Back to Basics

At the end of the second period, Canada leads the Czech Republic 3-1. Some quick thoughts:

-Martin Brodeur was bowled over in the second frame by Petr Cajanek, who backed into the goalie and fell on his left leg. No penalty was called on the play. Brodeur appeared to be in a good deal of pain for some time afterwards, though he made a spectacular glove save on a Jaromir Jagr one-timer. This bit of adversity fired up the Canadians for the next couple minutes, as Simon Gagne dug hard to clear the zone past two Czechs; Jarome Iginla then followed the puck into the Czech zone and, after a brief hesitation at the top of the faceoff circle, charged in to take out backup goalie Milan Hnilicka. Unfortunately, this earned Iginla the Canucks' first penalty of the game, and Rob Blake gave the referee an easy hooking call just 1:01 later, leading to the Czech goal on a 2-man advantage. Though it's not a bad thing for the Canadians to get geared up like that, they have to have a little more self-control, lest they find themselves in penalty trouble again.

-After a first period that saw Bob Cole and Harry Neale sounding a little more upbeat as Canada scored three, Neale seemed to derive some satisfaction from telling viewers that in the second, the Canadians "dodged a bullet...having been badly outshot, outchanced, and outscored." (Note that being "badly outscored" means having one goal scored against, during a 5-on-3.)

-If you pay attention to players' equipment, you might have noticed that Bryan McCabe and Jaromir Jagr are both sporting new looks in this tournament. McCabe is wearing a visor, which is out of the ordinary for him. Jagr, meanwhile, has switched helmets again; for the start of the Olympics, he was sporting the old-school, Gretzky-style Jofa, but has switched back to his usual Rbk bucket. The latter change was likely spurred by the hit from behind that he received from Jarkko Ruutu of the Finns, when he remembered just how much protection that helmet provides (try on a cardboard box, and you'll have some idea).