THE UNLIKELY OLYMPICS

For two days, I've heard analysis and predictions of, and myself the impending goaltending duel that would ensue between the US and Finland today. Miller has been dazzling all the way through, of course, and Kiprusoff is an elite goalie, coming off a shutdown of the Czechs, with a track record of performing well under pressure. See, 1 Vezina in 2006 and 5 shutouts in one year of playoffs en route to just falling short of a cup in 2004. Everyone talked about how out of the European bunch, the Finns played the most "North American" brand of hockey, therefore better suiting them to challenge the red-hot yanks, and play on the NHL-sized rinks. I heard how essentially, these two teams were mirror images of each other, and that it would come down to relentless execution, and/or luck, in a low-scoring slugfest. Relentless execution? Yes. What it was was an onslaught, almost entirely devoid of any physical play, Kiprusoff looking like a new call-up from Pee-Wee in Bantam, the Finns looking like Latvia, Teemu Selanne not a factor. Maybe if Kiprusoff gets some more help when he comes out to play that fateful first puck that found its way into the loving arms of Ryan Malone's stick, or if he does not play it at all, we do get that game we imagined, but from that moment on, the US executed brilliantly and brutally. Now, their belonging here cannot be questioned; they dominated Torino's runners-up, an undisputed major player in the world. By the by, nice to see you, Patrick Kane, you came just in time.

The way Finland-USA turned out was just the latest in a long string of contradictory outcomes in Men's Hockey in Vancouver:
Martin Brodeur, the record-holder of all record-holders, was mediocre at best.
Russia-Canada was not close, and barely interesting, and Sid v. Ovie was not a storyline.
Jonas Hiller may be, when all is said and done, the most notable performer of this tournament, once you consider how the US has played everyone else.
Teemu Selanne, the all-time leading Olympic scorer, had a mere 2 assists, and no goals.
Miikka Kiprusoff not only failed to carry Finland, but he brought them down.
Chris Drury has played like a champion.
The Slovaks beat Russia in group play, then they went ahead and knocked out a Swedish team that hadn't shown weakness since they had arrived.
Russia never showed up.
Brian Rafalski leads the Olympics in points.
Someone named Tore Vikingstad is second in goals, with 4. That's 2 more than Alexander Ovechkin.
We beat Canada.
We're going to play for Gold on Sunday.

Perhaps the only two foregone conclusions that have stayed true have been that Joe Thornton would not be a factor when it counted, and that at some point, whether there were hiccups on the way, Team Canada would blossom into the juggernaut that it is. Right now, they lead Slovakia, 2-0, and are soundly outplaying them. It's obviously too close to call anything, but I would guess we have a rematch, a northern mirror image of the Salt Lake final in '02.

Generally, especially as a hockey fan, I really like Canada, and Canadians. I even kinda root for a Canadian team, and I entered this tournament assuming that, provided they were not facing the US or Russia (my wife's home), I would be pulling for them, knowing how much this must mean to them as hosts, but boy, has that changed. Maybe it was the intensity of USA-Canada, rd. 1, maybe it was the way the Canuck fans have proceeded to boo us like hell in every other game, even cheering like they were watching their own children for the Swiss the other day, or maybe it was the way Ryan Getzlaf's mooky mug hollered into Malkin's ear at the end of the blowout on Wednesday. At any rate, I want them to go down, hard, and how sweet it will be if we can avenge the Salt Lake loss on their turf.

Edit: Yeah, so the Slovaks made it close, awful close. For Pavol Demitra's sake, I hope he can forget the one that got away.