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Thomas might not have decided to become a goalie — one who’s in the playoffs yet again on the strength of another Vezina Trophy-worthy season — backstopping the Boston Bruins had it not been for that group of scrappy American college kids.

Thomas was standing in one corner of Room 5, opposite to where Craig dressed. It looks like any other dressing room, though smaller than one might imagine, with no historic engravings or enshrined names or photographic memorabilia.

“It’s plain and pretty simple,� said Thomas. “I’ve only been in here for 30 seconds and already in my head the wheels are turning, recreating in my head what happened.�

Thomas was 5 years old in Flint, Mich., watching the 1980 Winter Games on a grainy television. Draped in the U.S. flag, Craig was the hero of that squad. With the legendary Herb Brooks as their coach, they pulled off the unthinkable. It was one of the greatest upsets of all time — not just in hockey, not just in sports.

They beat the Soviet Union, the Evil Empire itself, at the height of the Cold War and at a low point in the American psyche.

The entire country watched. An entire country was captivated. And a generation of hockey fans — and players — was born.

“I already had some inkling that I wanted to be a goalie, but those Olympics and Jim Craig sealed the deal,� said Thomas, one of a few NHLers old enough to remember 1980. “That’s why I became a goalie. My goal from age 5 until really age 20 was to play in the Olympics. Not that I didn’t want to play in the NHL, but the main focus was the Olympics.�

That dream came true for Thomas, who played for Team USA at the Vancouver Games in 2010.

“It makes me feel really wonderful,� said Craig, reached by telephone, when told Thomas regarded him as a hero. “I used my athletic ability to get into college and good things happened.

“His story is his family was behind him, he never gave up and good things have happened through really hard work and and personal sacrifice.�

Thomas’s route to hockey’s heights is anything but textbook. After four years at college, a season in the alphabet soup of hockey’s minor leagues and four tours of duty in the top Finnish league, Thomas became an NHL regular at age 30.

Thomas had a little bit of fun Tuesday before addressing the media. Wearing a plaid shirt, he donned skates and grabbed a stick and skated around like a forward for a bit on the Olympic surface in an attempt to get away from it all.

The Bruins have come here for a two-day break in their playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens. They wanted to get away from the hockey hotbed. Thomas had been to Lake Placid once before, in college, but was in and out so quickly he had no time to enjoy it and planned to change that this time.

“It’s nice to be here on non-game days. You can relax and soak it in and see where history was made without the pressure of having to think about a game,� said Thomas, ironically one of the few Americans on a team filled with Canadians.

There is no single place like this arena in Canada, one location that speaks “hockey.�

“When I get to go back to Lake Placid, this to me is heaven,� Mike Eruzione, captain of that 1980 team, said in a phone interview. “It’s got that magic feeling there. You walk into the rink and you can almost hear people chant “USA, USA.’�

Before 1980, very few Americans played in the NHL. That has changed. This season, 234 Americans suited up at least for one game. That’s roughly one-quarter of the league (24 per cent of 978 skaters and goalies).

“It symbolizes the birth of hockey at the highest level in the United States,� said Craig. “To see guys from the 1980 team go in there and do something no one thought was attainable.

“It was where the dream started: ‘If these guys can do it, we can do it.’�

But Lake Placid — a temple to the underdog was one description used on Tuesday — doesn’t simply mean hockey, but something more for Americans. When the conversation inevitably switched to the Bruins’ playoff series, Thomas brought it back.

“This isn’t the Olympics,� said Thomas. “It wouldn’t be a miracle if we were able to win Thursday. It’s totally different situation. It’s more inspirational to life than one upcoming game in Montreal.

“This was a huge moment for hockey in the United States, and for the United States as a country. In 1980, we were coming out of the stagflation of the 1970s. We were in a Cold War against Russia. The Russian team was supposed to be unbeatable and a team of college kids was able to put it together and have a miracle tournament, so that really is on a whole different, higher level than a series between Boston and Montreal.�

Thomas paused, then winked.

“If it was the Stanley Cup final, it’d be different.�