroenenburg (RW), Olivier Scarlett (D), Austin Hickey (D) joined by Ma'a Nonu in goal and Tarik Saeijs (C), who won both the Mike Szatkowski Trophy (Most Points) and Kevin Brooks Trophy (Most Goals) leading the second-line.

 

These guys gave it their all, sacrificing for the team, but maintaining a high level of play that makes us remember them 62 seasons later. They didn't dominate for decades, but that isn't to expect in the VHL, but equally to the Soviets in 1980, they did fall short of the ultimate goal to win the Continental Cup.

 

Their legend lives on just as much as the HC Dynamo team, which was as well managed as the Soviets, and ended up winning in all in S20 and kept coming back, year after year, turning back-to-back wins in S24 and S25. But the team effort showed during that season by the Reign players, resembles me what a dream team should be.

 

The S20 Reign were a dream, but as all good things... they didn't last.