Where did he bless them? He was going to congratulate them because they had just beaten one of the other teams out there. While obviously its a little funny that a Canadian legend would congratulate an American team. Then again....it shouldn't of been Iceland they played either if they wanted to make it realistic.
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"Maybe because he was playing for the Los Angeles Kings at the time of the film's production?"
Good point. Maybe the owner of the Kings told him to do it.
When they take the picture of the team with him, the next shot is the picture in a newspaper and the headline above the picture says something like "Gretzky blesses U.S. effort." It doesn't make sense considering he is Canadian, but they probably doubted kids watching the movie would make that connection, and probably just wanted the most recognizable hockey player to make an appearance as a motivational aspect for the team.
shareMost of the definitive hockey players at the time were foreign, and Gretzky is easily the most recognized hockey player, those who dont care about hockey know who gretzky is. Plus he was with Los Angelos then... perhaps Canada had already been eliminated, they had apparently beaten them the game before the one where they were congratulated.
And realistically it would have been Sweden and Canada, whereas the united states and iceland were non-factors in the international hockey (iceland still is). They were really going for the whole "icy demeanor" thing that is often associated with Russian teams in movies (but given the movie was made fairly recently after the fall of the soviet union disney probably decided not to involve them as a villian) And realistically the coach and his team would have been kicked out of the tournament for dirty play and having ineligible players (as they are supposed to be middle-school players, based on the premise of D3).
Its disney they tend to fudge up the details, and make unrealistic comeback scenarios not in this movie surprisingly, but in most others: five passes and a shot where the player looks at the people around him before putting it up in the final 3 seconds (in the basketball movies) being up 9-0 in the 3rd period then having that lead get cut to 8-9 then getting a break away with a shot on an open net which falls short after which the other team takes it down the ice and ties up the game in less than 10 seconds. Despite their unrealistic nature though disney sports movies almost never disapoint.
We're building the world's largest Snowman in central park SNOW SUIT-UP!
Every one says he's Canadian he shouldn't support the U.S. but for the last 11 years of his career (88-99) He played hockey for the U.S.
L.A. Kings (88-96), St. Louis Blues(96), and New York Rangers (96-99)
The guy may have grown up playing for Canada but for more than half his NHL career he played for American teams. Get over it.
Yeah, I was just gonna say that. He played for American teams, why wouldn't he do this? lol
sharePlaying for teams based within the US does not in any way, shape, or form make Wayne Gretzky an American hockey player. When international tournaments came around, he didn't play for the USA, he played for Canada. Had pros been allowed in the Olympics during his day, he sure as hell would have been playing for Canada.
There really isn't any realistic reason for him to have rooted for the USA in this movie. That's just what it is.
Hen oida hoti ouden oida
so many greatest Canadian hockey players played for american teams that does'nt
make them american Bobby Orr one of the greatest players played for the boston
bruins Mario Lemiux played his entire carrer with the Pittsburgh Penguins and yeah internationally he played for team Canada. And today Sidney Crosby who's now the greatest hockey player of today plays for the Penguins and scores the most famous goal in Canadian Hockey history for TEAM CANADA at the Vancouver games beating USA