Yeah, that American team looks pretty good, huh?

This is going to be some fun this tournament.

Good Friday morning.

I'm Dan Kovanovich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

This is Daily Shot of Penguins.

It comes your way bright and early every weekday.

If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you found this.

United States 6, Finland 1. Some of you will get this and some of you won't,

but you can almost hear Herb Brooks shouting out, to your graves. You'll take it to your blanking graves.

Except that the state of American hockey is nowhere near.

And this is in a good sense what it was way back in 1980,

when a miracle, a legitimate miracle,

who was required to take gold in Lake Placid.

Before the game last night,

this was captured by the extraordinary access being offered to the Rice Holding Networks,

in this case ESPN.

Before the game, Mike Sullivan gave a speech to his players,

in which he challenged them to show that American swagger.

And that caught a lot of attention even before the puck was dropped last night.

It came up a time or two, as one might expect during the broadcast itself.

And afterward, our Taylor Haas of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports reporting for us up in Montreal,

asked Sullivan what he was going for there.

...