Subject: Olympic Chit Chat

Absolutely incredible game... USA deserved that win

i was thrilled with the outcome...but i had to work through the whole game--and the repeat in the late night hours. the only thing i saw was Ralfalski's goal. now that was a beautiful screen...and a softy by Marty.

I am so annoyed with the choice to start luongo i hope the russians mop the floor with the canadiens, actually i hope the germans do it first.

Ze Germans play a trap game that might be difficult for the Canucks to counter. They have a lot of skill though so I still expect them to win. It will depend how the first period goes. If the Canucks score Ze germans will be forced to open up a bit, but if they keep it tied or are up by one, it's gonna be tough.

lol @ Ze Germans

I think Canada wins comfortably. Too much skill on that team for Ze Germans to handle.

Most definitely. My guess is Canada wins by at least 4 goals.

I think that if team USA keeps up the level of play and intensity displayed against Canada they will go really far in this tourney.

I thnik you meant if Ryan Miller keeps up his level of play and intensity. Canada outplayed us badly.

I strongly disagree. I think WE outplayed Canada. Yes, Miller needs to keep it up, but our young forwards did really well against the Canadian forwards.
Don't look at the shots at Miller. Some of them were from the outside. As far as good chances go, I think those were even.
Canada picked up their game late towards the end of the game, but by then the US was in shutdown mode.

I'd love read somebody else's take on this too.

I'm willing to put more of the credit on Millers shoulders. We don't have a whole lot to cheer about here in Michigan these days.

That was one of the best hockey games I've seen at any level in a long time. I thought the teams looked very evenly matched, which means the US elevated their game, because yes "on paper" the Canadians have better top-to-bottom talent than the US, and in a series, they PROBABLY lose, but in a single game anything's possible.

I didn't see a bad turnovers on either team's part. I didn't see either team crumble when they blew leads (US) or went down by 2 (Canada) and I saw a relatively punishing physical game by international standards. I saw a series of 3 or 4 odd-man rushes up and down the ice that resulted in good chances but no goals.

Kesler made a superb back-check on a late developing 2 on 1 in the first and then put away that unreal EN goal. I noticed Crosby on the ice for a couple of their goals ... litterally ON the ice for the Drury rebound.

On the other topic, I don't think Brodeur was responsible for the loss at all, but if you're Canada's coach, he had his chance and you need to send a message. The Swiss held them through regulation and now they lost to the US. How do you bring Luongo and then not give him an opportunity? We're not talking about a disparity between Nabakov and Bryzgalov. It's Roberto Luongo. Rafalski had all day to fire his two goals as well as the Langenbruner deflection he assisted on. The Drury goal was after a scramble in front that Crosby looked terrible on, and he could hardly be faulted for the EN goal.

Lastly, I don't know who was counting shots, but I don't think the US was outshot by a 2:1 margin. Someone also had Canada outshooting the Swiss by 2:1. With an OT victory and a loss, that's impressive.

Going into the tournament, i felt that Canada/Russia/Sweeden were the teams I thought would medal. The way things have played out are going to make it very easy for the US to at least get to the medal round.

it also means that only Canada or Russia will make it to the final 4, so one of them is going home empty handed no matter what.

It was almost 2-1 canada vs us in shots, most of the other stats were similar as well as penalties. So everything even, except shots and the team that had the lesser amount of shots wins. Looks like a stone cold headstand to me.

It was indeed nearly 2:1 at 45-23, but if you saw the game, we really weren't dominated. There were a couple of stretches where we were non-existent, but the US defensemen did a great job and we never looked lost on the power-play (well, almost never). It wasn't perfect, but they did a good job. As has been mentioned, shot selection is huge. They shot a lot of stuff right into Miller. Make no mistake, Miller was amazing against Nash in the third period (and subsequent shots), but our guys played and screened well.

the US gets by with a scrappy win over the pesky swiss.