They own the podium
As promised, I will now elaborate on my prediction of two days ago that the Canadian men's hockey team would win the gold medal in the just-concluded 2010 Winter Olympics in the world's most beautiful city, Vancouver, British Columbia...which they did.
First of all, for those curious as to why Vancouver is my favorite place in the world, that stems back to a trip I made there in 1985...I wanted to check out Canada, never having been there before, and since I was in the Seattle area at the time, it seemed as good a time as any to go up and look. When I got to Vancouver, I was struck by the stunning beauty of this huge metropoils seemingly surrounded by clean, blue water and mountains as far as one could see. The weather was wonderful and mild, and I STILL have never seen a cleaner place in my life. I immediately envisioned myself possibly settling down there someday, if circumstances would ever present themselves in such a way.
And now, a part of my heart resides very close by, underlining my attachment to this gloriously beautiful part of the earth.
Too, I've always loved ice hockey, and I naturally have become a BIG fan of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks...so my love for my favorite place intensifies during the winter months...and given that this year's Winter Games were being held there, you can imagine what I've been doing with the tiny window of spare time that I have.
OK, now back to the game. The above backdrop will possibly explain why today's gold medal battle was significant to me...beyond what a regular hockey game would be. I was looking forward to seeing my native country(the U.S.)against another country I feel warmth toward(Canada). Besides, the tournament showed that they, not Canada and Russia(as many experts claimed at the outset)were the class of the world field.
The Canadians had probably the best possible available lineup of the world's top players, with NHL stars such as Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, Jonathan Toews, Jarome Iginla, Duncan Keith, captain Scott Niedermayer, and great young defensive talent such as Shea Weber and Drew Doughty, not to mention two of the world's top goaltenders in Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo, not to mention Marc-Andre Fleury of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
The U.S. team was also stocked with solid NHL talent like Patrick Kane, Ryan Kesler, Jamie Langenbrunner, Phil Kessel, Zach Parise, Jack Johnson, and Eric Johnson, plus goaltender Ryan Miller, quietly having a statistically excellent season for the NHL's Buffalo Sabres.
But honestly and objectively, if you put the Canadian and US lineups back-to-back and projected them to their best on the ice, I couldn't really see the U.S. beating the Canadians when it mattered most.
But the U.S. DID beat the Canadians when it din't matter much, in the preliminary seeding round...where the U.S. won despite being outshot nearly 2-to-1 and dominated on the ice by the more savvy Canadian team. The U.S. managed to win on the strength of extraordinary goaltending by Miller, and big plays at timely moments.
Unfortunately, the victory served mostly to wake up a Canadian team that was still a bit disorganized at that point in the tournament. It gave the team a focus and purpose that it may not have had previously, despite the immense pressure they were under in their own country to win a Gold Medal with all that superlative talent. Now they were driven not only by that pressure, but also by the desire to avenge their loss to the U.S. and win the Gold in the same game.
The U.S. continued to play excellently, seemingly improving with each game. The Canadians continued to roll on through the tougher bracket, focused on the Gold and playing their best.
It stood to reason then, that when it became apparent that the U.S. and Canada would indeed face off in a rematch for the Gold, that Canada would have the advantage in the matchup....for except for the Canadian game and a one-period, six-goal ouburst against the bronze medalist team Finland, the U.S. never did approach the dominating force on the ice the Canadians were, despite not having trailed in a game to that point in the tournament.
But in today's game, the U.S. team saved its' best for last...with the Canadians determined to win the game and the gold, and the U.S. determined to duplicate their gold medal hockey performance of 30 and 50 years ago, the result was one of the most intensely competitive hockey games the world has ever seen. The quality of play on both sides was nothing short of remarkable.
But the U.S. realized it wasn't playing Switzerland or Finland this time, and it was all they could do to stay with the determined Canadians on the ice...and the skill of the Canadians won out in the beginning, staking their team to a 2-0 lead by the 2nd period.
The U.S. would cut it to 2-1, and hang in there through much of the third period...but they could not sem to tie the score. Finally, with regulation time about to expire, the U.S. used an extra attacker to put a rebound past Luongo to tie the game and send it into overtime.
Overtime seemed appropriate for this game, since both teams played equally well and deserved to win on effort. But now it would come down to a sudden death overtime.
7 minutes in, Crosby took a pass from Iginla off a turnover and blasted the puck past the heroic-in-defeat Miller, and Canada was the deserving Gold Medal Olympic men's hockey champion.
If all the attention in goal were not squarely on Miller(which admittedly was understandable), perhaps observers might have paid more attention to the equally gifted Luongo, who as the Canucks' goalie had the majority of the fans on his side to go with his excellent career record in international competition and a similar 3-2 win over Miller in th builcing when the Canucks beat the Sabres there in late January.
Luongo was also especially determined to win, for he was battling an undeserved "choker" image, and only was playing when Brodeur, the original Canadian starter, was pulled after the first U.S. loss. A Gold Medal would help Luongo change his public image among some hockey fans.
Bottom line, every player on both the Canadian and U.S. teams earned my unending respect and admiration for the way they played and conducted themselves...the game will do a lot for the sport of hockey by showing the world what a great game of skill hockey is.
Perhaps only in a city as beautiful as Vancouver could such a beautiful display of athletic skill take place. Then again, perhaps not.
But it was still a great game...in a great city.
Posted on Mar 01, 2010 - 01:19 AM | [0]
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