<< "Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's close to the Miracle on Ice in 1980... "
Agreed, 1980 U.S. was just mostly college players right? The Belarus team has second tier players, but they're still pretty good. >>
The 1980 team was all amateur players.
The 1980 Soviet team was all Soviet professional players -- some of the best of all time, including the only player in the NHL Hall of Fame who never played in the NHL (goaltender Vladislav Tretiak) -- and they had beaten the NHL All Star team the year before in 2 out of 3 games.