Kukla's Korner Hockey
Entries with the tag: Team+USA
Team USA Starters
by Paul on 12/12/11 at 04:30 PM ET
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from Jeremy Roenick at NHL.com,
Instead of looking back on the former greats, this blog is about looking at the greats we have right now. If I were starting an American hockey team today, this is what my starting six would look like:
Center: Ryan Kesler
He is so good. He’s the whole package. When you look at a defensive-style forward that can do it all, Kesler is your guy. He’s physical. He’s extremely fast. He’s got good hands around the net. He kills penalties. And, he’s good on the power play. Kesler is the all-around package you need to have a good up-front guy.
Right wing: Patrick Kane
Kane is kind of like your quarterback. He possesses so much raw talent, and he makes stickhandling, passing and the puck control game look so easy. He’s also an extremely smart player. He’s a great reader of the play, a true anticipator. He knows where everybody on the ice is and then he makes intelligent plays with the puck.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Team+USA,
Team USA Announces Coaching Staff
by Paul on 10/11/11 at 11:42 AM ET
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -USA Hockey today announced its staff for the 2011 U.S. Men’s National Select Team that will compete at the Deutschland Cup, Nov. 11-13, in Munich, Germany.
Jim Johannson, USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations, will serve as general manager of the team, while Don Waddell, whose distinguished 25-year professional career has included stints as a head coach in both the National Hockey League and International Hockey League, has been named the head coach of Team USA.
Chris Chelios, advisor to hockey operations of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, and Bill Guerin, player development coach of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, join Waddell as assistant coaches.
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Tags: Team+USA,
Morning Line
by Paul on 01/03/11 at 10:22 AM ET
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I’m writing this ten hours before puckdrop for the Canada/USA semi-final - should be an amazing night, right? I can buy a $95 ticket online for face value on the Buffalo World Juniors website. Why is this? People have dropped $400-$500 in recent years at Canadian venues to scalpers or ticket brokers to get into such an affair, whether it’s the gold medal game or the semi-finals. Are prices too high? Is the border-crossing that much of a hassle? People cross the Peace Bridge from Ontario to go to Target or Dick’s Sporting Goods. Or 41 Sabres games! You can’t tell me they won’t do it for an affordably-priced piece of hockey history.
-Greg Brady of Fan590. More from Greg on the WJC.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, WJC,
Can Team USA Win Two In A Row?
by Paul on 01/03/11 at 09:18 AM ET
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from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,
From a historical point of view, Canada has a big advantage going into this latest clash with the best of American hockey.
The United States, you see, has never been able to do it twice. At least not twice in a row.
Look it up. There was the big men’s Olympic upset in 1960 at Squaw Valley, but it took another five Winter Games for the Americans to take the gold again in Lake Placid.
Their women won the inaugural ’98 Olympic event, but couldn’t follow that up in 2002, 2006 or 2010.
And their national junior team? It won this world tournament for the first time in 2004 in Finland, but couldn’t repeat the next year on home ice in North Dakota as the province of Manitoba infiltrated Grand Forks.
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Tags: Team+USA,
Advantage Team USA
by Paul on 01/02/11 at 09:45 PM ET
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from Bob McKenzie of TSN,
With Team Canada set to play the U.S. in the WJHC semi-final on Monday, Bob McKenzie offers some thoughts on who has the edge in goal and why the American power play has the potential to be lethal.
Between The Pipes
From what we’ve seen so far, the U.S. absolutely has a sizeable advantage in the goaltending department, no question about it.
Team Canada’s goaltending has not been stellar, it has not been great. In fact, they’ve given up at least one bad goal in each of the games that they’ve played.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, WJC,
Team Canada & Team USA Will Meet In WJC Semi-Finals
by Paul on 01/02/11 at 05:59 PM ET
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BUFFALO, NY (January 2, 2011)Tea—- With their 4-1 quarterfinal win over Switzerland today, Canada has advanced to the semifinal round of the 2011 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. They will now face the defending champion United States team tomorrow night at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, NY. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are available for $140 (lower bowl) and $95 (upper bowl). Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.buffaloworldjuniors.com, by calling 1-888-467-2273, or at the HSBC Arena Box Office.
The winner of tomorrow’s USA/Canada game will play for the gold medal on Wednesday night at HSBC Arena. Only single seats remain for the gold-medal game. Finland and Russia play in tonight’s second quarterfinal beginning at 7:30 p.m. The winner moves on to play Sweden at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon in the first semifinal game. Tickets are still available for this game.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA,
Watching Team USA In The WJC
by Paul on 12/21/10 at 12:05 PM ET
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from USAHockey,
NHL Network U.S. will provide exclusive live coverage of all U.S. National Junior Team games at the 2011 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26 – Jan. 5, in Buffalo, N.Y. NHL Network U.S. will also televise all medal-round games and five additional preliminary-round match-ups, airing a total of 15 games in high definition from the tournament. All U.S. games will be NHL Network original broadcasts. In addition, NHL Network will provide nightly recaps on its signature show “NHL On the Fly.”
Gary Thorne, Dave Starman, Fred Pletsch and Billy Jaffe will make up the broadcast team for the NHL Network’s coverage of Team USA games.
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Tags: Team+USA,
The Building Blocks Of USA Hockey
by Paul on 12/16/10 at 07:47 PM ET
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from Andrew Podnieks of Slap Shot,
It takes several seconds to say United States national team development program, but you can also say U.S.N.T.D.P. or even just N.T.D.P., which is still a bit of a tongue-twister. But the long and the short of it is that this program, operating in the shadows of Michigan Stadium which just last week attracted a world-record crowd to a hockey game, is the main reason why the United States is favored to win gold at the upcoming world under-20 (junior) championship in Buffalo and Lewiston, N.Y. Check that — not just favored to win a gold medal, but to repeat as gold medalists.
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Tags: Team+USA,
Hey, We Are #13
by Paul on 05/18/10 at 10:41 AM ET
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from Alan Adams at CBC,
Daniel Bellissimo was never drafted by an NHL team. But the Toronto-born goalie who plays for Italy showed how he could handle NHL shooters on Tuesday, at least those from the United States.
Bellissimo held Italy in the game for as long as he could but he slumped over in his crease with fatigue and disappointment when TJ Oshie scored in a sudden-death shootout to give the United States a 3-2 win.
It was last relegation round game for both teams and the odds of the United States being demoted to the world B pool were not good. The Americans had to lose by eight goals to be pushed out of international hockey’s elite division.
As things turned out, the U.S. finished first in the relegation round standings and wound up in 13th place in the 16-team tournament. France was second for 14th place, while Italy and Kazakhstan are headed back to the B pool.
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Tags: Team+USA,
Jack Johnson Named Team USA Captain
by Paul on 05/05/10 at 04:49 PM ET
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Jack Johnson (Ann Arbor, Mich./Los Angeles Kings/Univ. of Michigan) was today named captain of the 2010 U.S. Men’s National Team that will play in the upcoming International Ice Hockey Federation World Men’s Championship, May 7-23, in Cologne, Gelsenkirchen and Mannheim, Germany….
In addition, four alternate captains were named, including Nick Foligno (Buffalo, N.Y./Ottawa Senators), Matt Greene (Grand Ledge, Mich./Los Angeles Kings/Univ. of North Dakota), Eric Nystrom (Syosset, N.Y./Calgary Flames/Univ. of Michigan) and Kyle Okposo (St. Paul, Minn./New York Islanders/Univ. of Minnesota).
more at USA Hockey…
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Tags: Jack+Johnson, Team+USA,
Lucky Puck Holders
by Paul on 04/16/10 at 10:02 AM ET
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from Allan Maki of the Globe and Mail,
When hockey scout Paul Henry returned to his Ontario home the other day, he found a package waiting for him containing a puck with the number 139 written on it.
The puck came from Buffalo Sabres’ goalie Ryan Miller, who sent 139 of them to friends and associates across North America with an explanatory letter.
“Being a member of the 2010 U.S. Olympic hockey team was a dream come true,” Miller wrote. “The Olympics was everything I thought it would be and more … As a gesture of my appreciation for helping me make my Olympic dream come true I have endorsed a special Olympic hockey puck.”
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Tags: Ryan+Miller, Team+USA,
Report- Burke Will Continue His GM Job For Team USA
by Paul on 04/11/10 at 04:00 PM ET
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from Scott Burnside of ESPN,
Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke will reprise his role from the Vancouver Olympics as team GM for the United States at this spring’s World Championships, a source connected to USA Hockey said.
The U.S. management team and coaching staff for the World Championships, to be held in Germany in May, is expected to be named later this week, with Burke as GM and New York Islanders coach Scott Gordon as coach, the source said.
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Tags: Brian+Burke, Team+USA,
Bids Taken On Team USA Sweater, Right Off The Player’s Back
by Paul on 03/17/10 at 08:44 PM ET
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from NHL Auctions,
USA Hockey and the MeiGray Group, “The Official Game-Worn Source of USA Hockey” have teamed so that fans across the globe for the first time ever can acquire authenticated, game-worn jerseys and other game-used and autographed items from the Men’s and Women’s U.S. Olympic Teams, Men’s and Women’s U.S. World Championship Teams, U.S. teams that have competed in the World Junior Championship, and much, much more.
Proceeds will benefit the USA Hockey Foundation.
read more and place your bids on items like Ryan Miller’s sweater going for $5000.
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Tags: Team+USA,
Inside Hockey With Brian Burke
by Paul on 03/06/10 at 09:24 PM ET
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Elliotte Friedman of HNIC interviews Brian Burke and discusses both Team USA and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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Tags: Brian+Burke, Team+USA,
Listen To Mike Babcock And Ryan Miller
by Paul on 03/04/10 at 02:31 PM ET
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NEW YORK (March 4, 2010) – Mike Babcock, head coach of the Detroit Red Wings and Team Canada, and Ryan Miller goaltender for the Buffalo Sabres and Team USA, are today’s guests on NHL Hour With Commissioner Gary Bettman on NHL.com and SIRIUS XM Radio at 6 p.m. ET.
Mike Babcock’s international coaching career has been golden. On Sunday, as head coach of Canada’s Men’s Olympic hockey team, Babcock completed hockey’s grand slam by adding yet another accomplishment to his already impressive resume. With Canada’s 3-2 overtime victory against Team USA in Vancouver, Babcock became the only coach in hockey history to guide teams to supremacy in four of the most prestigious tournaments in the game: the World Junior Championship, the World Championship, the Olympic Games and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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Tags: Mike+Babcock, Ryan+Miller, Team+Canada, Team+USA,
Afternoon Line
by Paul on 03/02/10 at 12:49 PM ET
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“The biggest surprise to me is how everybody threw Marty Brodeur, the greatest goalie in the history of the game, under the bus and backed over him, and forward, backward, forward, backward. It’s the greatest goalie that’s ever played and it almost tarnished his career on one night. He didn’t have a good night, but part of that had to do with how well we pressured them.”
-Team USA Coach Ron Wilson. More Olympics talk from James Mirtle at the Globe and Mail.
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Tags: Martin+Brodeur, Ron+Wilson, Team+Canada, Team+USA,
Hockey’s Great Day
by Paul on 03/01/10 at 08:28 PM ET
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from NHL.com,
“It was a great day for hockey,” blared the headline across the top of Monday morning’s Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune, and we couldn’t agree more.
The passion so evident in the players and fans at Canada Hockey Place spilled onto the front pages of newspapers across the continent Monday.
“Has your heart stopped pounding?” asked Bucky Gleason in the Buffalo News. “The hockey gods were kind enough to bless the gold medal game with overtime, bonus action in a classic matchup between the two superpowers. It merely added more drama, more intensity and more passion to what could go into the books as the most entertaining game in Olympic history. Or hockey history. Where does this one rank? Up there. Way up there.”
“I swear there was an anxious moment Sunday, during one of the greatest hockey games ever played, when hearts in both countries beat as one, at about 125 nervous thumps per minute,” Mark Kiszla wrote in the Denver Post.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Burke Proud Of Team USA Players And Coaches
by Paul on 03/01/10 at 07:45 AM ET
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“Losing a hockey game is like getting kicked in the groin.” - Brian Burke
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Tags: Team+USA,
We Will Remember This Game
by Paul on 03/01/10 at 12:59 AM ET
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Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun discuss the gold medal game and you can read Scott’s report here.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Canada Wins Gold
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 05:55 PM ET
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3-2 in overtime with Sidney Crosby getting the game winner.
Great performance by both teams!!!
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Can’t Get Any Better Than This - OT In Gold Medal Game
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 05:29 PM ET
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Twenty minutes of 4 on 4 hockey or until someone scores. If not, shootout.
added 5:33pm, Your pick for the OT winner?
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Open Post- Team USA Against Team Canada For The Gold
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 02:00 PM ET
Comments (4)
This is the game many of us hoped for and now it is about to begin.
What a way to close out the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The majority of Canada will be watching and I believe many in the US will be watching too.
Team USA will try to take the home crowd out of the game early, while Team Canada will attempt to build on the momentum the fans are providing.
This should be fun folks, sit back and enjoy.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
They Meet Again
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 01:13 PM ET
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from Brendan Shanahan at NHL.com,
I remember the buzz in Salt Lake leading up to what we North Americans thought was the perfect gold medal match. I’ll never forget seeing my Red Wings teammate Chris Chelios in the Olympic Village the night before that game. We agreed that neither of our teams would walk away losers and that it was fantastic that one of us would win gold and the other silver. We shook hands and wished each other luck. A split second later as I turned to walk away, I thought, “Screw that, man, I want the gold.” I’m sure Chris [the godfather of USA hockey] was thinking exactly the same thing.
Here we are again: a game between two countries that respect and often root for each other, but are also fierce competitors when facing each other. I can’t recall a game where so many hockey experts from so many different backgrounds have had such a wide range of opinions about who is going to win. The consensus is this: whichever team imposes its strengths on the other and dictates the style of play is the team that will likely win.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Tickets In High Demand For Gold Medal Game
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 12:25 PM ET
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Watching The Mens Hockey Gold Medal Game
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 11:30 AM ET
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via NHL.com,
Here is where you can find the Olympic hockey tournament gold-medal game on Feb. 28.
United States
3-6 pm ET—Men’s gold medal game, NBC
Canada
3:15-5:45 pm ET—Men’s gold medal game, CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, V, RDS, OMNI 1 (presented in Italian), OMNI 2 (presented in Cantonese/Mandarin) and APTN (presented in Aboriginal language)
Don’t forget, NHL Live has a special Sunday show today from 12:00pm ET until 2:00pm on the NHL Network.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
The Biggest Game In Hockey History?
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 10:51 AM ET
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from Michael Russo of the StarTribune,
“You win something like this, you remember everyone you played with,” U.S. center Paul Stastny said. “It doesn’t happen too often where you get to play for a gold medal against your rival on Canadian soil, where the fans are so into it.”
For some reason, this just feels so much bigger than in 2002 when Canada won gold by beating the United States in Salt Lake City.
Maybe it’s because it’s in Canada, where the sport is sewn into the fabric of millions. Maybe it’s the fact that Canadian TV and radio has dissected every facet of these two teams. Maybe it’s because the U.S. beat the Canadians 5-3 on their home ice only seven days earlier and Canadians everywhere prayed for a black-and-blue rematch.
“Hockey is not a sport in Canada. It’s a cult. It’s a religion,” said Burke, who doubles as the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs and used to manage the Vancouver Canucks. “It’s why I love living and working in the NHL in a Canadian city.
“The Canadians view this as their game, and they view this game [Sunday] as planting a flag on a peak.”
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
NHL.com Says…
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 10:44 AM ET
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Shawn P. Roarke, Dan Rosen, John Dellapina & Bob Condor all of NHL.com break down the gold medal game.
I am not surprised two of them say Team USA and the other two say Team Canada.
Read all about it…
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
It Would Be A Win For Team USA And Brian Burke
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 10:01 AM ET
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from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
The coach of the Maple Leafs and Team USA is standing in the press conference room at GM Place, having just finished his last set of interviews before Sunday’s gold-medal game, when he was asked what it would mean to win the hockey gold medal for Brian Burke.
“It would be huge,” Wilson said. “But this is real life, it’s not Field Of Dreams. We can’t win and make some kind of movie and ease his pain. That’s not what any of this is about.
“We didn’t come here to dedicate this to Brian. In fact, it hasn’t really even come up. But everyone who is part of this team knows what Brian has meant to us, and how much he has been a part of everything we’ve accomplished. Brian’s in our minds all the time. But we didn’t come here to win it for him. We came here to win it, period.”
Burke wants none of the focus on himself. In fact, long before the Feb. 5 car crash that killed his son 21-year-old Brendan,
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Tags: Team+USA,
We Know It Isn’t A Miracle
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 09:22 AM ET
Comments (7)
Why is it the writers and columnists who are writing about hockey today need to remind us if the USA wins today, it isn’t a miracle?
Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press (posted earlier) and now Mike Lupica of the NY Daily News chimes in…
They will play a gold-medal hockey game this afternoon in Vancouver, U.S. against Canada, our NHL guys against theirs, and if it’s even close to the game they played last Sunday night, it will be something to remember.
And if the U.S. wins this game, in Canada and against Canada, it will be a real good upset and an even better story.
It’s just no miracle.
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Tags: Team+USA,
GO USA, Then Back To Playoff Talk
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 09:10 AM ET
Comments (2)
from Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press,
Time will come to a halt at 3:15 p.m. today. Those Americans who can apply the entirety of their hockey knowledge on the tip of a pencil will watch, root and celebrate should the U.S. rob Canada of its hockey birthright. I hope it’s a competitive game. It’ll be a big deal should the U.S. win, but it won’t come close to matching the exhilaration of 30 years ago and won’t ignite a spontaneous explosion of national pride.
How can it, with players returning to their respective NHL teams Monday as the league resumes after a two-week Olympic sabbatical? It’ll be largely forgotten in a matter of days, because the Stanley Cup playoff points chase starts in earnest—especially in Detroit.
Let’s hope the Americans shock the Canadians again. And if we’re still talking about it in another week, then perhaps that’s the Miracle.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA,
The Battle Of The Goalies
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 09:06 AM ET
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from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,
This time, with a strange noon local time start, it’s between two talented NHL netminders, American puckstopper Ryan Miller and Canada’s Roberto Luongo, still seeking to define their careers.
Neither has won a Cup or a Vezina. Luongo has a world championship and was part of the 2004 World Cup goaltending tandem that won gold. Miller, a one-time Hobey Baker Trophy winner, has played in three world championships but has yet to medal.
Miller has 20 NHL playoff victories, Luongo 11. They are goalies looking for a date with destiny.
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Tags: Roberto+Luongo, Ryan+Miller, Team+Canada, Team+USA,
Niedermayer May Be The Key
by Paul on 02/28/10 at 09:01 AM ET
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from Bob McKenzie of TSN,
The Americans have done very well with their defence in the Olympic tournament.
Brian Rafalski in particular has been a special player for Team USA. He’s been terrific offensively and defensively, but it has not just been the Rafalski show. The three kids - Ryan Suter and the two Johnsons (Jack and Erik) - have been supporting Rafalski extremely well. Also with the three veterans - Tim Gleason, Brooks Orpik and Ryan Whitney - this defence has been much better than the sum of its parts.
On paper you would think Canada has the defensive edge, but the Americans have been very good.
Looking at the Canadian side of things, the young defencemen have played extremely well. Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty and Shea Weber have been terrific, but for me the x-factor is Scott Niedermayer.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA,
Red, White & Bruise
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 10:02 PM ET
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from Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press,
The timid and the faint-hearted are gone. What we have left are two teams that play North American-style hockey.
They get in your face ... and ribs.
“Absolutely,” said Edina’s Brian Burke, general manager of Team USA. “The two teams that have advanced played black and blue hockey. I like it.”
The Americans and Canadians square off for the Olympic gold medal this afternoon. There will be plenty of physical play on the NHL-sized ice surface in Vancouver.
“Some of the other teams, I don’t want to say they cower, but this style doesn’t suit them well,” said forward Bobby Ryan. “Every inch is going to count.”
“NHL sheet,” said defenseman Tim Gleason. “There’s no place to hide.”
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Will Early Start Help Team USA?
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 08:04 PM ET
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from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail at CTVOlympics,
Drew Doughty plays for an NHL team, the Los Angeles Kings that schedules a lot of Saturday matinees in the second half of the year, so the early start to the gold-medal final - 12:15 PST - isn’t going to effect him.
Still, it is an interesting development, since the U.S. team has played the noon game throughout the tournament, a source of dissatisfaction to them early, but something that may be an advantage today, given that they’ve had a chance to adjust their routines to the unusual start times.
Team captain Jamie Langenbrunner said as much the other day - that any little edge helps. But according to Doughty, “I don’t think it’s going to affect anyone.
read on plus numerous topics in regards to the gold medal game…
Also from Eric, a look at Team Canada as they prepare for the game tomorrow.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA,
Canada Cannot Lose To The USA
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 06:48 PM ET
Comments (12)
from Lucas Aykroyd at IIHF.com,
To lose to Russia in Vancouver would have been very painful, but not incomprehensible.
However, unfairly or not, the Americans are viewed as cocky interlopers. To have them win would be unbearable. Why? The reasons are multifold.
The average Canadian fan feels that Americans don’t really understand hockey. If they did, why, for instance, would FOX TV have experimented with the infamous FoxTrax “glowing puck” between 1996 and 1998 in order to help U.S. viewers more easily spot the little black disc?
It goes further. Many Canadians believe that Americans don’t really appreciate the sport that Canada invented. If they did, why are so many NHL markets in the southern United States struggling to keep their attendance up? This, at a time when Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary regularly sell out home games, while hockey-mad cities like Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Hamilton hunger for NHL franchises. Not to mention the unprecedented popularity that IIHF tournaments – World Juniors, World Championships, and Olympics – are enjoying in the “True North strong and free.”
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
The Gold Medal Belongs In Canada
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 06:36 PM ET
Comments (4)
from Michael Dan Tandt of the Toronto Sun,
Oh say can’t you see, you damn Yankees, that our glowing hearts are pounding with the need to win Olympic hockey gold?
So unhand that medal, you rapacious hockey interlopers. Don’t you know there’s been a script written here, one that has been read to us at every bedtime — never mind ‘round the clock for the last year — that Canada is the master of the hockey universe and the entire success of these Olympic games, nay, our very identity, can only be truly forged by mining hockey gold on home ice?
It all comes down to this. The dream final. One game, one final three-period showdown set for high (Pacific) noon Sunday. An entire nation wrapped in red and white, poised on the edge of its chair, brew in hand, praying for the only gold medal that really matters.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Everyone Cares About This Game
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 09:15 AM ET
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from Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post,
By nature, Canadians are not cocky.
But they are proud.
So when I asked Hull, the sign-toting Canadian hockey fanatic who itches for a second chance on the ice against the Americans, what the word “rematch” meant to his country, the answer was uncharacteristically bold.
“Gold,” he said. “No doubt.”
Here’s what is so very cool about hockey in the Olympics:
It’s the one time when players really care as much about who wins as fans do.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA,
What We’ve Been Waiting For
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 09:05 AM ET
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Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun of ESPN discuss Team USA and Team Canada.
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Us Against Them
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 08:35 AM ET
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from Bill Plaschke of the LA Times,
It’s a nation that considers hockey a birthright versus its giant next-door neighbor that steals birthrights.
It’s quaint jerseys pulled from a tree (maple leaf) versus flashy ones pulled from the sky (stars).
It’s fans who chant thoughts (Go, Canada, Go!) versus fans who shout initials (USA! USA!).
It’s a way of life versus just another cool way to spend an afternoon, dude, the Canadians tight, the Americans acting like a 16th-seeded team on the verge of March Madness.
“Who do you think is going to win the gold medal?” American forward Ryan Kesler asked a group of reporters.
There was silence, and he smiled and said, “That’s what I thought. There’s no pressure on us because nobody thinks we’re going to win. Nobody but us.”
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America Should Know These Guys Now
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 08:30 AM ET
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from Craig Custance of the Sporting News,
Six months ago, USA Hockey invited a large group of American players to its Olympic orientation camp in suburban Chicago. After one of the first practices, the players, wearing assorted USA Hockey shorts and T-shirts, came out of the locker room to meet the media.
The interviews started and the realization set in. Half the media had no idea who anybody was. Jack Johnson was confused with Dustin Brown. And was that Joe Pavelski or Ryan Callahan?
One reporter did an entire interview with a player and half joked that he thought it was Brian Gionta, who wasn’t even at the camp.
So, really, how could we expect this team of next-generation U.S. hockey stars to accomplish much of anything if most Americans had no idea who any of them were?
“I don’t think anybody really gave us a huge chance coming in,” said Erik Johnson, a 21-year-old defenseman. “We kind of relished the underdog role.”
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They Know Each Other
by Paul on 02/27/10 at 08:15 AM ET
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from John Kreiser of NHL.com,
Neither Team USA nor Team Canada will be able to blame a failure to win the gold medal on a lack of familiarity with the opposing team.
All 46 players in Sunday’s championship game play in the National Hockey League—in fact, 10 NHL teams have players on both sides. Team USA’s Ryan Kesler will be trying to beat Canadian goaltender Roberto Luongo—and three days later, he’ll be trying to score goals to help Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks win in Columbus.
American Patrick Kane and Canadian Jonathan Toews sometimes play on the same line together in Chicago. So do Team Canada’s Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry and American Bobby Ryan—and all three often play in front of Canadian captain and defenseman Scott Niedermayer.
Team Canada coach Mike Babcock will be hoping that American defenseman Brian Rafalski’s scoring touch (4 goals) vanishes—but only for a day. The two will be on the same bench Monday night in Denver when the Detroit Red Wings visit the Colorado Avalanche as the NHL’s regular-season schedule resumes.
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Hello, Ryan Miller, Is That You?
by Paul on 02/26/10 at 11:55 PM ET
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from Greg Wyshynski at PuckDaddy,
This just in: Team USA goalie Ryan Miller(notes) has not, repeat, has not guaranteed a gold medal for his team. And MSNBC found that out the hard way tonight.
The network had a phone interview with someone claiming to be the Buffalo Sabres goalie on Friday, and that Fake Miller vowed the USA would win gold.
This is something Ryan Miller would, of course, never do. As he would tell MSNBC’s Willie Geist during an actual interview with the U.S. Olympian later, Miller heard from friends and NHL personnel “asking if I’d become that much different and that cocky because of this.”
Remember the Ryan Kesler empty net goal against Team Canada? Remember the description of the goal by Willie Geist? There is the empty net, there is the puck and there it goes into the goal. Enough said.
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Evening Line
by Paul on 02/26/10 at 07:41 PM ET
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I want to help these kids realize their dream. Since they were born, they’ve all dreamed of 1) winning a Stanley cup and 2) winning a gold medal in the Olympics. If I can help these 23 young men accomplish that, that’ll be a great feeling for all us.
-Team USA Coach Ron Wilson. Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants has quotes from players of both Team Finland and Team USA after today’s game.
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Tags: Ron+Wilson, Team+Finland, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Open Post- Team USA Takes On Team Finland
by Paul on 02/26/10 at 02:15 PM ET
Comments (13)
Game starts just after 3:00pm ET and can be viewed live on NBC, CTV and online at NBCOlympics
Everyone seems to be predicting a low scoring game and the way Miller and Kiprusoff have been playing, I can see why.
It could be one of those games where one minor mistake could be the difference between a win or a loss.
Good luck to both teams and let’s hope the refs let them play.
A quick note and the only one you will receive on this- If you are not a KK member, I suggest you become one by 12:00pm ET on Saturday. You never know, a KK member contest may be making a comeback.
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Tags: Team+Finland, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
Ryan Miller With The Blue-Collar Attitude
by Paul on 02/26/10 at 01:25 PM ET
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from Greg Wyshynski of PuckDaddy,
Miller is blue-collar. He’s workmanlike. He’s all the other words one uses to describe a player whose style of play wins more games than makes highlight reels.
Miller is also reserved. He’s introspective. He’s the last guy who’d ask for the attention that comes with being the best goalie in the Olympic tournament thus far; yet he talks to the media and fans everyday on every issue, ranging from pucks hitting him in the chest (“I’m really weak through the ‘S’,” he joked) to his romantic life.
“Yeah, despite my best attempt to not have that happen,” he said.
But Miller gets it. He understands that, in many ways, the Olympic experience isn’t contained to Vancouver; that he and his team are brining hockey to the casual fan back home.
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Rafalski At The Top Of His Game
by Paul on 02/26/10 at 07:23 AM ET
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from Wayne Coffey of the NY Daily News,
He’s bald and small and the oldest player on his team. He has a crooked smile and the flamboyance of an accountant. Brian Rafalski doesn’t do much of anything to command attention, except trying to do whatever is required to win.
“Whatever they put me out there for that’s what I’ll play,” Rafalski said after practice Thursday….
“It took me 60 games to get four (goals) in the NHL. I don’t know what’s going on,” Rafalski said. His Red Wing teammate, Valteri Filppula, is a Finnish forward.
“He’s a really, really good player,” Filppula said. “Plays well and definitely he looks like a young guy out there.”
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The Difference Is Night & Day
by Paul on 02/26/10 at 06:50 AM ET
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from Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,
The Americans play at noon local time Friday, which will mark the fourth time they will play the lunchtime special at these Olympics.
Obviously, it requires that players prepare differently than for normal NHL games in the evening or even midafternoon tilts.
“You wake up, you eat breakfast and play. It doesn’t give you a lot of time to think about the game, which can be good. You don’t sit around all day. You just get up and play. I don’t mind it at all. I thought I wouldn’t like it at all, but I do,” American forward Zach Parise said.
One of the other differences has been dressing in rooms that have no clock ticking down to the start of the game. In NHL dressing rooms, there are clocks that allow players—especially those who hold to a firm pattern or ritual of pregame readiness—to know exactly how much time they have before having to take the ice.
Those clocks do not exist here, or at least the clocks in the room have been difficult to follow.
Chris Drury joked that there some players who follow the ritual so closely that he doesn’t think they could survive this tournament.
continue for Team USA and Canada notes…
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Cherry Looking Forward To Canada/USA Final
by Paul on 02/25/10 at 06:02 PM ET
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from William Houston of Truth & Rumours,
“I can hardly wait until we get at the U.S.,” he said in an interview. “I can hardly wait.”
Cherry said U.S. players made a mistake when they slagged the Canadians after defeating them 5-3 last Sunday.
Cherry, the Hockey Night In Canada commentator and radio show personality, appeared on the Jim Rome show this week during which U.S. commentators ragged him about Canada’s loss to the Americans.
“They were giving it to us (Canadians) pretty good,” he said. It was, ‘This is your game. How goes it feel? And you’re going to lose again.’ They were kidding, but they weren’t kidding, if you know what I mean.”
“I said we are going to win the gold. This was before the game against Russia. I said, we’re going to meet your guys in the final and we’re going to kick your ass.”
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Burke’s World
by Paul on 02/25/10 at 04:42 PM ET
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from Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated,
There is nothing small in Brian Burke’s world. He does not use small words. He does not say the pressure on Team Canada at the Olympics is intense; he says it is “glacial, unremitting, unrelenting.” He does not say that he prefers his NHL teams—over the last 18 years he has been the G.M. in Hartford, Vancouver, Anaheim and now Toronto—to be tough or even robust; they must have the “proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence.” In macho throwdowns, Burke’s thesaurus is bigger than your thesaurus.
He does not make small trades. While other G.M.‘s tinker, swapping second-round draft choices for third-line rent-a-centers, Burke swings deals that bring 24-year-old franchise defenseman Dion Phaneuf and $7 million goaltender Jean-Sébastien Giguère to the Maple Leafs.
Burke does not have spats. He has epic Shakespearean feuds. In 2007, when Edmonton G.M. Kevin Lowe extended an offer sheet to winger Dustin Penner, a restricted free agent on Burke’s Stanley Cup—champion team in Anaheim, Burke lambasted the move and said, “If I had run my team into the sewer like [Lowe did], I wouldn’t throw a grenade at the other 29 teams.”
And now Burke’s grief matches the enormity of everything else in his life. On snow-slicked U.S. Highway 35 in Indiana, his 21-year-old son, Brendan, student manager of the top-ranked Miami (Ohio) hockey team, died in a car accident on Friday, Feb. 5.
read on (recommended)...
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Womens Hockey Goes For The Gold
by Paul on 02/25/10 at 02:00 PM ET
Comments (2)
from Harry Thompson at USA Hockey,
For the third time in four Olympics, the U.S. and Canada have been on a collision course that will conclude with a gold-medal clash.
The Americans have outscored opponents 40-2, with 12-1, 13-0 and 6-0 wins over China, Russia and Finland in the preliminary round.
Meanwhile, Canada has steamrolled over Slovakia (18-0), Switzerland (10-1) and Sweden (13-1) before blanking Finland, 5-0, in the semifinals.
The Canadians are deep, talented and playing on home ice. The same could be said for the Americans coming into the gold-medal game in Salt Lake City in 2002. Canada hadn’t beaten the U.S. during the 2002 pre-Olympic tour, yet came up big when it counted to win the gold medal, 3-2.
That was then and this is now. With 15 players competing in their first Olympics, there is a new energy in this U.S. locker room, and it shows on and off the ice.
more and the game is on MSNBC with the puck drop at 6:30pm ET.
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Tags: Team+Canada, Team+USA, Winter+Olympics,
