Team Canada
Big game today – Team USA vs. Team Canada – to determine the overall winner of Group A and a possible first round bye. Four Blackhawks will skate in the game – Patrick Kane (USA), Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook (Canada). The Canadians are favorites, but the Americans are going to bring it and there has already been some trash talking from the classy (sarcasm) Ryan Kesler. Mr. Kesler will find out soon enough that the Canadians do their talking on the ice.
Anyway, this game should live up to its bill. The top teams – Canada being one – haven’t had the cakewalk they expect when rolling through their respective groups. The Russians lost to Slovakia, the Swiss took Canada to a shootout and the Belarusian team even challenged the Swedes. It has led to some exciting hockey – even among the lesser-hyped teams. Today’s game could arguably be the most anticipated game. Even in Whistler, all the way up the mountains, there is a lot of buzz. Too bad for the Americans – who have been playing good hockey – they won’t escape this game with a win.
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Too bad for the Canadians. They were not playing their best game. And Ryan Miller was playing a terrific game. The US seemed to control the puck quite a bit in the offensive zone, despite the lower number of shots. Some of the US goals were lucky, but they were able to show they could stand up to an elite team. Personally, I don’t see this as all that huge of an “upset” and am getting a bit tired of the “miracle on ice” talk. But even with top seed in the quarters, the US will still have to go up against Finland if they make it to the semis (which they probably will since the play the winner of the Swiss/Belarus match).
It won’t be easy for Canada, though. They will have to play an extra game and play a very tough, very physical Russia in the quarters.
This is shaping up to be a very interesting Olympic hockey tourney.