Sunday was a great day for hockey in the United States of America.

Prior to the start of the games in Milan, U.S. coach Mike Sullivan told the team the 1980 group inspired a generation and they had a chance to do the same.

In the hours that followed Jack Hughes’ golden goal, social media was filled with videos of people celebrating, but particularly countless videos of kids either watching with their teammates before a practice, or stopping a game to celebrate together. Even kids that don’t play hockey (yet) watching at home and being captivated by the biggest moment for USA Hockey in almost a half century.

I’d say those 25 young men did exactly what Sullivan hoped they would.

I thought I understood why the 1980 Miracle on Ice still meant so much to so many people so many years later, but I guess it was impossible for me to fully understand it as someone who wasn’t born for another 14 years.

As I’ve written previously, even my own grandfather told me when I was younger that the 1980 game against the Soviets was the only hockey game he ever watched — that is until adolescent Andrew took over his television, that is.

Now I think I understand it better. I know I will never forget the feeling of watching the puck go into the Canada net and the overwhelming sense of patriotic pride that came with it.

Now I am in no way comparing the two teams and what they accomplished — comparing a group of college kids taking down perhaps the greatest hockey team to ever play the game at the time to some of the NHL’s best is apples to oranges.

The geo-political situations as the backdrop are also not comparable at all.

And, years and years of hard work by the US National Development Program and USA Hockey went into making what happened Sunday morning far from a miracle — though it is a little ironic people were also calling the Canadian team ‘the greatest hockey team ever assembled,’ a similar title to that given to the Soviets.

The Americans took mostly the same Canadian team into overtime in the 4 Nations tournament final last year. They won a prelim round game in Canada in that tournament.

The U.S. team with some of the players on the ice Sunday, won the IIHF World Championships last year.

Sunday has been a long time coming. But this generation didn’t have its moment, the one moment that advanced the ball — well, puck — further.

It almost happened in 2010. A lot of people thought for sure it would come in 2014, or in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, but it didn’t.

Sunday, the moment finally came. A whole new generation of American hockey players was inspired.

And it was bigger than the 25 guys celebrating. Eddie Olczyk, who played on the team after the miracle, was emotional on the broadcast of the game.

Ryan Whitney, the former Penguins defenseman who was on the 2010 team that lost to Canada in overtime of the gold medal game, was emotional on a stream he was on.

There are 46 years of guys who tried to give the country that moment, and make no mistake, Sunday morning does not happen without them.

Connor Hellebuyck, the American goalie who played out of his mind to even make that winning moment possible, said he watched former NHL star Ryan Miller be the MVP of the 2010 games despite losing in the final.

Hughes, who scored the golden goal, recalled in an earlier interview before his big moment, being a kid when he watched Sidney Crosby break America’s hearts — mine included — in 2010.

The guys who came before mattered. That celebration Sunday was their moment, too. The moment they never got themselves.

The next moment, which I really think will come far sooner than 46 years, will belong to the kids what watched at practice or will pick up a hockey stick for the first time because of what happened Sunday.

And, what happened last Thursday, too, when the women’s team won in similar fashion. Shoutout to former Wheeling Nailers assistant coach John Wroblewski.

I never played hockey — I am about the least athletically skilled person you’ll ever meet. But I love hockey.

After watching the “Mighty Ducks” movies as kids, me and my siblings fashioned our own “hockey sticks” out of household items and played with bottle caps as pucks, later evolving into driveway street hockey and basement competitions.

My introduction into sports writing came because of hockey.

There is a new generation of American hockey fans now. who will play the game and their inspiration to love the game did not come from a Disney movie — it came from the moments the players, inspired themselves by the past, gave us this past week.

A great day for USA hockey, indeed.