Sunday, February 28, 2010

Hockey Overtime Rules aside, USA v. Canada a classic hockey game



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For some reason undoubtedly connected to (our) America's loss to Canada "Hockey Overtime Rules" are being searched for often this Sunday evening. But aside from that and whatever rules questions their may be, USA v. Canada was a classic hockey game.

USA v. Canada ended tragically; Canada won 3 to 2 in overtime and with Sidney Crosby, or "Sid the Kid" as he's called, delivering the puck shot heard 'round the sports World. He somehow got a shot pass Team USA goalie Ryan Miller and into the USA goal for a win that stunned Team USA as much as it sent the Canadian home crowd into a frenzy. This meant a lot to Canada.



Rebecca Bollwitt, who's done a great job covering the Winter Olympics and its impact on Vancouver's culture at her blog Miss604.com, wrote

This was arguably the biggest game in our nation’s history. It wasn’t the Summit Series, but it was the Olympic gold medal game on our home turf, against our continental brothers. The USA played hard, Miller stood on his head to stop us, and they even made us sweat… a lot. You couldn’t have imagined this match up and you couldn’t have fathomed that this game would go into overtime with Crosby scoring the winning goal.

Indeed, it was hard to fathom as for the first half it looked as if Canada was going to run away with the Gold Medal contest with at one point a 2-0 lead. But then Canada lost the lead as Team USA tied the game with 24.4 seconds remaining, according to ESPN.

What happened in overtime is still a nightmare for anyone rooting for the USA. Why Ryan Miller pushed the puck to the right, rather than fired it as far away from the goal as he could is a question still fresh in the mind of this blogger. Because of that, Canada played a good portion of the overtime in USA territory before the score that ended the game.

It would have been nice to see Canada lose to America. Someone has to say it. Cue up Blame Canada and all their "hockey hullabaloo". They were so wanting this Winter Olympics win because, by God, they invented Hockey!

The Hockey Overtime Rules where each team loses a player would not be an issue if Team USA beat Canada. The bottom line is America had its chance and almost pulled out a Herculean win.

It was not to be.

Well, Canada, you've got it. But only for four years.

Congratulations.

1 comment:

  1. Henry6:08 AM

    "It would have been nice to see Canada lose to America". This is why the whole world hates Americans. Had the USA one, Canadians would have been more gracious in their defeat.

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