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Canandaigua, NY • United States • 29 Years Old • Male
Reminiscent of Salt Lake City in 2002, the final event of the winter games came down to the US and Canada. In the end, Canada won. I just heard on TV that this win may be considered the best moment in Canadian sports history. I strongly disagree. This Canadian team may have been very good, but not the best in these Olympic games.

On paper, Canada had the best team. They were a team full of all-stars. The Canadians only weakness was possibly on defense. I emphasize the word possibly. Again, the Canadians were one of the best teams coming into Vancouver. Ever poll, every prediction, had the Canadians winning the gold.

No one gave the United States a chance in these games. A very young team, with only 3 returning Olympians from Torino. USA was to go down quickly, and not even medal.

Well, tear up the paper. This is based on what happened in Vancouver. First, I look at Canada. Canada plowed over Norway. No one can be too surprised by that. However, the Swiss forcing Canada to a shootout was not supposed to happen. Crosby saved it for Canada, barely. The Swiss should not have been able to get this close to the Canadians. Following this, came the US. I don't need to repeat that Canada showed their weaknesses, and lost 5-3.

Switch over the US. USA played a hard fought match against Switzerland and pulled off a tough win, 3-1. This went unnoticed. Following that game came Norway. USA dominated the game and won 6-1. Again, quietly pushed into the background as Canada struggled against the Swiss. Then the US upset the Canadians to take the top seed in their pool. No one saw this coming, but there it was. 5-3 on the scoreboard in front of a shocked Canadian crowd.

Move into the single-elimination round of the tournament and back to Canada. First up, Germany. Amazingly, they won. Yes, this is sarcasm. However, Canada let Germany linger for quite awhile prior to finishing the job, 8-2. Following came the semifinal, Canada vs Russia. Canada surprisingly dominated the Russians. However, if Russia's goalies had showed up, it would have been a different night. Following this came Slovakia to get to the gold medal game. Canada should breeze past the Slovakians. However, after building up a 3-0 lead, it almost evaporated in the last ten minutes on Friday, while Canada barely hung on to a 3-2 lead. If it hadn't been for the desperation play by Canada's defense to deflect Pavel Demitra's shot in the dying seconds of the third period, it's a 3-3 game. Not exactly the overpowering Canadian team we expected.

The US had a tough battle against Switzerland for a second time. The Swiss had a great team, and deserves an honorable mention for these Olympic games. The US hung on with a 2-0 win. Then came Finland. This was definitely too be a tough battle. Finland had one of the strongest offensive teams in the tournament. However, USA had a strong period first period, netting 6. They sat back, and played defensively for the last two periods, knowing of the upcoming gold medal game; a rematch with Canada.

To this point, US had won all of their games without much question. They were all regulation wins, by two goals or more in each game. Canada had struggled, and even lost in regulation to to the uS. They needed a shootout to beat the Swiss, and nearly let Slovakia overcome a 3 goal deficit in the final 10 minutes of the game. Hardly the overpowering team. Canada didn't necessarily get into the gold medal game on skill, but limping in, barely holding on to two of their wins.

Tonight's game was nothing short of classic. Canada jumped to a 2-0 lead. This wasn't because of skill, but because of two tiny mistakes made by the US. Luongo, showed no confidence in net and seemed uneasy for the duration of the game. For the last 15 minutes of the game, with a one goal lead. Canada sat on their heals, and let the US try to fight to get the tying goal. USA tied the game with 24 seconds left in regulation, just to be able to force an overtime. Canada was supposed to overpower the United States, and here they were, letting the US team hang around, and force overtime.

After a lucky bounce to Crosby, and a quick shot that no one could have stopped, the Canadians won. However, I stand by the fact that the Canadians did not play like gold medal winners, and were very lucky to be in the gold medal game. The United States were the dominate team in the Olympics. They played the best hockey out of all the teams in the tournament.

Both teams played their hearts out in the Olympics. Canada was not the most consistent or the best of these Olympic games, despite the fact that they have the gold. The US was the best team of the games of the 21st Olympic Winter Games. Canada can be mentioned in contention with this, but comes up short. No other team is worth mentioning, because the games were so closely played. Canada may have won the gold, but the United States definitely deserved it more.
Filed Under:   2010 Olympics   Canada   USA  
February 28, 2010 8:18 PM ET | Delete
..... what teams defense is better than canada's was in this tournament ....
February 28, 2010 8:25 PM ET | Delete
Canada played great during the elimination round when it counted the most. They thrashed Russia. They beat the US is a great and evenly matched game. I had my red white and blue on all day and the USA played great and earned their silver medals. Go USA and Congrats to Canada.
February 28, 2010 8:28 PM ET | Delete
Why are the Swiss only a good team when they play the U.S. and not so good when they play the Canadians? Interesting.
February 28, 2010 8:49 PM ET | Delete
The Swiss are a good team period, no matter who they play. Given Canada's hype, they should have kicked the living daylights out of them. Canada still struggled in the elimination round against Slovakia and the US... They only thrashed Russia and Germany. Canada had a good team, I just don't feel they deserved it overall.
February 28, 2010 8:50 PM ET | Delete
Canada had the best roster. US turned out to have the best team IMO. Canada has the bragging rights with the gold, but in the end their all star squad was a team that couldn't hold a lead, had to revert to a trap, and won on a gimmicky 4 on 4 OT format. It's tough to see the US come up short. They deserved better.
February 28, 2010 9:18 PM ET | Delete
It sounds like we have a jaded fan over here. The US lost, accept it, move on. You guys played a great game, you guys played your hearts out and gave us a run for our money, but in the end you lost. Your bias is amazingly evident in your "article" (more like rant) so please don't try and justify it. The bottom line is, the team that wins gold is the best in the olympics, and Canada won.
February 28, 2010 9:27 PM ET | Delete
It does not matter who played the best across the tournament, it matters who won the game. Be proud that your team won the silver, and move on from it.
February 28, 2010 10:01 PM ET | Delete
buddy...you don't know what you're talking about. The US only beat Canada because of a poor effort from Brodeur. You keep saying Canada underachieved in most of their games, and saying the US was amazing. I personally think Slovakia and Finland were stronger teams than the states, the only difference was Miller. Canada actually had to battle for their wins, and look at what happened. All that matters is who won the big game, now stop talking down to the olympic gold medallists.
February 28, 2010 10:30 PM ET | Delete
1st game Miller beat Team Canada (or Brodeur and the unfamiliarity with his defense lost the game)2nd game Team Canada beat Team USA
February 28, 2010 10:41 PM ET | Delete
i like how everybody keeps saying we and us...none of u were out there...none of u helped in any way shape or form...
February 28, 2010 10:41 PM ET | Delete
Brutal blog. Your team just over achieved and instead of talking about that you are slagging everybody else saying how good you are? Unreal. Have a little humility for once.
February 28, 2010 10:52 PM ET | Delete
February 28, 2010 11:04 PM ET | Delete
February 28, 2010 11:28 PM ET | Delete
February 28, 2010 11:43 PM ET | Delete
this has sore loser written all over it.
March 1, 2010 12:00 AM ET | Delete
Nobody cares.
March 1, 2010 12:06 AM ET | Delete
brutal.
March 1, 2010 12:10 AM ET | Delete
I agree that the US team probably played the best team game of the Olympics but the comment on Canada's defense being a weak spot is questionable. Eric Johnson is probably the only US defenseman that would have been good enough to crack Team Canada's defense corp when picking a team. Although Rafalski had an incredible Olympics, he wouldn't have made the Canadian team based on his performance prior to the Games.
March 1, 2010 12:25 AM ET | Delete
March 1, 2010 1:00 AM ET | Delete
Dude, get over it. It really doesn't matter how the US played over the course of the tournament. Both teams played within olympic regulation to a gold medal showdown, and Canada won. You can whine about how "the US SHOULD have won because they...they never trailed at the Olympics!" But everybody knows this is just sour grapes on your part. Canada went undefeated at the juniors and lost to the US, but nobody up here was bitching about how our boys "should" have won. Grow up.
March 1, 2010 1:09 AM ET | Delete
March 1, 2010 1:10 AM ET | Delete
March 1, 2010 1:11 AM ET | Delete
March 1, 2010 2:29 AM ET | Delete
You can suck my unwashed ballsack. Where was your blog about how the best team didn't win the World Juniors? Get over it. You lost. Go to bed and start dreaming about 2014 and Shaun White's womanly features. Canada won and dominated the game outside of 15 minutes in the 3rd and Luongo made numerous game saving saves. Time to face facts and quit tickling your scrotum to woulda-coulda-shoulda's.
March 1, 2010 8:44 AM ET | Delete
Sorry, the only game that Canada lost was a game that Miller absolutely stole from them. You had the best goalie and that's about it. Canada had four lines that could score and check based on necessity. We had the best team on paper and on the ice. Gold is where it belongs. Stop crying about it. Rematch in 2014 if NHLers are back, remember, the USA wasn't the only young team out there yesterday...
March 1, 2010 9:00 AM ET | Delete
Wow. There are rare occasions in sports when the best team lost argument is valid. This is not one of those rare occasions. How does bashing Canada make losing to them seem any better? I'd trash this one kid. Not your best performance.
March 1, 2010 10:44 AM ET | Delete
dude...couldn't get beyond the title of the blog...we'll call it "a kipper-moment" and leave it at that
March 1, 2010 11:59 AM ET | Delete
Like most of us always say . its not how you play the game . its the final score!! What up B0s !!!
March 1, 2010 12:21 PM ET | Delete
March 1, 2010 12:30 PM ET | Delete
a big howdy, c-bin...hangin'...reading...loved the olympics...thought that canada deserved the win, thought the u.s. played great...hats off to both teams
March 1, 2010 12:35 PM ET | Delete
I would expect no less from all the people up north with all these trashy comments. Instead of understanding the basis of his BLOG, people continue to trash the writer.Canada HAD to win. Nothing less then GOLD would be a failure. They did but they were scared. There were the host team. US won all the teams tournment respect.
March 1, 2010 1:27 PM ET | Delete
Whatever phi1671. I have all the respect in the world for the U.S. team. It's a lot of the contributors here, from both sides that don't deserve any respect. That game could have gone either way, and if not for great goaltending at both ends, either team could have won by a wide margin. Both sides are showing how childish they are with this nation bashing.
March 1, 2010 1:55 PM ET | Delete
Thank you for proving my point scubasteve and you are correct the nation bashing is childish in itself. we all forget this is a BLOG forum. Also keep in mind that you were not one of the ones that clearly acted in a childish way.
March 1, 2010 2:16 PM ET | Delete
If the US was deserving of winning the gold, they wouldve won the gold. Whats the point of playing lights out all tournament, if youre going to lose the most important game of the tourney? Who are you, the New England Patriots?
March 1, 2010 2:19 PM ET | Delete
March 1, 2010 8:34 PM ET | Delete
March 1, 2010 9:11 PM ET | Delete
This blog could be summed up like this,"America fucked lots of hot broads this tourny, but got AID's from the last one"
March 2, 2010 11:30 AM ET | Delete
Sugar coat it any way you like, the gold medal is around a canadian's neck, the amount of disrespect ryan kesler showed toward canada, his teamate roberto luongo was disgusting, the americans get what they deserve with that attitude, excuses and whining dont make winners heart does, Canada has Heart, America does not.
March 2, 2010 3:35 PM ET | Delete
I'm thinking of Clint Eastwood in the Unforgiven......."Deserves got nothing to do with it"
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