Whoops.
With two hot goaltenders in David Aebischer and Martin Gerber, and two big wins against Canada and the Czech Republic, Team Switzerland is letting it be known that they're for real. They play a tight, well-disciplined trapping style, with an extremely aggressive penalty kill that gave the Canadians fits. For their part, Team Canada had an absolutely awful game on offence, undoubtedly partly due to the clingy Swiss defenders; but this is a team that has yet to gel, and needs to do it quickly. Canadian passes missed the mark continuously, making the Swiss look better when they corralled the errant pucks and cleared them out of the zone, and any time there was a good scoring chance on Gerber, he came up big. Two disallowed goals - one called back because winger Todd Bertuzzi was in the crease, and a Rick Nash offering denied because of inconclusive evidence that the puck crossed the line - should have taken the wind out of Canada's sails, but they kept coming hard; unfortunately, they did not get any good quality opportunities again. The near-goal by Nash absolutely looked like it was over the line from every available camera angle, but it wasn't certain because the overhead goal camera in that rink is positioned over the crease, not the crossbar (the one intelligent statement that colour commentator Greg Millen offered up all game).
Team Canada's next job will be to prepare for the Finns, whom they play tomorrow, and a much better effort will be expected; after all, in the past, nothing has brought the Canadians together like a little adversity. And this should be enough adversity for everybody.
A few other observations on the Olympics thus far:
-The hockey refereeing has been awful, with no exceptions. Both the women's and men's tournaments have been marred at times by terrible calls, either from overzealous officials looking for penalties where there are none, or from negligent refs who seem like they'd rather be someplace else.
-I had almost forgotten how negative CBC commentators Bob Cole and Harry Neale can be when they expect great things from a team; during the Canada/Germany game, they were so down on the Canadians that it seemed as though they wanted the Germans to pull off an upset. Even when the score was 4-1 for Canada, the pair spoke like it was only a matter of time before Team Germany scored four quick goals to win it. Hopefully that doesn't keep up, because few things are more irritating.
-Stemming from Cole and Neale's turn as Negative Nancies, the lone goal in the Germany game was blamed entirely on the shoulders of Bryan McCabe - an accusation that just was not true. Just like their work on Hockey Night in Canada, there are times during games where it seems like the two are watching an entirely different match. This was one of those times. So let's use some diagrams!
In the second period, with two Canadians in the box, and one German serving his own penalty, Germany enjoys a 4-on-3 powerplay, moving the puck around the Canada zone. Cole says that it is a 5-on-3.
McCabe's holding penalty expires at 8:59 of the frame, evening the squads up at 4 skaters apiece. Two defencemen are already on the ice for his squad, so he assumes the role of the winger in the four-man grouping, taking the far defenceman on the side boards. Sakic inches closer to the German puck carrier below the goal line, flattening out the defensive triangle. Cole believes the Germans still have the man advantage.
As Sakic cheats lower, the German forward passes to his defenceman (Sakic's man), now in the high slot, who scores far side on Luongo. McCabe's man is well-covered.
Am I sticking up for McCabe because he's a Maple Leaf? Maybe. But there have been too many posts on various sports websites by people who don't know what they're talking about, saying that McCabe doesn't deserve to be a part of this team, and that's just not true. I'm not desperately trying to shift blame, either; Sakic is such a great player that he's allowed to make one mistake, and it didn't exactly cost them the game. The anti-McCabe bandwagon, however, has filled up even faster since the start of the NHL season than the pro-McCabe one, and to hear Neale and Cole hop on board the former irritated me greatly.
-Unfortunately, I will not be able to fulfill Justin's request that I liveblog the hockey games during this tournament. Not only would that require a lot of running (the television and the computer are in two different rooms), but I will be out of town for the semi-finals and the Gold and Bronze medal games. Sorry, Pippy.
-Finally, the three sports commentators I could definitely live without:
3. Greg Millen: Talk, talk, talk, and he doesn't say anything. It's like he's watching a different game.
2. Pierre McGuire: Can this guy get any more excited about absolutely nothing? It's MCGUIRE TO THE MAX! It's MCGUIRE'S MONSTER! It's SOME PRETENTIOUS MORON WHO NO ONE TAKES SERIOUSLY, THINKING THAT BEING LOUDER WILL MAKE HIM CREDIBLE! An actual quote from the World Juniors, after a Russian player took a dive: "That is just the personification of embellishment." (Five second pause) "That is just embellishment personified."
1. Brian Williams: Please, yap some more about how Wayne Gretzky shouldn't be at the Olympics. And when you're on with Don Cherry, roll your eyes constantly; it makes you seem clever. Hopefully for the closing ceremonies, this idiot shuts up and lets Peter Mansbridge do the whole thing...at least Peter can pronounce the countries' names. Who knew Ku-ZAK-uh-stan had a hockey team?
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