Team USA upsets Team Canada

February 22, 2010 by site_admin

To the surprise of most hockey fans, Team USA, lead by Ryan Miller and Brian Rafalski, defeated Team Canada 5-3 yesterday in the preliminary round of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The heavily favored Canadian team never led in the game. Both teams will move on to the single elimination round with team USA earning a bye with the big win. It was the first time since 1960 that USA has defeated Canada in an Olympic hockey game. Today, the sports world can't stop talking about hockey (finally).Even the national media outlets are getting in on the excitement.

It should really come as no huge surprise that USA was able to defeat Canada in this game. First off, both of these teams are essentially NHL teams. Although Canada fields a team with more All Stars, just as in the NHL, any of the top teams should be able to beat another on a given day in the Olympics. Next, the Americans had Miller standing on his head in net, whereas Martin Brodeur had a bit of an off night in goal for the Canadians. With the top teams all fielding elite goaltenders, it will only take a stellar performance by one of these men to lead their team to victory. Last, but not least, it was only the medal round and Canada did not need a win to advance. Canada will no doubt bring their A-game to the single elimination round.

Many fans are saying that the Americans might have woken a sleeping giant in Canada, who went to a shootout with Switzerland in their prevoius game. This could be true, but remember that this team's best player is Sidney Crosby, who is on this way to greatness, but is no Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky. Also, with such a deep pool of talent on a number of teams, this is anyone's tournament. Perhaps Alexander Ovechkin and the Russians will take gold, or maybe the defending gold medal winning Swedes. Maybe the Finns or Czechs can get on a run to the title game. Or perhaps this is the year that the Americans strike gold and Ryan Miller becomes a bona fide star. Hopefully, he can come back to Buffalo and do the same for the Sabres.