I must admit that I am nervous for today's game because I don't think the Americans are going to sneak up on Canada. Ryan Miller is going to have to bring his "A" game in net to beat the Canadians. Cherry is right there are going to be a lot of pucks on net today. The Americans need to play smart, get pucks deep and not give up odd man rushes to the Canadians.
It may be the most anticipated hockey game in Canadian history.
And with national pride at stake — and some serious ice bragging rights on the line — the country’s biggest puckhead has made his prediction.
“I am calling it 5-3 for Team Canada,” declares Don Cherry.
It won’t be long now until we find out.
At 3:15 p.m. Sunday, the country will gather together to watch the gold medal match between Canada and the United States for hockey supremacy.
“It just shows you the interest in hockey, the greatest game in the world,” Cherry said.
And today, he said, Canada will prove once again we are the best at it?
“I am pretty sure we will but it won’t be easy,” said Cherry. “Ryan Miller has been excellent in the American’s goal and has only allowed five goals in five games. They are going to have to earn it.”
The coverage on CTV has been stellar throughout but a lot of hockey fans miss hearing The Coach’s take on each development. He will be back on CBC’s Coach’s Corner next week but American fans will get a taste of Grapes on NBC today.[Toronto Sun ]
The speech from the movie Miracle still kind of fits today even thirty years later. Yeah; I watched the game.
Fast forward till today; leading up to the game we have heard how great the Canadians are and don't get me wrong the Canadians are a good team. The Russians are a good team; the Swedes have a good team as well. Team USA is going down without a fight. I think the thing that makes me happy is the fact that team USA just put four goals past one of the best goalies in the world. Two of the goals were scored by former Wisconsin Badger Brian Rafalski who was a former NHL team mate of Martin Brodeur’s. Maybe Rafalski know’s Marty’s weaknesses? If Brodeur has any?
You have to wonder if the Canadians just thought they were going to win. I must say that the last two minutes of the game were some of the best hockey I have seen in a long time. Former MSU goalie Ryan Miller was a brick wall and nothing short of awesome keeping the American in the game when the Canadians were pressing all over Team USA in the closing minutes. I guess you could say it was Miller Time.
It will be interesting to see who is going to be selected to be on Team USA. You can bet that former Fighting Sioux star Zach Parise is going to be a shoe in to make team USA. I would also imagine that Phil Kessel will also be on the team as well. You can guess that the goaltenders will probably be Ryan Miller Buffalo(MSU) and Tim Thomas Boston (UVM)and a third goalie. Some think Jonathan Quick Kings(UMass). It will be interesting to see how many of the American's were former college hockey players.
TORONTO - His roster will be unveiled after the Winter Classic outdoor game on Jan. 1, but U.S. Olympic hockey team general manager Brian Burke is aiming to make his final decisions long before that.
Brian Burke hopes to have his U.S. Olympic men's team picked as soon as next week.
The team's six-man selection committee will sit down together in Pebble Beach, Calif., before the NHL's board of governors meetings next Monday.
"At that point, we hope to be down to between two and three decisions as far as our roster - if we have any at all,'' Burke said Monday on a conference call.
"The ideal world will be after we meet in Pebble Beach, we've got our team picked. And we go to Fenway Park and announce it.''
There will be some difficult decisions.
Even though the U.S. might not have boast as much depth as Canada or some of the top European countries, Burke acknowledged that it will be tough to get down to a 23-man roster.
The Americans had 34 players at their summer orientation camp in suburban Chicago and have continued to watch some who weren't in attendance.
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The U.S. team promises to be one of the youngest in the Olympic tournament, led by such players as Patrick Kane, Zach Parise and Phil Kessel. It probably won't leave much room for stalwarts of past teams like Mike Modano, Bill Guerin, Doug Weight and others.
"We've got to figure out what the balance is (between old and young players),'' said Burke.
The GM doesn't plan on quietly tipping off any players once the roster is finalized. He's happy to have most find out by watching television and will instead focus on calling the players who weren't selected.
"My primary goal on Jan. 1 is to make sure I reach the group that's not going to be included,'' said Burke.
I saw this posted by Alan Walsh on Twitter last night and I couldn't believe it when I first read it. The NHL is stopping its season to play the Olympics; why in the hell would they do this? The NHLPA doesn't want its players skating in the camps because there isn't adequate insurance coverage for their elephantine contracts. Personally, I think there would be more injuries from the compacted season then there is from the Olympic games.
I don’t know if there is any way around this; the countries participating in the Olympics are going to need to have some kind of an evaluation camp so they can decided which players are going to be the best fits for their countries’ Olympic team. This is just shameful. Maybe the Olympics needs to go back to having amateurs play in the Olympic Games.
So the NHLPA has told players not to participate in any on-ice drills at the upcoming orientation camps for the Olympics. Apparently the NHL has now also sent out a memo that dissuades player involvement as well, as the memo apparently states that the league will not honour NHL contracts for a player injured at a summer camp.
Call me crazy, but wasn't it the NHL and the NHLPA that agreed to participate in the Olympics? [Shaune Vetter, Hockey Buzz]
Kyle from the Illegal Curve asked me to submit my USA Olympic team. Again this is just for fun, and not to be taken very seriously. This is just who "I" think will be selected to be on team USA. Also, if you read the post you I will see that I be writing a weekly college hockey post for the IC. I must say that I am honored to have been asked by Kyle.
Illegal Curve is pleased to announce that Goon of Goon’s World will be writing a weekly college hockey post on Illegal Curve starting this fall. In the mean time, he has agreed to post his version of Team USA for the upcoming 2010 Olympics. Enjoy!
Defense (Defence): 1. Brooks Orpik, San Francisco, CA, Pittsburgh Penguins 2. Rob Scuderi, Syosset, N.Y. Pittsburgh Penguins 3. Ryan Suter, Madison, Wis. Nashville Predators 4. Paul Martin, Minneapolis, Minn. New Jersey Devils 5. Ryan Whitney, Boston, Mass. Anaheim Ducks 6. Brian Rafalski, Dearborn, Mich. Detroit Red Wings 7. Tom Gilbert, Minneapolis, Minn. Edmonton Oilers
Forward: 1. Phil Kessel, Madison, Wis. Boston Bruins 2. Zach Parise, Minneapolis, Minn. New Jersey Devils 3. T.J. Oshie, Warroad, Minn. St. Louis Blues 4. Patrick Kane, Buffalo, N.Y. Chicago Blackhawks 5. David Backes, Minneapolis, Minn. St. Louis Blues 6. Jamie Langenbrunner, Cloquet, Minn. New Jersey Devils 7. Kyle Okposo, Paul, Minn. New York Islanders 8. Dustin Brown, Ithaca, N.Y. Los Angeles Kings 9. David Booth, Detroit, Mich. Florida Panthers 10. Scott Gomez, Anchorage, Alaska New York Rangers 11. Joe Pavelski, Stevens Point, Wis. San Jose Sharks 12. Paul Stastny, Quebec City, Quebec Colorado Avalanche 13. Chris Drury, Trumbull, Conn. New York Rangers
Goalie: 1. Ryan Miller, East Lansing, Mich. Buffalo Sabres 2. Tim Thomas, Flint, Mich. Boston Bruins 3. Jonathan Quick, Milford, Conn. Los Angeles Kings
There have been some questions on whether the 2010 Olympics were to be played on an Olympic sheet of ice or not. It is official that the 2010 games will be at GM place which is an NHL rink.
This will be the first Olympics to be played on a NHL size rink. Personally, I am excited and relieved that we don't have to watch the best hockey players in the game of hockey play on those God awful sheets of ice.
GM Place will host the ice hockey events in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. These will be the first Olympic games to use NHL sized ice. This decision was made in order to maximize the potential crowds and revenue, instead of building a smaller, temporary venue with the international-size ice surface, as has been done for most other Winter Games. On July 2, 2003, 18,000 came to GM Place to hear the announcement that Vancouver got the games.
