Celeb Shot: Steve Janaszak
The backup goalie for the 1980 Miracle on Ice hockey team talks about playing for Herb Brooks, what the 'Miracle' movie got wrong, and what he took home from Lake Placid (besides a gold medal).
If the Saratoga Living team learned anything from the Miracle on Ice party we threw to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Team USA beating the USSR in the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, it’s that People. Still. Care. The jersey-clad crowd at the party knew the outcome—the amateur US team impossibly triumphs over the mighty USSR in what has been called an ideological victory in the Cold War—and yet hockey fans of all ages watched the game on the big screen like it was happening live, cheering when the US scored and getting chills when announcer Al Michaels delivers his now iconic line: “Do you believe in miracles?!”
That patriotic fervor for a sporting event that happened more than four decades ago was again on full display this past Saturday night at the Adirondack Thunder’s Miracle on Ice Night. (Humble brag: A few jerseys we sold at our party were spotted in the crowd. Exciting.) Members of the Thunder wore exclusive USA jerseys that were auctioned off after the game to raise money for the Monument to a Miracle, a life-sized statue that will commemorate the 1980 US hockey team in Lake Placid. The evening’s guest of honor? Steve Janaszak, a member of that now-famous squad of young men who have since been memorialized in a Disney movie and deified by diehard and casual hockey fans alike.
After doing the puck drop and before sitting down to sign autographs for an incredibly long line of fans, Steve, the 1980 team’s backup goalie, sat down with Saratoga Living After Hours in one of the Glens Falls Civic Center’s suites to talk about the Miracle movie’s most memorable scene, his role on the bench of the biggest stage in the world, and what Al Michaels told him about the most famous sports call in US history.
How was playing for Herb Brooks different than playing for other coaches you’ve had?
He knew where your hot button was. He didn’t press it all the time, but if he needed to move you from here to here [raises hand in the air] he had no problem pressing the button that would light you up. I still wake up in the middle of the night and hear, “Janaszak! You’re playing worse every day! Right now you’re playing like it’s next week!” [And I think to myself,] “You bastard—you’re dead! Go away!”
What did the Miracle movie get right?
Kurt Russell did an amazing job. There’s a scene in the movie when we’re on the ice, and Kurt Russell turns his back to the camera so you can’t see his face. He turns his stick over and he starts scratching on the ice with the toe of his stick. I said, “Oh my god. How’d he pick that up? That’s Herb!” I never had an appreciation for professional acting until I watched him play Herb Brooks because he made me think I was watching Herb Brooks.
What about the infamous “Again!” scene from the movie where Herb has you skating sprints even after the lights in the rink have been shut off?
I tried to tell people about that scene in Norway for 20 years. Nobody believed me. We skated in the dark. The guy that ran the arena wanted to go home, so he shut the lights off and we still skated. But you know what the movie doesn’t tell you?
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