Canada Outplays USA, Wins 1-0

When the Team USA roster was announced, there were criticisms that it didn't have enough offensive firepower. Those critics, sadly, were proven right as Canada shut out Team USA 1-0. Canada will now play for the gold against Sweden on Sunday, and the US will play Finland for bronze Saturday.

The argument defending USA's roster choices was that guys like Phil Kessel and Patrick Kane would do the scoring. The team lacked offensive depth, but had powerful offense at the top. Kessel had a good Olympics. Patrick Kane failed to score a goal. Team USA needed Kane in this game and he didn't deliver.

The US got 30 shots on goal, but only a handful truly challenged Carey Price. Most possessions were one and done. Most shots hit Price right in the maple leaf.

Give lots of credit to Canada's layered defense, a testament to assistant coach Claude Julien, whose layered defense has been a staple of the Boston Bruins' success for several years.

While Canada's layered defense remained strong, Team USA allowed a goal because of defensive mistakes. Ryan Callahan got careless and didn't cover his man (Jay Bouwmeester) on the point, and didn't cover his space in that part of the ice. An open Bouwmeester threatened to shoot, which Jonathan Quick had to respect, and an opportunistic Jamie Benn slipped into the space vacated by Callahan, and tipped Bouwmeester's shot-pass into an open net.

Phil Kessel's game was a microcosm of USA's game as a whole. He had a few chances on breakaways, using his speed. But after the initial shot there wasn't enough support to maintain pressure on Price. Kessel also had a number of giveaways and passes intercepted in the neutral zone. So did Ryan Suter. So did Kevin Shattenkirk. Too many USA possessions ended before they made it through the neutral zone.

Kessel's play in this game is exactly why I'm glad he's no longer a Bruin.

While Canada's defense reminded me of the Bruins, Team USA's power play also, unfortunately, reminded me of the Bruins. There wasn't any movement away from the puck, which put the onus of creating passing lanes on the puck carrier. So the puck carrier was forced to protect the puck AND move around enough to get his 4 teammates open. That's just not good.

The ice sheet is 100 feet wide, and Team USA only used the 10 feet along the boards when they had a power play. This was exactly what Canada wanted.

Canada won the battles behind the net, in front of the net, along the boards. It's not that the US didn't have enough talent to beat Canada. The US didn't have execution. Jonathan Quick played a great game, good enough to neutralize any talent edge Canada had. The US wasted 3 power play opportunities, didn't support the puck, didn't take care of the puck in the neutral zone.

Just a bad game. And I'm disappointed in this team. Had they played great and lost, I'd be content with a bronze. They didn't play great, most didn't play good.

Go Sweden.

USA vs. Canada Preview: Epic Fucking Hockey

One of the many things I love about Olympic hockey is that on the top teams, all these guys know each other. They've played against each other for years in the NHL, sometimes in the same division, sometimes with each other on the same teams. There's familiarity, and that breeds contempt. Then add the national rivalry and the high stakes with a chance for Olympic gold on the line, and the result is epic hockey. Not good hockey, not great hockey, epic fucking hockey.

For the US to win this game, they need goaltending. Jonathan Quick has been great during these Olympics, and they need that to continue. Quick can't let in any soft goals. And he's going to have to make at least one, but probably two or more brilliant, improvisational saves for the US to win. Goaltending is Team USA's biggest edge in this game. They need to press that advantage.

I also think Patrick Kane needs to score. In 4 games he has 4 assists and is +3, which would be good for a stretch of NHL games. However, when the US is playing Slovenia and Slovakia, and scoring 19 goals in 4 games, you'd expect more from production from a guy like Kane. We've seen how he can carry a team like he did the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup. He needs to carry some of the load for Team USA.

The US also can't take any stupid penalties. Canada will play physical, they'll try to get under Team USA's skin, they might even embellish a few hits trying to get a call. Guys like Brooks Orpik need to remember that there are rules, they will be enforced, and Canada's power play is not something you want to give bonus opportunities to.

There will be a lot of pressure on USA's defensemen. The US has a lot of young defensemen and they have to face guys like Sydney Crosby, who know how to take advantage of inexperienced defensemen. Mistakes will happen, but there's a limit. And Quick can/must cover for errors made by Team USA's blue-liners.

This game is going to be a 60 minute (or more) arm wrestling match for control. Control of the puck, control of which zone the puck is in, control of the boards, and control of the area near the nets. Team USA has easily dominated those dirty areas against their European competition but Canada will not let them do that. Team USA can win battles down there, but it won't be nearly as lopsided in USA's favor as it has been against the Europeans. Shea Weber is 6' 4" and 233 pounds and will not be dislodged with ease.

Speed will be essential on the big ice surface. But both of these teams are very good at tightening up the game so all the meaningful battles and plays are made in confined space. There will be the occasional end to end, fast-paced stretches of play, but I think most of the game-changing plays will be made in close-quartered battles. Speed helps you enter those battles with momentum and an advantage. And speed helps you take advantage of pucks won in those areas.

I can talk and talk about this game forever. I'm literally fantasizing about it right now. You've got so many great players involved. All-Stars, Stanley Cup winners, 24 guys from the 2010 gold medal game.

You have 3 MVPs (Crosby, Corey Perry, Martin St. Louis), 2 Norris Trophy winners (P.K. Subban, Duncan Keith), 3 of the last 4 Conn Smythe winners (Patrick Kane, Jonathan Quick, Jonathan Toews), and there are 4 Jack Adams coach of the year award winners behind the two benches.

This is going to be great. And the winner gets a chance to play for gold, the loser goes to the bronze medal game.

The game will be on NBC Sports, and WEEI in Boston will be broadcasting it over the radio.

Tyler Seguin Needs to Learn How to Party AND Perform

At his introduction to the (begin sarcasm) ravenous (end sarcasm) Dallas hockey media, Tyler Seguin was asked what it would be like to be part of a young team that was attempting to build itself up. It was a hockey question, not a question about his social life. But that's how Seguin answered it.

"There's a lot of young guys. On my last team, I was the only single guy."

Seguin then went on to talk about hockey again.

This is just a few days after the Stanley Cup finalists traded him away, and after his former GM talked about how he needed to get his act together, on and off the ice.

The reaction to Seguin's promiscuous social life is a bit harsh for my taste. It reminds me of Gronkowski. It seems like pundits and fans want these guys to live monastical, celibate lifestyles. Like Puritans, wearing drab dark clothes, only drinking a few ales with your teammates on off-days, waiting until marriage to engage in wanton acts of carnality. That's not going to happen. Nor should it.

Partying is fine. Almost every young athlete parties. And so would any of us. Look back to when you were 21. Now imagine you were paid millions of dollars and were famous.

You can perform on the field/ice/court while partying, too. Gronk performs on the field, when he's on it. And he got injured on an extra point, not on an extra pint. He got reinjured, again on the field, not in the bedroom having a sevensome with the Bryant University women's volleyball team. On the field he performs. He's already caught 38 touchdowns, and sets records at his position.

Then there's Patrick Kane, who is only 3 years older than Seguin, already has 2 rings, won the Conn Smythe, has an Olympic silver medal, and has established himself as a star in the NHL. He was a #1 overall pick in 2007, and he parties his ass off.

He scored 9 goals in the playoffs, 3 in the Finals. He performs.

Stevan Stamkos parties. Crosby parties. How many Russian players took a turn with Anna Kournikova? Remember when Tom Brady was banging Tara Reid? Then he and Bridget Moynihan got together. Then he finally settled down with Gisele. Shit, some people have pointed out that Brady and the Patriots won more when he was single.

All these guys go out and have fun. Except Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning. But even they probably go to county fairs and indulge with some cotton candy. And, of course, church.

What separates Seguin from Brady/Kane/Gronk is that those guys are able to perform AND party. Seguin is only able to party. The other guys have fun, then get down to business. They split their time. Seguin seems to want to party all the time.

He needs to realize that pussy is a renewable resource. It's not going to run out. There are going to be plenty of girls that will want him, even when he's a 40 year old with half his teeth making the NHL minimum. In 20 years he'll have the opportunity to sleep with girls that are only now being born.

In his current division he'll be able to go to Chicago and hang out with his buddy Kane. He can go to Denver and get some stoner girls. He can go to Minnesota and warm up with some University of Minnesota Golden Gopher girls. He can go to Nashville and hook up with some country singers. And in Dallas he can hang out with his new single teammates, as well as the Cowboys, and maybe even Manny Ramirez if he gets promoted to the Rangers. The opportunities to have fun are endless.

Why does Seguin party as if all the beertaps and vaginas in the world will dry up in the next 2 weeks? Why does he refuse to take a day off? Why did he spend more time guzzling Jagermeister, than skating around the Garden post-game with Jagr?

I think he has a confidence issue. He hasn't done what he's expected to do in the NHL. It's the first time in his life he hasn't met expectations, his own and everyone else's. So instead of facing that fact and working to improve, and also facing the possibility that he might fail, he's tried to master a different arena. He's king of all his parties. But on the ice he's a 3rd line winger that doesn't score. He can't fail at his social life. He's going to get drunk and get laid and be the envy of all his guy friends, who follow him around like bromosexual groupies. But on the ice, he is facing the possibility of failure for the first time in his life, and he's not confident enough to try to push through that.

Patrick Kane and Tyler Seguin are about the same size. Who plays more physically? Who plays less afraid? Who seems more confident?

Maybe having single teammates in Dallas will actually help Seguin. Maybe they'll point out that there's a time to have fun and a time to work. It'd probably be easier for Seguin to listen to that from other single hockey players, who love to go out as much as he does, as opposed to the older, married guys he was teammates with in Boston.

Or maybe he'll continue to party and not perform.

Like any job, nobody cares about your personal life so long as you show up and work well. Seguin hasn't done that. He hasn't performed. He hasn't demonstrated that he's putting in the effort to reach his potential. He can still party, but he has to figure out how to perform as well.

Anyway, it's not our problem in Boston anymore.

Chicago Kane, They Shaw, They Crawford

Were the Bruins ever the superior team in Game 5? Apart from a brief series of plays in the 1st period, the Bruins rarely imposed their will on offense. They didn't move the puck well through the neutral zone. They weren't able to string together successful puck battles. And defensively they were sluggish and late. If not for some brilliant stops by Tuukka Rask, the Bruins would have lost this game by 4 or 5 goals.

Is Zdeno Chara out of gas? Has playing 30 minutes a night taken its toll? Maybe Chicago's Bryan Bickell is starting to chop the giant down. Bickell has focused on Chara all series, pushing Chara's buttons, making Chara exert himself even after the puck's gone and the whistle's blown. Bickell's not a small guy at 6' 4" 233 pounds. And all he has to do is focus on Chara. Chara has to deal with Bickell AND defend the crease AND play the point on power play AND play 25+ minutes against Chicago's best, fastest forwards.

Chara left Kane wide open on Kane's first goal. No excuse. And although Chara scored the lone Bruins goal, his performance was one you'd like to forget but won't be able to for awhile.

Offensively the Bruins looked lost. Marchand without Bergeron is like Robin without Batman. The Bruins barely had an offense in this game. They were sloppy in the neutral zone, they turned pucks over, they didn't get pucks deep into the offensive zone. When they won possession battles there wasn't support to take advantage of it. The few good plays they made, like Jagr's moves through traffic from the halfwall to the net, were individual efforts, not team-based offense.

The Bruins managed 5 shots on goal in the 2nd period. Five! Then only 9 in the 3rd. They're facing a goalie who has shown repeated vulnerability and they're making his job easy by failing to force him to make saves. On average in this series, the Blackhawks are getting 5 more shots on goal per game than the Bruins. Crawford will allow goals. But you have to get shots on goal to make that happen.

Give credit to Chicago. Kane was brilliant, nearly scored a natural hat-trick. Patrick Sharp was robbed a few times in the 1st. The Blackhawks did a good job harassing the B's in the neutral zone. They controlled the ice in front of both nets. This was the Blackhawks' best performance in the series. And the Bruins' worst.

Game 6 tonight. Without Bergeron it's time to dig deep. Chara, Marchand, Seguin, Kelly, Peverley, everyone has to play up to their potential. And then find a way to play a little better.

Photo Credit:
Scott Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

GIF Credits:
Yahoo! Sport

Meanwhile, in the NHL

Just some token news and lack of good news from the NHL. Rumor has it that if the League and NHLPA can't agree to a CBA by Thursday, the Winter Classic will be cancelled. At the very least, HBO's 24/7, which is a nice little promotional tool for the NHL, won't be made leading up to the Classic.

In suburban Chicago, 12,000 fans gathered to watch a team comprised of Blackhawk players compete against a team of NHLers from other teams, including Jordan Staal and Bobby Ryan. Patrick Kane scored 5 goals for the Blackhawks team, but they lost 16-15 in a shootout. Proceeds from the game went to charity.

A group of Montreal Canadiens are fighting the lockout in a Quebec court. I don't know much about the case, or the Canadian legal system, nor do I care to learn. It's just a shame that we're seeing the abbreviation "vs." used in a court-room setting and not to describe an actual game.

Philadelphia Flyer Wayne Simmonds, who is black, was the target of racial chants when the Czech team he plays for faced the Chomutov Pirates. People don't realize how racist some Europeans are. Simmonds had a banana thrown at him in London, Ontario last year. People don't realize how racist some Canadians are.

And Tim Thomas sits in Colorado and smiles at all of this.