‘Golden puck’ finally where it belongs

We can all rest easy now; the “Golden Puck” is now where it belongs at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

The puck, shot and scored with by Sidney Crosby in overtime of the gold medal winning game -- you remember that game? -- had basically been forgotten about in the hours and days immediately following the victory by Canada, until it was found in the pocket of one of the linesman working that game. From Matthew Sekeres of the Globe and Mail:

Stefan Fonselius, one of two linesmen who worked the Olympic final between Canada and the United States, said he retrieved the golden puck from the net of U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller seconds after Canada’s epic triumph, and remained on the ice with his fellow officials for the chaotic victory celebration and the elaborate medal ceremony

“Nobody remembered it, not even me,” he said when reached at his Turku home yesterday. “You know how Canada gets when they win.”

“It was in my bag,” he said. “It was in my pocket, and it was still there when I came home.”

They are calling it the most important puck in the history of Canadian hockey (I don’t know if I would go that far, personally), and the fact that it could have been lost forever in the bottom of a Finnish referee’s athletic bag is frankly astounding. What I want to know is how can we be sure this is the actual winning puck? Perhaps he had a number of the official game pucks in his bag, and had to guess which one was the right one.

Still, good to know it’s right where it belongs.