Okay... can't help myself. Awesome game by Canada... they deserve the gold... but a few Kubo quick hits:

-As expected (for me anyway), the Canadians won in spite of Bobby Lou instead of because of him. The second goal should never have even had a chance to be shot... he was fighting himself the whole game, and it finally came back to bite him. 80% of the American shots were from terrible angles (one of which went in). He did what he needed to do (obviously), but he looked very, VERY shaky.

-Crosby deserves about 3% of the praise for Canada's gold medal, and this is coming from a Crosby fan. Aside from score the GW goal from point blank range which was set up by an AMAZING effort on the part of Iginla, I challenge someone to tell me one thing Crosby did to contribute to the outcome of this game (or either of the two before it). Big ups to him for scoring the goal, but if I hear any announcers talk about the heroism of Sidney Crosby, I'm going to puke. You want heroism- Scott Neidermayer. That dude does EVERY little thing to win the puck and make smart plays. Canada's MVP is either Neidermayer or Morrow.

-Eric Johnson is a goat. I counted three times in the third period that he goofed up BIG time trying to stickhandle into the offensive zone that led to Canadian odd man rushes. Gotta be smarter than that.

-Zach Parise is a god damn beast.

-So is Jamie Langenbrunner, still.

-For the life of me, I don't know why the Americans didn't do what has been their bread and butter for the better part of twenty years. Dump and grind. Patrick Kane thinks he's the next coming of Wayne Gretzky on the power play. I don't care how good you are, you aren't going to get through the Canadian defense by yourself by stick handling.

-Speaking of which, the Canadian defense is probably the best organized unit of defensemen I've ever seen on a hockey team at any level. Fundamentally perfect, and fantastic at quarterbacking the offense... one and all, those defensemen were awesome.

-American blueliners, not so much. Too much stick checks, not enough body to body at the blueline as the Candians entered the zone. They allowed the Canadians to set up behind the net and in the corners far too much, and in my opinion, it cost them the game.

Like I said... A effort from the Canadians. Big kudos to our neighbors to the north! I'm disappointed not only because we (the U.S.) lost, but also because I think we had several chances to shore everything up and win.

From Allan Muir of SI.com.

My Three Stars: 1. Sidney Crosby: Biggest goal in Canadian hockey since Paul Henderson in 1972. 2. Scott Niedermayer: An absolutely massive game on the back end. 3. Ryan Miller: Team USA would have been blown out were it not for about a dozen amazing saves he made in the second and third.


Fucking clown shoes. I'm all about showcasing the game's stars... but for crap's sake...other things go into winning a hockey game other than the GW goal, and Crosby did none of them tonight.

anorexorcist wrote:

I still don't get all this hate for Crosby. I see it on the big forum for hockey I got to, I mean what does he have to do before people will stop hating him?

I actually like Crosby, but I understand why some people don't like him. Even beyond his past as a whiny player, even now, he shies away from contact most of the time. As a hockey player myself, I despise players that won't do the hard work in the corners or backcheck but reap the benefits...

::cough:: Pavel Bure ::cough::

Valdronius wrote:

Gretzky was a big heavy hitter too, right?

As soon as the NHL changes a rule because of Crosby, I'll put them somewhere near the same universe.

Like I said, I'm a fan of Crosby. Critiques of his stem from 1) his early diving, and 2) his reputation as a sissy. Deserved or undeserved, that's the long and short of it.