Olympic Legends: Andy Moog

In 1988 Andy Moog sat out the NHL season while trying to land either a new contract with the Edmonton Oilers or, perhaps his first choice, a trade to a team where he would get to be the number one goalie.

Of course Moog did eventually get his trade, to the Boston Bruins. After the Olympics he led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup finals, losing to the Edmonton Oilers.

It seemed quite noble at the time. Moog would play for his country while waiting for a NHL pay check. What I never realized at the time was that Moog actually made more money playing with the Canadian national team than he would have made with the Oilers that season.

Canwest News Services has more:

It didn’t hurt Moog’s Olympic motivation to be in a contract dispute with Oilers general manager Glen Sather at the time. Sather was proposing a $150,000, one-year deal for Moog, as Grant Fuhr’s backup. Moog knew he could do better.

The IGA company was willing to provide him $175,000 in a “personal services” contract for the hockey season (Moog had done some work for IGA during the previous couple of years). He picked up another $50,000 in carding money for Canada’s Olympic hockey players.

In other words, Moog made $75,000 more playing for Canada in 1987-88 than he would have with the Oilers.

Here's the full story, including Moog's memories of the Calgary Games.

Olympic Legends: The Other Sedin

While twin brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin look to cement their Olympics Legend status at Vancouver 2010, it should be noted that they were not the first Sedin to compete in hockey at the Winter Olympics.

That honour goes to Jim Sedin, a Californian born forward who played with Team USA at both the 1952 and 1956 Olympics.

Sedin was particularly notable in the 1952 games in Oslo, Norway where at age 21 he helped USA capture the silver medal as the youngest player on the team.

The Minnesota Golden Gopher star forward scored the tying goal against gold medalist Canada with just three minutes to play. By poking the puck past goalie Ralph Hansch late in the game, Sedin cinched a 3-3 tie against Canada, blemishing the Edmonton Mercuries otherwise flawless Olympics.

That game against Canada was an unlikely result. Canada launched 58 shots on American goalie Dick Desmond, while Hansch faced only 13.

Sedin would return with Team USA at the 1956 Olympics in Italy, but would go home without a medal.