by solid goaltending. Greiss gloved Michael Ferlands shot on a rush and got h

Jennifer Azzi couldnt eat. The 1996 Atlanta Games were about to open for the U.S. womens basketball team, and food was the last thing on her mind as she sat next to Lisa Leslie for breakfast in the Olympic Village.I just had this nervous excitement, and then I look over, and Lisa couldnt eat either, Azzi said. We were all just so over-the-top excited.U.S. national team director Carol Callans memory drifts to a different point that day, when the teams bus pulled into the parking lot of the Georgia Dome.It was a school-girl level of excitement, Callan recalled. People were screaming on the bus. Theyd been playing and training together for a year, and it was time to see the end result.As the U.S. womens team prepares to begin its quest for a sixth consecutive gold medal in womens basketball in Rio, the groundwork laid by the groundbreaking team of 1996 has never been more evident.That team readjusted the balance of power in the world, USA Basketball coach Geno Auriemma said. Starting 20 years ago to today, theres never been a more dominant team in the Olympics in any sport than the U.S. womens national team.The 1996 Olympic womens basketball team accomplished things that had never been done by preparing in a way that had never been done. For the first time in program history, the womens USA Basketball team trained and played together for nearly a year in preparation for the Olympics. In the end, that group made more than history, going 60-0 (52-0 in pre-Olympic competition and 8-0 in the Games) and capturing one of the most visible gold medals in an Olympics that was a marking point because of the overwhelming success of female athletes.The 1996 team created stars in players such as Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes, set a new bar for the level of play in womens basketball, and launched two professional leagues, including the WNBA, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this season.Callan calls the creation of the 1996 team, and in a way, all that came after, a perfect storm.The womens college game was growing in popularity, as Connecticut won its first national championship in 1995 and had a burgeoning rivalry with Tennessee. The NBA was exploring a business model for professional womens basketball in the United States and was willing to put some money behind the USA womens team as a marketing project.The U.S. team was coming off a pair of disappointing performances, finishing with bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Games and at the 1994 world championship.We knew we had to make some changes, Callan said. We created a program that allowed the team to train together over a sustained period, like the rest of the world does.USA Basketball convinced Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer to leave her program for a year to coach the team. It assembled a roster mixed with veteran players such as Teresa Edwards, who had been playing for years in anonymity overseas, and young guns such as Leslie and Dawn Staley, who were best known for their NCAA résumés and were about to break through on a different level.USA Basketball scheduled a years worth of exhibitions, a 22-game college tour that introduced the team to the country, and a full slate of international games to prepare the U.S. womens basketball team for international competition. A handful of those games were on national television.The college tour began in Atlanta, with VanDerveer taking the players to the Georgia Dome and asking them to visualize their place on the medal stand.In between games and trips, there were autograph sessions, photo shoots and media interviews. There was no social media. The players were tightly bonded and exceedingly focused.It was almost like we were still girls waiting to become grown women, Edwards said. We grew up really fast, and the grown-up part of us allowed us to be great basketball players.But the kid part of us really enjoyed each others company. We laughed so much. We messed up each others hair and fixed it back. We paid for each others dinners. Wed send room service to the wrong rooms. We had fun. But when it was time to play, we killed each other. We brought the best out of each other.Azzi remembers a day when the U.S. women practiced at Georgetown while legendary coach John Thompson stood on the sideline and watched. Thompson came into the huddle at the end of practice to address the team.You are making people respect you, he told them, and the compliment stuck with Azzi and her teammates.We showed people a different level of basketball, Azzi said. No one had seen professional womens basketball in the States. We would go into college arenas, and teams thought they were going to be able to beat us. We were beating national championship teams by a significant margin. It was the first time for people to see the game played by women at that level.Once-in-a-lifetime opportunityThe legacy of the 1996 team goes beyond the history that was written, the ripples of that seminal experience casting off in all directions. They established professional basketball in the United States, cementing a place for pro womens team sports in the landscape. To the players on that team who eventually would go on to coaching careers, such as Staley (South Carolina), Azzi (San Francisco), Swoopes (formerly of Loyola) and Katy Steding (Boston University). To the influence over the U.S. teams current batch of stalwarts such as Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Tamika Catchings. To the other side of the country to the coach who cemented her own Hall of Fame legacy without taking home a medal.Coaches dont receive medals in the Olympics, so while the players stood on the platform after beating Brazil in the final in front of nearly 33,000 fans that last day, VanDerveer stood just off to the side. She didnt need a medal to realize shed created a gold standard.VanDerveer was demanding, unrelenting. She had the most talented roster in the history of the game, and she wanted those players to give her everything, from the first game to the last. After all, she was giving significantly as well.VanDerveer had resigned from her head-coaching job at Stanford, taking the year away to not only lead the U.S. women back to the gold-medal stand, but to prime the country for professional womens basketball and to alter the culture of the womens national team program.It was a really difficult decision, said VanDerveer, who turned her program over to longtime assistant coach Amy Tucker and brought old friend Marianne Stanley in as co-head coach for one season. You put so much into your own program. The hardest part of it was having to resign for that year. But I recognized it as an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.People told VanDerveer she was never going to be able to go back to the college game after her experience coaching the best team in the world. Her name came up as a coaching candidate for the WNBA and the American Basketball League, which was going to have a team in San Jose and feature Azzi as its founding player. But VanDerveer never wavered about her commitment to return to Stanford.I was excited about going back, she said. I had learned things from the Olympic experience that I wanted to take back to my team.Twenty years later, VanDerveer is a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame and is on the cusp of reaching 1,000 career wins as a college coach. Many players on that 1996 team regard her as the best coach they ever played for.Ruthie Bolton knew that playing the Olympics on home soil had the potential to make or break womens basketball in the United States.There was so much at stake, Bolton said. We didnt want another feeling of sadness, agony and defeat. We made sure that didnt happen. Tara was preparing us to have a state of mind that was above and beyond. It was like going overboard a little, but we didnt want to leave any questions of whether we were ready.Azzi said that experience challenged everybody to the core.At one point, everybody had a meltdown, she said. But we were all in it together, in a very professional way. It was a sisterhood with a level of trust and respect that I had never experienced before.The legacy of the 1996 womens basketball team is one that changed the landscape of the sport, setting a tone for everything that came after.Players like Lisa and Dawn and Sheryl taught Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird what it mean to be on the national team, Callan said, and those players have taught the next generation.Seimone Augustus, who helped the United States win gold medals in 2008 and 12 and is in Rio for her third Olympics, had a poster in her room as a kid of the 1996 team.My dream, my goal, was to be like those strong women I saw in that poster, Augustus said. To be able to be a part of that legacy and tradition thats so rich in success and winning means a lot.Wholesale Blue Jays Jerseys . LOUIS -- St. Toronto Blue Jays Gear . "Trying to breathe," he said with a grin. Bernier stopped 42 of 43 shots on Monday night, including all 22 in a hectic middle frame, his heroic performance propelling the Leafs toward an undue point in their final game before the Christmas break. https://www.cheapbluejays.com/ . Toronto has dropped games to Indiana and Miami since a five-game winning streak and closed out a three-game road trip at 1-2. Fake Blue Jays Jerseys .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Blue Jays Jerseys China . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action.NEW YORK -- ?? The New York Islanders have found their footing in Brooklyn once again, and the road-weary Calgary Flames dont feel too bad about Monday nights result, either.Thomas Hickey scored 1:53 into overtime, helping the Islanders rebound from a vexing West Coast trip with a 2-1 win over the Flames.Hickey won it after Flames forward Michael Frolik broke a stick in the defensive end, leading to an awkward line change for Calgary. Islanders captain John Tavares wheeled around the zone with the Flames momentarily short-handed before backhanding a shot that Hickey tipped off goalie Brian Elliott and in.I was glad to get a stick on it in overtime, Hickey said. This was a game we had to have.New York improved to 3-1-0 in home games following a road loss by relieving frustration from a wild swing through California. They beat Anaheim in a 14-round shootout but then lost twice on goals in the final 3 minutes of regulation against Los Angeles and San Jose.Last-place New York is just 1-6-1 on the road but remains respectable in Brooklyn, improving to 6-4-3 at Barclays Center.Tavares also scored in the first period and has six goals and 11 assists this season. The goal was his first in 10 games.I have a lot of expectations, Tavares said. I have to make plays and produce. And lead by example.Thomas Greiss stopped 25 shots for the Islanders, standing tall during a barrage late in the second period before allowing Sean Monahans tying goal 5:51 into the third. Monahan scored on a one-timer from the left circle.Elliott was mostly solid with 25 saves but still lost his seventh straight start. He was acquired from St. Louis over the summer to be Calgarys primary goalie but had sat three straight games in favor of journeyman Chad Johnson.Elliott had a few pivotal saves late, including when he stopped Shane Prince on a breakaway midway through the third.The guy works so hard and cares so much, Flames captain Mark Giordano said. So for him to have a big night for us and come and bounce back and play that well was nice to see.Monahans goal helped Calgary complete a grueling six-game, nine-day trip 3-2-1.I think anytime youre over .5000 on a long one its successful, Giordano said, adding, I think we can build off of getting a point there.ddddddddddddhe Flames fought fatigue in a 5-2 loss to the Flyers on Sunday and didnt show much life early in this one, either. Both teams flailed at the start, with each getting one shot on goal in the first 5 minutes. Calgary finished with just four shots in the first period.Josh Bailey and Tavares teamed up for a 1-0 lead 7:28 in. Bailey rushed into the middle of the zone, turned left in the high slot, and then delivered a no-look, backhand pass for Tavares, who shot over Elliotts shoulder from the right side.The goal started a strong stretch by New York, and the Islanders had a few near misses later in the first, including a shot off the post from Cal Clutterbuck with about six minutes left.Calgary made a push in the second period but got stalled by solid goaltending. Greiss gloved Michael Ferlands shot on a rush and got his pad on a chance by Sam Bennett around the midpoint of the period. Later, he stopped Matt Stajan on a breakaway and Alex Chiasson on a heavy one-timer about 15 seconds apart.The Islanders have won five straight over the Flames and improved to 17-1-3 against Western Conference foes at Barclays Center.Game notesIslanders D Adam Pelech exited late in the second period and did not return because of an upper-body injury. ... The Flames have scored two goals or fewer in 13 of their past 16 games. ... Calgary F Johnny Gaudreau missed his eighth straight game with a broken finger. The Flames were also without Ladislav Smid (neck) and Lance Bouma (shoulder). ... The Islanders made Ryan Strome and Scott Mayfield healthy scratches and also sat Ryan Pulock (lower-body injury) and Dennis Seidenberg (upper-body injury).UP NEXTFlames: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night to begin a three-game homestand.Islanders: Host the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday for the second time in two weeks. Pittsburgh won the first matchup 3-2 in overtime. ' ' '