Through the first week of these Olympics, Team Canada has failed to fully gel into a cohesive unit. Team USA, on the other hand, looks like a team that has been playing together for far longer than seven days.
From the opening puck drop, the Americans came out flying, getting the puck into the Canadian zone and maintaining possession long enough for Brian Rafalski to get off a blast from the point that ticked off of Sidney Crosby’s stick and snuck past Brodeur to give the US an early 1-0 lead. Eric Staal tipped in a shot from the point a few minutes later, but the Americans were quick to answer. Off the next faceoff, Martin Brodeur came way out of his net to knock a US dump in out to the blueline, but was unable to clear it, and his teammate Rafalski snuck a low wrister past Brodeur as he scrambled to get back in net.
The Canadians tied it again in the 2nd, as Dany Heatley snuck behind the US defense and banged home a loose puck. The US would take the lead again, however, as Brodeur again got caught out of his net trying to play the puck, and left a gaping cage for veteran Chris Drury to bury the puck that squirted out of a scrum in the slot. The Canadians didn’t help themselves at the start of the 3rd, either, taking back to back penalties, the latter of which resulted in a goal from another of Brodeur’s teammates, Jamie Langenbrunner, who tipped in a point shot from Rafalski. Canada woke up after going down 2 goals, and dominated the remainder of the period, outshooting the US 14-4 in the final frame, but were unable to solve Ryan Miller. Only Crosby managed to tip in a pass from Rick Nash, setting up a furious finish to the game.
NBC announcer Mike Emrick was unable to catch his breath for most of the last 3 minutes, as the Canadians fired shot after shot at the US net, but when Brodeur was finally pulled, Ryan Kesler iced the game with an incredible effort, chasing down Corey Perry and diving to knock a loose puck into the empty net with under 30 seconds to play.
The win gave the US the number one seed in the tournament, setting them up with an easy road to the semis, as they will face the winner of Switzerland and Belarus. The big story from this game was the play of Ryan Miller, who finished the game with 42 saves, but an even bigger story that has developed in the past 24 hours is the removal of Martin Brodeur as Canada’’s starting goalie. Not taking anything away from the incredible career that Brodeur has had, but he made only 18 saves against the US, and he overplayed the puck to the extent that it actually ended up costing him and his team the game. Roberto Luongo will get the start for the Canadians in their play-in matchup with Germany, and, if the Canadian coaching staff is of the same mindset as most of the sports writers, he’ll be the starter the rest of the way. Assuming the Canadians beat the offensively challenged Germans tomorrow, the hockey world will get its wish and see the Canada take on the Russians, perhaps the only team that boasts the same kind of starpower as the Canucks.