With the preliminary round of the 2010 Men's Olympic Ice Hockey tournament now in the books, the landscape of the games has completely changed from the way everyone expected it to be at the outset.
In fact, last night's thrilling 5-3 upset over Canada by the United States tossed the tournament near upside-down.
Just one day shy of the 30-year anniversary of the biggest victory in the history of American Hockey when the US beat the Soviet Union during the semifinals of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, the United States did a pretty fair encore in beating the favored Canadians last night in some of the best hockey I have ever seen played in 28 years.
Seriously, folks. It was like an All-Star game where the players actually cared. There was intensity from the drop of the puck, swift skating from end to end, and just off-the-chain displays of talent all over the ice.
If you missed last night's game, shame on you for 6 weeks. It was everything great about the game of hockey.
While the US team competing in these games is filled with plenty of excellent NHL players -- unlike the mostly college-occupied squad that beat Russia in the Miracle on Ice -- last night's victory can't fall too far behind that epic 1980 victory in the annuals of United States hockey.
Despite being outshot 45-23, the Americans were able to win by capitalizing on several Canadian mistakes and a subpar game from Canada's goaltender, Martin Brodeur.
As Penguin fans know well, one of Brodeur's strengths is playing the puck, but Brodeur had several puck-handling gaffes last night, and a number of them led directly to United States goals, including both markers by US Defenseman Brian Rafalski, who scored the first two US goals last night to go with the last two US goals in their prior victory over Norway.
While Brodeur was clearly off his game, United States netminder Ryan Miller was nothing but on his, coming up with key save after key save, especially down the stretch in the third period.
After Canada cut the US lead to 4-3 with a power play goal by Penguin Captain Sidney Crosby with 3 minutes to go, they peppered Miller and the US team with a near-ridiculous press to tie the score.
That lasted until less than a minute left when American forward Ryan Kessler made an incredible individual effort to chase down Canadian forward Corey Perry going back into his own end after a loose puck -- and in front of an empty net.
When he got close enough, Kessler just reached around Perry and whacked the puck into the goal. Perry, I think, pulled up a little on the play thinking he had body position and not expecting Kessler to do that.
Great play by Kessler; a bit of a lazy play by Perry.
But really, that typified the Canadians last night. They let up in various aspects of the game just enough for the Americans to take advantage.
Even Crosby didn't have his best game. While he scored -- as I mentioned before -- he was minus 3 on the night, and even had the opening goal of the game deflect from Rafalski off him and past Brodeur.
Just not a good effort by Canada overall. And they'll pay for that subpar effort in spades, for sure.
As an initial matter, the 'home' team in these games is now facing somewhat of a goaltending controversy.
After Brodeur's subpar performance yesterday, there's already talk about whether Canadian coach Mike Babcock will now go to Roberto Luongo.
For the first time in this tournament, Babcock refused to say who would start the next game in his post-game press conference. He admitted that he'd have to sit down and review the game tape before deciding who plays next.
While Penguin fans will be disappointed to know that goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury just isn't in the calculus at this point, what Babcock does in this regard could be his biggest coaching decision in the tournament, and if it doesn't go well for him, he's likely to pay dearly in the court of public opinion.
Meanwhile, Canada now has to play an extra game to get to the quarterfinals -- on Tuesday against Germany -- and while that game isn't lkely to pose a huge hurdle for them, they will now also have a tougher road to go the distance if they want to compete for a medal.
Assuming they beat Germany, waiting for them in the quarterfinals on Wednesday on a back-to-back night will be the Russians, who finished the preliminary round seeded 3rd and given a bye to the quarters.
If Team Canada manages to beat Russia, they'll likely have to then get past the defending champion, Sweden, in the semifinals.
The road to the medal games for the US, on the other hand, is much easier, as they will rest until Wednesday when they will play either Belarus or Switzerland for an opportunity to be in the final four. There, they'll only have to beat either Finland or the Czech Republic for a chance to play for gold.
Not an easy game to be sure. But much easiser than the road Canada faces.
Speaking of the Czech Republic, they lost to Russia yesterday in a game where Penguins' center Evgeni Malkin was the star.
Malkin had 2 goals and an assist in leading his squad to victory, including a goal which followed an incredible sequence where teammate and -- in yesterday's game, a linemate for the first time -- Alexander Ovechkin laid out former Penguin and Czech star Jaromir Jagr with a huge, legal bodycheck at center ice early in the third period.
That hit and the goal by Geno which followed was the turning point in the contest, giving Russia enough momentum to ride the remainder of the game to a 4-2 final victory.
As expected, the games have been great so far.
The best part is: it's only going to get better.
If that's even possible after last night.
I'll have more later this week on the Olympics, but prior to that, I expect to get up my analysis of the Penguins at the 3/4 pole this season.
I want to get that up because, toward the end of this week and weekend, it will be time to focus strictly on the trade deadline -- which is next Wednesday, 3-3 at 3 PM and coming up fast.
More soon.
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