Finns 5 – U.S. 0

I’m watching the tail end of the bronze medal game between the Finns and the Americans. Obviously, it isn’t going well for the Americans.

While I think some people will put that down to the fact that the team is depressed after losing to the Canadians in the previous round, I think that is merely one factor and not the most important one.

I’ve read and heard again and again this week that the U.S. team doesn’t have any problems scoring goals, that they’re firing on all cylinders, and all that crap. However, I see some other things about this U.S. team. Issues that go back at least to Salt Lake City, when Joe Sakic and crew broke the U.S. team over their collective knee for the gold medal.

First, in international hockey, all teams aren’t equal. That’s true in the NHL of course, but I guess playing 80 games hides it. Brett Hull used to avoid empty net goals whenever possible because he wanted his goals to mean something. Most players don’t though. The top five teams in the olympics are decidedly better than the rest. Once upon a time, I would have said six, but the Czechs aren’t what they once were when they were Czechoslovakia.

The U.S. has scored a lot of goals against Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czechs, but no more than two against Canada, Russia or Finland. And by no more than two, I mean a total of two. They’ve been shut out twice. How could so many commentators be so incapable of telling the difference between these two sets of teams.

The U.S. team does do a number of things well. They have a dangerous power play (even though they were shut out the last two games), they’re really capable of putting incredible pressure on for extended stretches, which they did again today in the middle of the second period when the Finns made a couple of puck handling mistakes. It was incredible that they didn’t score. It looked like a great power-play even though it was even strength. And it lasted for more than the two minutes a power play would afford. They do this for long stretches almost every game. Also, they are probably better than any team at stealing the puck from behind; when the puck carrier slows down their back-checkers routinely take the puck away and this generates a lot of scoring chances and reduces the opposing teams’.

However, weirdly, they have problems scoring even strength goals against good teams. Back in 2002, their major shortcomings against the Canadians was that their defence couldn’t keep up with the ferocious speed of the Canadian forwards like Kariya, Iginla or Sakic, and they couldn’t score at even strength. I see their institutional response as being to develop a collapsing defense that does a good job of keeping other teams from playing in the slot. Combined with good goaltending, which they do have, it can be tough to break. Mind you, the Finns managed a couple times to get good shots from the slot with some crisp passing.

But while the Canadians scored but a single goal, they spent most of the game in the attacking end and generated many shots and many chances. The Finns were able to put pressure on them as well and completely destroy them on the power play.

Of course, one of my least respected players, Patrick Kane, as classless as he is talented, just responded to losing the puck with a slash and is back in the penalty box.

n.b. I was just reading an old AP post about the U.S.-Russia game of the 2002 olympics in which the U.S. tied the Russians late in the 3rd period on a goal by Brett Hull.

“We got back on our heels a bit and gave them a lot of room, but we just started skating again [in the third period],” defenseman Brian Leetch said. “It was their puck control that gave us problems, not their defensive system.”

This is what the Canadians and the Finns both used to defeat the U.S. team this week.

Looking ahead, I’m confident that Canada will win tomorrow but I haven’t seen the Swedes play yet. I didn’t think that today’s game would be so one-sided but I did predict a Finnish victory after seeing both teams play against Canada. The Finns have a fabulous team and are playing really well and are a treat to watch. Incidentally, not a single commentator that I’ve seen, heard or read thought that the Finns were going to do well this tournament. All of them were wrong.

Of course, I predicted the Finns would beat the Swedes as well. I know that Rask didn’t play but still, I got that wrong.

Final notes on the U.S. team… The player who made the strongest impression on me was Ryan McDonagh. He blocked shots and broke up plays again and again. Until the last two games, I thought that David Backes played well but he disappeared in those two key games. Same with Kessel and van Riemsdyk. Of course, I get to see a lot of the latter two so their good play was expected. For what it’s worth, they played differently in the last two games. Kessel likes to weave around unnoticed, appearing suddenly and uncovered at the top of the right circle to take a pass but I don’t remember seeing him there during either of the last two games.

Biggest asses were Patrick Kane and Ryan Callahan.

Gone for the Gold

Well, somehow they did it. The Canadian women’s hockey team won the gold in Sochi yesterday. Despite being down 2-0 with four minutes to play, they clawed their way back to a draw with Poulin scoring in the last minute of regulation and then again in overtime. Sudden death, indeed.

Kudos to the team. I enjoyed seeing Wickenheiser get an almost great breakaway (before being cross-checked and taken down, and then during the ensuing power play, while the rest of the team passed the puck round and round, clogging up the crease, tying up the defensewoman (I’ve never written that before; it’s clumsier than defenseman.) and obstructing the goalie’s view.

As an aside, while many commentators talk about obstructing the goalie’s view, equally valuable is that the goalie often needs to move around to see and this can put them out of position and slow to get across the net, which from the replays, is what happened here. She saw the play, she reacted to it but given her positioning, she couldn’t get across the net. I think if the U.S. goalie had been able to keep a position appropriate to where the Canadian skaters were, she might have been able to beat the shot.

p.s. I’m going to have to figure out how to make a footnote on WP.