The Olympic ice hockey gold medal match was a while ago (on Sunday) and it was a super-exciting game, even with its disappointing ending.
Despite owning the first seed coming into the competition, Canada was the clear favorite for the match thanks to its greater star power and skill and the added motivation of bringing home the gold on their own turf. Team USA put up a valiant effort with their squad, but just couldn’t get it done.
Canada put themselves up by one in the first period, establishing their game early when both teams were still playing extra strong, but surprisingly only added one more in the second when they had clear domination over the ice. The US squad was able to add one to their score, but were still trailing going into the third. Canada continued their domination in the third, letting up only every so often for the US squad to attack, but Team USA was unable to notch their second goal until they only had 24 seconds left thanks to an extra man on the ice.
The game was lost in the first OT when netminder Ryan Miller batted away a shot to the boards that was recovered by the Canadian offense and passed out to a strangely open Sidney Crosby who launched the puck between Miller’s legs.
Like the title says, it was the greatest hockey game I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t without some very painful moments. The US team was definitely not as polished as the Canadians. All of our goals were a result of Roberto Luongo having an off night. He just couldn’t get his glove closed to reign in some of the rebounds and we made him pay for it. Canadian goals almost all came from sloppy US play. From Miller not properly clearing the puck in OT to the second period goal that resulted from a turnover in the corner, Team USA was just not as fundamentally sound as Canada. Worse still was our power play unit, which could barely hold the puck in Canadian territory and got maybe 4 shots on goal over three power plays.
Miller’s goaltending was fantastic as was our penalty kill, which successfully defended two (was it three? can’t remember) Canadian power plays. The offense wasn’t terrible, but they just couldn’t match the Canadian defenders.
It was a great game and it’s really got me pumped for the rest of the NHL season. Now I’m really hoping that it comes down to the Penguins and Capitals again at some point this year so that I can watch Crosby’s team get destroyed and lose their chance at the Stanley Cup.
EDIT: Totally forgot to mention! Spring Training MLB games start today! They’ve been going on in the NPB for a while now! Baseball is ALMOST BACK!
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