[CaptainCrunch]

Happy Canada Day! While things seem to be battered and divisive right now in our corner of the world, nothing brings this country together more then sports. Whether its millions watching the Stanley Cup, or cheering Canadians on in the Olympics, there is nothing more unifying then sports. So I want to look at what I think are the greatest moments or events in Canadian Sporting history.

so through on your Maple Leaf toque, wrap that red and white scarf around your neck and crack open your favorite Canadian Beer as we do not serve Japanese or American Beers in this bar and lets go.

1) 1972 Paul Henderson Scores to win the Hockey Summit.

To understand how much was at stake we have to first realize that people at the time believed that Canada was losing its grip on hockey dominance. Traditionally Canada would send its best amateurs to the Olympics and without exception dominate the hockey tournament. The tournament itself was seen as Canada and everyone else with a couple of exceptions like Britain beating Canada in 1936. But something changed in 1956 as the Soviets who had been carefully studying the Canadian game began to dominate the Olympics.

"Pfft" Most Canadians and Journalists stated, the best Canadians play in the NHL. Pro Canadians versus the Russians would be a waxing. And Canada believed that the 8 game series between the best of the NHL Canadians vs the Russians would be a blow out. In fact Canadian scouts came back unimpressed. Sure the Russians could skate and pass, but they were passionless and their goalie Tretiak wouldn't be able to stand up to Canadian shooters.

That's why it was such a surprise when the Russians were the better team in the first four games in Canada coming out with a 2-1-1 record including a blow out in game one and a win in Vancouver where the Canadians were boo'd off of the ice.

The Canadians slowly started building momentum in Russia, after losing the first game before bouncing back to win the last three games giving them a 4-3-1 series win.

In game 8 with the Russians ready to declare victory via goal differential, Paul Henderson scored the biggest goal in Canadian history with 34 seconds left.



2) Toronto Blue Jays win back to back world series

I was never a baseball fan, but I was glued to the TV for the Jays two World Series wins. While this wasn't the case of the plucky underdog winning the world series as the Jays went 96-66 in their first year of winning the series behind a really talented lineup and in the second year the Jays were 95 and 67 with a even more talented lineup. Canada was galvanized by the idea of the World Series coming to Canada and the entire country followed the Jays. However the second World Title certainly had the more dramatic ending as Joe Carter hit a walk off 3 run home run as the Jays came back to win to win the world series



3) Toronto Raptors win the NBA Championship

The Raptors are known more as an underachieving franchise then a steady contender. That's why the biggest moment in the teams history leading up to the 2019 season was Vince Carter winning the Slam Dunk Contest in 2000. The Raptors had a pretty strong regular season team and caught fire in the playoffs heading into a final against the Expected to win dominant Golden Stte Warriors who had won the previous Championships. Lead by amazing playoff performance by Kawhi Leonard The Raptors made history by bringing the Larry O'brien trophy to a non American team for the first time in history.





4) Sidney Crosby yells to Iggy and Canada wins the 2010 Gold Medal

It was a magical Olympics in Vancouver and while we can make fun of Gretz's exasperated look when the torch failed of the cheesiness of driving medal winners around in the back of pickups. it was a amazing Olympics a Canada finished on top of the standings,But as always Men's hockey took the center stage as Canada fought to the gold medal game and salted out the victory with the infamous Iggy call and goal scored by Sidney Crosby followed by a crowd eruption that echo'd across the country.



Oh and call me cheesy, but I loved this song.



5) Donovan Bailey Wins 100M Olympic Gold

For a long time there was a shadow over Canadian track and field thanks to Ben Johnson's suspension for steroid use in 1988. However Canada got some redemption and the country had its golden moment in one of the predominate Summer game track and field sports as he became the Worlds Fastest man running clean against a dirty field and set a world record on 9.84. He later pummeled Michael Johnson who pulled up lame when he realized he looked like a big gigantic jerk face.



6) George Chuvalo fights Ali.

There is an argument to be made that Chuvalo was the inspiration for Rocky, a iron jawed boxer known for his determination and guts. He was a last second announcement to fight Ali the greatest fighter to ever live. Chuvalo went all 12 rounds and went toe to toe with Ali putting the Champ in the hospital. It remains of the great stories of guts and determination.



7) Canada's 1984 Olympic Swim team.

You can argue that the LA Olympics were severely weakened by the boycott of the Eastern Block athletes in retaliation for the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics and you'd be right, however who cares. I would argue that even with the Eastern Block athletes Alex Bauman and Victor Davis would have probably been pretty successful. Plus they started the Canadian frisbee tradition.





8) Bianca Andreescu wins the 2019 US Open.

We've been teased by Woman's tennis for a long time, just when we think we've got a dominant woman's player it just doesn't happen. Eugenie Bouchard had a good streak before falling back, Carling Bassett was solid but could never reach the top. That's why all our hopes are on Bianca who came out of nowhere in 2019 and used her power game to beat the greatest woman's player of all time in Serena Williams to make history.




9) Elizabeth Manley wins Silver in Calgary



One of the biggest upsets of all time for Canada and in front of a home town crowd in Calgary during the 1988 Olympics. The main story was the battle between Debbie Thomas of the US and Katerina Witt of East Germany in the Battle of the Carmens' They were expected to finish 1 and 2. And while Thomas fell apart and Witt skated a conservative routine Manley had the skate of a lifetime coming within a fraction of a point of winning the gold medal. What was really amazing about this was that Manley had no sponsorship and she was sick. for the whole Olympics.






Happy Canada Day everyone!