BEIJING (AP) — David Quinn hears the music coming from the locker room and stops in his tracks. He must stroll in to speak to his gamers however does not wish to interrupt.
“I’ve obtained to let this track end,” Quinn thinks to himself.
Usually, it is Maxine Nightingale’s “Proper Again The place We Began From” — the track from the bar scene within the iconic hockey film “Slap Shot.” Different occasions it is Bryan Adams’ “Summer season of ’69” or Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.”
The old-school music has helped the USA, with gamers ranging in age from 19 to 35, bond shortly off the ice. The camaraderie is exhibiting via on the ice for the one staff within the Olympic males’s hockey match to win all its preliminary spherical video games in regulation, incomes the highest seed.
“I feel everybody form of likes the previous tunes,” stated 19-year-old Matty Beniers, who made the playlist nicely earlier than the Olympics. “It’s frequent floor as a result of loads of the older guys don’t just like the exhausting rap and the youthful guys normally just like the older music, so it’s good.”
There’s “Construct Me Up Buttercup” by the Foundations, “Wealthy Lady” by Corridor and Oates, “Keep it up Wayward Son” by Kansas and “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Beniers’ favourite is Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain Excessive Sufficient.”
“It’s one of the best playlist I’ve heard in hockey,” stated Quinn, who’s 55 and having fun with the age-appropriate tunes. “I informed Matty Beniers, ‘You’re a hell of a participant, however you’re a greater DJ.’”
That is not a coincidence. Beniers was raised to understand music by his mom, Christine, an actress who carried out on tour in “A Refrain Line” and on Broadway earlier than changing into an lawyer. Christine was addicted to point out tunes rising up and obtained her first paying gig at age 12 in a dinner theatre manufacturing of “The King and I.”
Whereas Christine’s hearth chief father and workplace administrator mom have been supportive of her pursuits, she made certain sons Matty and Bobby and daughter Gianna have been immersed in music and leisure rising up.
“My dad was form of the sports activities man and my mother was the music,” Matty Beniers stated. “My mother stated if we will play all these sports activities, we’ve obtained to do all these devices.”
Beniers and his siblings performed the piano, attended camps and watched their mom direct college musicals. He has since given up piano and centered on hockey, however he hasn’t misplaced connection to his musical aspect.
“It was simply part of my life rising up,” Beniers stated. “It was fairly cool to have that form of aspect, go to performs, see these issues.”
Quinn stated the People have “actually turn into a staff in a brief time period.” Profitable their first three video games definitely helped, however it’s additionally a mixture of personalities USA Hockey figured would mesh nicely collectively.
“We have been very acutely aware of the kind of the individuals we have been selecting,” Quinn stated. “We’re very lucky that the gamers we needed from a expertise standpoint definitely checked the bins from the individuals standpoint. While you’ve obtained all that, you’ve obtained a a lot better likelihood to have success.”
The U.S. success has made the music sound higher earlier than and after practices and video games. Three extra victories, beginning with the quarterfinals Wednesday towards Slovakia, would give the U.S. its first Olympic gold medal in males’s hockey because the “Miracle on Ice” staff in 1980.
Not one of the gamers on the youngest roster within the match have been born then, however in addition they weren’t round when many of the songs on the playlist got here out. That does not appear to matter.
“It’s humorous to play totally different songs within the locker room and see what the older guys keep in mind and listen to about what they consider the brand new music,” Beniers stated. “It impacts everybody in numerous methods. It dials guys in. It retains some guys free.”
So long as the U.S. retains profitable, the music will preserve taking part in.
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Observe AP Hockey Author Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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Extra AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports