Is anyone looking forward to this? It is a yearly tradition in my house to watch the tournament regardless of when the games are played.
I have only seen Canada and Finland play (exhibition) and Finland did not look good. Did anyone see the US beat the university of North Dakota? What kind of game was it?
I will post more as I see games.
Canada 6, Finland 0
Canada dominated what appeared to be an incapable Finnish team. Canada’s duo of Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby seemed to control the game whenever they were on the ice, with commentators Pierre MacGuire and Gord Miller oohing and ahhing everytime Crosby adjusted his pants. It was pathetic. The tournament hasn’t started yet and I am already sick of the hype around this kid. Don’t believe me? Let’s break down the goals scored by the duo:
Goal 1 - PP:
Bergeron receives a pass down low and on his off wing. He steps up above the goal line, taking advantage of the seam created by the initial pass. The defense must now deal with an NHL player having a look at the goal from 20 feet out and room to move. The finnish winger collapses to force Bergeron, who is waiting for Crosby to appear on the backdoor. The defender in front of the net, who is supposed to deal with Crosby, is stuck between letting Bergeron walk in in order to cover Crosby or moving towards him; he hesitates and does neither. Bergeron hits Crosby for an easy goal. MacGuire breaks the play down and tries to explain how great Crosby was, even though he was the beneficiary of some nice play by Beregron and the canadian defenseman who set the play in motion.
Goal 2:
Canada is on a rush with Crosby breaking down the left wing. The finnish defenders have the angle on him so he can not drive the net and he elects to continue behind the net. He comes out on the other side and passes to Bergeron, who beat the finnish backchecker to the slot. The puck is wobbling but Bergeron keeps control and has his head up to see the finnish goalie falling into a pad stack. Bergeron deftly goes to his forehand (harder than it looks with a wobbling puck) and slides the puck in. Now Crosby did do some work on the rush and found the trailing Bergeron, but it was Bergeron again who made this play happen. Unfortunately MacGuire did not agree with me and went off ranting how great Crosby is.
Goal 3:
Here, finally, Crosby was able to demonstrate some of his ability. He is in the right corner, up the boards, trying to do something, makes a shot/pass and the puck ricochets to the high slot. Crosby takes off after it (I don’t think people mention his skating enough, this kid can go), picks up the puck and swings down the left side. Throwing the puck to the front of the net, Bergeron redirects it at the goal and scores on the rebound as, again, the finnish defenders looked like they something better to do yesterday evening.
I did not get a chance to see the canadian goalie as Finland could only muster 10 shots 
I can’t wait for this to get going. And if Canada doesn’t break this gold medal drought this year, all I can say is .
Hopefully, the American ice will help us end this drought, just like it did a couple of years back.
True enough.
I got a chance to look over the russian roster and they look pretty scary.
The US has 10 returning players so they will be tough. The loss of Parise may prove insurmountable though.
Canada has 12 returning players but none of them are goalies and, like I said, I haven’t had a chance to see any of them so I can’t comment.