So much for that epic, one-goal, Sidney Crosby versus Alexander Ovechkin showdown, huh?
Canada completely and utterly dominated Russia yesterday evening, winning by a score of 7-3 in a game which saw the Russians outplayed, outcoached, and worst of all, outhustled by Team Canada.
The Canadians game out with a fire and passion that completely overwhelmed Russia. Brendan Morrow may have had more hits than the entire Russian side on his first shift, alone. You may recall me voicing my concerns over Russia's defense while making my Olympic predictions:
"Russia's defense lacks depth and only has one bruiser in Anton Volchenkov, and I can easily see them being run down dealing with a star-studded Canadian line-up up front that will be laying more bodies on them than drunken bastards all over the hottest, sluttiest girl at the bar two minutes before close. Dealing with Sweden's group of forwards will be a handful for Russia defensively, too. Don't get me wrong, Sergei Gonchar and Andrei Markov are elite defensemen, but I don't like the blend of the overall group."
The idea of the Russian defensive group being able to compete with a fast, hulking Canadian group going full force became downright laughable last night.
The truth of the matter is that this game was over in the first period. Ryan Getzlaf, Dan Boyle, and Rick Nash made it 3-0 Canada less than 13 minutes into the first. Time to pull Evgeni Nabokov if you're Russian Coach Vyacheslav Bykov, right?
Apparently not.
With the score 4-1 after the first, certainly Bykov would pull Nabokov, now...yeah?
Alas, no.
Back-to-back Canadian strikes to kick off the second period meant that this one was over before Bykov finally pulled the trigger and sent Ilya Bryzgalov to take over for Nabokov in the Russian net.
Russia should be embarrassed. They didn't backcheck. They didn't compete physically. They didn't go to the net. They lost every important one-on-one or 50-50 battle. From Alex Ovechkin right down the line to Danis Zaripov, this team showed zero character.
Ovechkin's performance, in particular, was disappointing. Two goals were a direct result of Ovechkin lollygagging his way back on defense. He had just three shots on net and was a minus two in the plus minus column.
As for the Canadians - wow!
They came out hard and didn't let up. The entire defensive unit shored up their previous shortcomings from earlier in the tournament, and contributed heavily to the offense. Scott Niedermayer played his best game - Olympics or NHL - in a while. Dan Boyle had a wail of game, setting up the first Canadian goal and scoring the second, himself.
If the Canadians play like this going forward, they'll be looking "golden" come Sunday...
It may have been closer than we American fans would've liked, but Team U.S.A. was able to take care of business yesterday against the Swiss, courtesy of two goals from Zach Parise.
TSN and NBC analyst Pierre McGuire has maintained all tournament that for the Americans to succeed, Parise will need to lead the way and find the back of the net offensively. He wasn't wrong.
Parise is the Americans' version of Sidney Crosby. He works his tail off, is a beast in front of the net and along the boards, and is the catalyst for the Americans' offensive attack. Both of his goals yesterday - a deflection, and an empty net goal where he chipped the puck out of the U.S.A. defensive zone to himself - personified just the type of player number nine is.
Ryan Miller was once against stupendous, and the defensive group continued to show improvement. Tim Gleason, in particular, seems to have really hit his stride.
When it comes time to hand out the award for best defensemen in the tournament, Brian Rafalski will certainly be one of the top candidates. Not only does he lead the Americans in goals and points, but he and Ryan Suter have also been an unbelievable defensive pairing for the Americans throughout their first four games...
What the heck has gotten into Pavol Demitra?
The oft-injured Vancouver Canuck led the way for Slovakia last night, registering a goal and two assists as the Slovaks ended Sweden's attempt to defend their 2006 Gold Medal victory.
Seriously, somebody needs to tell Pavol it isn't 2003. Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Zdeno Chara, and goaltender Jaroslav Halak have all pulled their weight, but without the excellent play of Demitra, there is no chance that the Slovaks are in the semifinals.
For the Swedes, this was a very disappointing tournament. Despite claiming the number two seed during preliminary play, they struggled mightily to score goals all tournament, and faltered last night despite surrendering just 14 shots on Henrik Lundqvist, who had yet to be scored on in his first two outings.
Outside of the Daniel Alfredsson - Nicklas Backstrom - Loui Erisson line, the Swedish forwards vastly underachieved. Daniel and Henrik Sedin combined for just one goal and five points. Henrik Zetterberg and Peter Forsberg each had only one point.
For the life of me, I still don't understand why Mattias Weinhandl lined up with the Sedins for the majority of the tournament. Okay, so they are good friends and had some chemistry...10 years ago in juniors! There's a good reason Weinhandl was never successful in the NHL - he wasn't good enough...
Somebody needs to explain to me the IIHF rule mandating that any player who loses his helmet needs to put it back on immediately or skate to his bench...while the play is going on.
The IIHF might need to explain the validity of the rule to the Czech Republic, as well, as the fallen helmet of Filip Kuba opened the door for Niklas Hagman to score the game-winner with under six and half minutes left in regulation to push the Finns into their customary spot in the semifinals.
With the Finns on the man-advantage, Kuba's helmet fell off and moved towards the endboards behind his own net. After disregarding the loss of his helmet at first, he realized (perhaps with the help of the ref) a second later that he needed to put it back on, or risk getting a penalty that would leave his squad two-men short. This left Hagman all alone in front, and he took advantage by deflecting a Janne Niskala point shot through Tomas Vokoun and across the goal line.
What a ridiculous rule.
Regardless, the Finns were able to capitalize on the opportunity, and deserve their fair share of the credit. Miikka Kiprusoff was perfect in net, stopping all 31 shots that came his way.
Expect a hard fought, low scoring goalie duel between the Finns and Team U.S.A. in their Friday matchup...
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