Don't forget this: it was glorious run

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WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah -- They will not be forgotten by history. Instead, they will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

This is the shame of Thursday night's loss. Not that the medals worn by the United States were forged of silver rather than gold. But that the greatest season in women's hockey history will be recalled for the ruin of its final moment rather than the glory of the preceding months.

Rarely has a team won so much and behaved as if its reward were too little. As the silver medals were placed around their necks after the gold-medal game loss, half of the players responded with a rush of tears.

They may have been beaten by Canada, but they were slapped by expectations.

This was the team that could not be beaten. They won decisively. They won convincingly. They won every time they saw a puck.

For the better part of a year, the United States toured North America and laid waste to every opponent that dared come near. College teams, club teams, national teams. The competition was not the issue.

These were the defending Olympic champions, and they were in a rush to become the repeat Olympic champions.

But somewhere along the line, we allowed ourselves to become somewhat deluded by their gloss.

The world of women's hockey is smaller than it looks. There is the United States, and there is Canada. Then there is a lot of chum in the water.

No other country comes close to the North American neighbors. For that reason, the one-sided beatings in the fall of China, Germany and Russia count for less than you might imagine.

The United States clearly was one of the best teams in the world, but it was not so clearly ahead of Canada. We figured that out a couple of hours too late.

You can say the Americans went 8-0 against the Canadians in the pre-Olympic tour, but that record now looks suspect.

Because there are no professional women's hockey leagues here, the national team remains intact for most of the year. Canadian players, on the other hand, spend much of their time on club teams and in semi-pro leagues. Canada's national team was assembled much later in 2001, and it clearly needed more time to come together as a cohesive unit.

Then there is the matter of knowing when the lights are shining the brightest. Other than 1998 in Nagano, the Canadians have beaten the Americans in every game that has mattered. That includes all seven World Championship finals.

None of this should demean what the U.S. team has done. Instead, it should emphasize the accomplishments and adversity.

"It's a bit of a stinger when you don't achieve your goals," U.S. captain Cammi Granato said. "You feel the weight of the crowd on your shoulders, thinking maybe you disappointed your family and friends. But when you think rationally, you know that's not true. But it goes through your mind. It's a numb feeling."

For many of these players, Thursday night was the end.

In a few days, the Olympic flame will be extinguished and the athletes will scatter. The male hockey players will return to the NHL, where the paychecks are piling up in their lockers. Sarah Hughes will sift through endorsement deals.

America will turn the channel, and the screen will go blank for the U.S. women's hockey team.

This is reality for these players. They have no pro league to fall back on. The public is not clamoring for them to tour the country. Now that they are through, they will have memories, and not millions, to show for it.

They came together as a remarkably diverse group, and today, they will begin moving in opposite directions.

Yet for the past year, they were as whole as any team. Their bond was real. Their devotion was rare.

They have high school students keeping up with their homework on bus rides. They have a forward who left her job as a high school coach to return to the national team one last time.

One is so young, she has yet to get her driver's license. Another is so old, she wants to listen to the Carpenters in the locker room.

Then there is Lyndsay Wall. The 16-year-old from upstate New York was ecstatic when she heard Granato turned 30. Finally, they had something in common.

"You're the same age as my stepmom," Wall announced.

Granato came across a Chinese symbol last year that intrigued her. After discovering the translation, she had a jeweler create pendants with the symbol on front and the Olympic rings on back. All 20 players wore the pendants.

The symbol's rough translation? United we stand.

They will always be united.

They're just not standing together anymore.

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