Of all the legacies of the 2010 Games, perhaps the greatest and most lasting is the collective memory of coming together in an unprecedented display of community and celebration, say experts.

David Anderson, with the faculty of education at the University of B.C., said while there is a sense of return to the pre-Games status quo, something indefinable has been left behind – a deep sense of patriotism and unity.

“I suspect what was unleashed in terms of our heightened willingness to engage with our fellow citizens (as) is not gone. We just need an excuse to reignite it.”

Laura Moss, chair of Canadian studies at UBC, acknowledged Canadians have experienced other defining and unifying events, but they were never “so loud.”

“It’s important to have communal memories where people have shared a bond,” she said, adding the men’s gold-medal hockey game was this generation’s 1972 Summit Series, Sidney Crosby our new Paul Henderson.

When Crosby scored his overtime game-winning goal, Canadians from coast-to-coast coalesced and flooded the nation’s streets.

“This is an important memory, something we lived,” Moss said.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said while that intensity may have faded, what’s important is we know it’s in us to come together on such a massive scale.

“There’s a core identity that comes out in tense times,” he said.

“That was the self-discovery that was so inspiring, realizing that the community spirit is what we’re all about.”