By Nick Craddock

This weekend marked the one-year anniversary of the golden goal scored by wunderkind and NHL star Sidney Crosby, that won the gold medal for the Canadian hockey team against the U.S. at the Vancouver Olympics.

One year has passed, but I’d still like to say, “In your face, America.”

To reinforce a point that is probably clear to everyone: Canadians really like hockey, as evidenced by the fact that 80 percent of Canadians (26.5 million people) watched at least some part of the gold medal game. The audience was undoubtedly made larger because the Canadians’ opponent was the U.S.

As much as the opportunity to watch hockey is enjoyed by most Canadians, the opportunity to showcase that Canadians aren’t always thrilled with being typecast in the role of “America’s hat,” even if it is a fancy top hat, was too good to miss. On that note, nor do Canadians care to constantly play the role of “America’s little brother.” A year ago, Canada was going to become the brother that the parents are proud of because he quit his unfulfilling job as a Subway sandwich artist and enrolled at ITT Tech.

Crosby’s goal was an epic way to cap 17 days of sport, patriotism and pushing unbridled Canadiana on a global audience—I’m sure you learned to love ”Quatchi,” one of three dinky mascots for the games. How could you not think of Canada when you see a grown man dressed as a child-friendly sasquatch sporting earmuffs?

The golden goal, seven minutes and 40 seconds into overtime, was only needed because American Zach Parise tied the game at 2-all with 25 seconds to play. I’ll unreasonably justify the Canadians almost frittering away the gold because we love to weave a fantastic storyline, and a tying goal late was only going to help build the suspense.

Building the suspense was also the reason behind the Canadians’ 5-3 loss to the U.S. in the preliminary round. If you don’t believe that, you’ve been blinded by patriotism.

It simply couldn’t have been that the Canadians were fallible, could it? No, perish the thought.

The gold-medal win sent Canada into hysteria. I’ll acknowledge that my victory dance involved one of these three: prancing, weeping or syrup (hint: it wasn’t prancing or weeping).

Yes, OK, in roughly a year at the summer Olympics in London, the most memorable moment of the Canadian Olympic team will probably be that the unknown pasty track star didn’t finish last in the 100m dash. We try our best, honestly.

For now, America, let us revel in the memories of the golden moment from the Vancouver Games.