VANCOUVER - They lined up side-by-side on the ice. Some had hands firmly resting on their hips. Others stood with arms crossed in front. All wore blank stares. Not one smile. Nobody talked. Just stares.

The flags were about to be raised to celebrate Canada's gold medal winning performance, a 3-2 win that came on Sidney Crosby's overtime goal.

But there was no celebration from Team USA. The Americans were devastated.

Even as a silver medal was draped around their necks, one-by-one, not a smile was cracked. Just polite handshakes.

What's it like to win a silver medal when your heart is set on gold? When gold is just one shot away?

"It's devastating. … You let the biggest award there is in all of sports slip through your fingers at the end," said Team USA defenseman Jack Johnson, who played one of his strongest games in the loss. "You lose the silver medal, you don't win it. You win the gold. You win the bronze. You lose the silver. That's just the way it is."

And there's no consolation in "losing a silver."

"Not in my mind. It's a complete disappointment," defenseman Erik Johnson added. "It's kind of a bittersweet feeling. At the same time, it's something none of us wanted."

Team USA came to Vancouver to win a gold medal. Nothing else. They stated that goal repeatedly — even when they were the only ones who believed it possible.

This group of American hockey players was viewed as too small. They were too young. Their defense was too suspect. One of their best defensemen, Paul Martin, didn't make the trip because of an injury.

Their head coach, Ron Wilson, can't win a thing in Toronto, and their goalie was struggling in his final NHL games before the Olympics began.

There were a lot of reasons to doubt this team.

But make no mistake: This was a team. It wasn't just a collection of talent, like the Russians. And in the end, the Americans were able to push the favored Canadians — a team with considerably more talent — into overtime in one of the biggest games in the history of their country.

It was a special group, this team of overachieving Americans.

"I couldn't have asked anything more of our players," Wilson said. "It's just a shame that both teams couldn't have received a gold medal today. Sometimes, the best team in the tournament doesn't win a gold medal."

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The reaction from the players — and from the coach — shows just how far American hockey has advanced. Beating the Canadians, again, wouldn't have been a miracle. Unlike the preliminary round, the play was even for most of the game. This wasn't a case of goalie Ryan Miller, who was named the tournament's MVP, keeping an overmatched team in the game.

These teams were evenly matched, and they played like it.

"It's a fine line to win," said Canada coach Mike Babcock. "There's hardly anything between these teams. I thought their team played hard. I thought they were moving the puck. I thought they competed good and I thought Miller was fantastic."

And the Americans thought they were going to win. Even when they were down a goal with a minute left in the game, Jack Johnson said he heard confident shouts coming from the bench.

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"You could hear guys on the bench saying, 'We're going to score. We're going to score.' It's just how our team is," Johnson said. "That's how this group of guys has been for years."

Because of that, this group of guys should be exciting to watch in years to come. They exuded a quiet confidence from the first day and backed it up on the ice. Zach Parise established himself as one of the best forwards in the world, scoring four goals in the three biggest games of his life.

A young trio of defensemen — Jack Johnson, Erik Johnson and Ryan Suter — will make life miserable for international opponents for a long time.

And Miller outplayed them all. He finished with the lowest goals-against average (1.35) of any American goalie in Olympic history. Even lower than Miracle on Ice legend Jim Craig.

There will be a day that the hockey world looks back at these Olympic Games as the arrival of a great generation of American hockey players — even if they weren't feeling like that late Sunday afternoon.

"I'll probably never appreciate it, coming out on this end of it," captain Jamie Langenbrunner said. "In saying that, we're all pretty proud of everybody in our room and what we did do."

The day of appreciation will come. Just not too soon.

"I guess later, I'll think about it," Parise said. "We had our hearts and minds set on winning a gold medal. Right now, it's disappointing."

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