I’m a couple of games behind on Canada’s performance in the Olympic hockey tournament. But with the game against the Americans looming tonight, I figured that now was as good a time as any to post my thoughts.
The first period of the Norway game left me shaking my head. Not because there was no score. That wasn’t what I was concerned about. What worried me was WHY the game was scoreless. The Canadians were playing the game like it was a damn All-Star game. No one wanted to shoot the puck, and it was all about passing it around until it was a foot from the goal line and scoring on a tap-in.
Thankfully Mike Babcock gave the impression that he did a little screaming during that first intermission, and the Canadian players woke up and realized that they actually needed to put the puck in the net if they wanted to win this thing. Then it turned into the Dany Heatly and Jarome Iginla show, with Iggy picking up a hat trick in what really wasn’t much of a challenge, first period notwithstanding. Roberto Luongo was pretty damn good, too, even if he only had to make 15 saves. It didn’t matter much what he did, though. It was already decided that Martin Brodeur would get the start against the Swiss.
And we all know what happened against the Swiss. Brodeur let in two goals, although 
the tying goal could probably all be blamed on Chris Pronger’s inability to check his pride and go after someone who roughed him up a bit, forgetting about the puck, which resulted in the second goal.
And it all came down to Sidney Crosby scoring in a shootout to get Canada the two points (rather than the three that they should have gotten for the regulation time win) putting them in a must win situation against the Americans tonight if they want to win the group and get a bye into the quarter-finals.
But if they think that the first period of tonight’s game will be scoreless, the Canadians may find themselves in some deep trouble. The Americans will cut them absolutely no slack, and would love nothing better to knock Canada off on their home ice.
I know that people have been saying that Brodeur should be getting all the ice time in net for Canada, claiming experience, and all that crap. Sure, he’s got more international experience. But if you think Luongo has none, let’s have a read of his Wikipedia entry:
Internationally, Luongo has competed for Team Canada in numerous tournaments. As a junior, he won a silver medal at the 1999 World Junior Championships, while being named Best Goaltender in his second tournament appearance. In four World Championships, Luongo has won two gold medals in 2003 and 2004 and a silver in 2005. He also won the 2004 World Cup championship and appeared in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin as a backup to Martin Brodeur in both instances.
Still think that you want to go with the guy with the most Olympic experience as the starting goaltender? Okay, fine. But what happens next time? Right now Luongo has three games of Olympic experience, and in 2014, he’s going to be the one with the most Olympic ice time. Or do you want to hang it all on Marc-Andre Fleury, who might have a Stanley Cup, but no experience in a tournament the scale of the Olympics.
Maybe Luongo will get another start, and maybe he won’t. In the end it doesn’t really matter as long as Canada wins the gold medal. But unless he has a complete meltdown, it wouldn’t be fair to blame a Canadian loss on Brodeur. To be honest, the whole team has been pretty underwhelming so far. They played like a bunch of prima donnas to start the tournament, before waking up. They refused to lean from the 2006 Olympics and could very well have lost to the Swiss again.
Tonight’s game could very well determine how Canada does in this tournament. A win, and I feel that they’ll make it to the gold medal game. Lose, though, and I have a feeling that we might have another repeat of 2006.
Go Canada Go.