In the space of less than a day, Team USA might just have emerged as the favourites for hockey gold at the Sochi Olympics.
Their quarter-final against the Czech Republic was salted away with 1.8 seconds left in the opening period.
Minnesota Wild defenceman Ryan Suter – whose father, Bob, was a part of the 1980 Miracle on Ice squad – pounced on a puck, sent it skittering towards the board and back, right into the wheelhouse of St Louis’ David Backes, whose shot tore past Czech goalie Ondrej Pavelec.
With Backes’ tally, the scoreboard ticked over to a 3-1 lead as the teams headed for the dressing rooms, and that two-goal lead would be padded over the next two periods.
The end result was a comprehensive 5-2 victory for the Americans over a Czech team that many, myself included, feared were too old and without some players who should’ve been on ice in Sochi – namely Radim Vrbata and Jiri Hudler.
Prior to their game, the Americans would have watched with no small amount of relish as the host nation was unceremoniously dumped from the tournament, ousted by a pesky Finland outfit led by the ageless wonder Teemu Selanne.
For the second time in as many Olympic Games, the Big Red Machine broke down in the quarter-final stage, shattering the hopes of an expectant nation.
Four years ago, it was a 7-3 Canadian demolition job, but this time it was the Fins, who scored three unanswered goals after Russian superstar Ilya Kovalchuk sniped an early goal to set the Bolshoy Ice Dome alight.
Alas, it was all the excitement the parochial home crowd would enjoy on this day, with Finland’s defence stifling a potent Russian attack.
The Americans provided a pretty good road map, and it could be argued that the Fins perfected what the Stars & Stripes first executed. Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was superb, looking like Jim Craig out there while stopping 37 shots.
So the post-mortem begins for the host nation.
Simply put, the likes of Ovechkin, Malkin, Kovalchuk and Datsyuk didn’t score enough when they absolutely needed to, and there were defensive lapses that, at times, resembled what you might see in a pee-wee game, not at the Olympics.
Being 2-16 on the power play with the sorts of weapons the Russians could call upon is approaching unforgivable. Perhaps it was a case of the hype and pressure being too much. I suspect we will never know.
The victorious Fins take on Sweden for a shot to play for gold, and the Swedes’ path to the semi-finals included another shutout for Henrik Lundqvist and two goals for Carl Hagelin en route to a 5-0 rout of Slovenia.
The Swedes must surely be the first top-ranked underdog in the history of the world. A raft of injury problems – to key players Henrik Zetterberg and Henrik Sedin in particular – would seem to have counted them out of contention.
Yet it appears to be business as usual for the team in yellow and blue. Behind ‘King’ Henrik, the Swedes keep on keeping on.
With Lundqvist back in the groove that’s elevated him to one of the very best goaltenders in the NHL, you would be rather brave to bet against Sweden.
The Fins will be tough, and there’s absolutely no love lost between the two countries, but I get the sneaking suspicion that, in a goalies duel, Lundqvist will get the better of Rask. Only just, in a very low scoring game.
And so to the other semi-final: a North American grudge match. Hours after the Russians were bundled out, it was the Canadians’ turn, and matched up against minnows Latvia, it was reasonable to expect a lopsided scoreline.
Except someone forgot to tell the Latvians that they were to be the pushovers of these quarter-finals.
At least the Fins had form on the board, and a team stacked with NHL players – and, in Selanne’s case, an NHL legend – but the Latvians proved they belong at the business end of the Olympics, battling the Canadians to within an inch of their hockey lives.
Bad news for Canada came in the form of losing New York Islanders star John Tavares, which will doubtless force a rejig of coach Mike Babcock’s lines. That injury, combined with the general sluggishness, will worry many who wear (and bleed) red and white.
After Chicago’s Patrick Sharp scored his first goal of the Olympic tournament, it took a Howitzer blast of a shot from towering Nashville defenceman Shea Weber to break a 1-1 deadlock early in the third period.
That strike proved to be enough, and Canada shuddered their way, albeir unconvincingly, to a 2-1 win and a match-up with Team USA.
The day could not have worked out any better for the Americans, as they avoid a repeat encounter with their arch-rivals the Russians in what would surely have been a supercharged atmosphere.
They now have a perfect chance to atone for their loss in the gold-medal game four years ago by beating a Canadian team that, while stacked with star power, really hasn’t gotten going in this tournament.
In that, they are like the Russians. The obvious difference, of course, is that the Maple Leaf brigade are still alive in the tournament.
On face value, Canada seems ripe for the picking. Sidney Crosby hasn’t looked like his usual self, and could find life difficult against an American defensive corps whose inexperience was touted as being a reason why they might not medal in Sochi.
They responded by stepping up to the plate in spectacular fashion last Saturday against the Russians.
It’s a real worry when your star player, who is universally recognised as the world’s best player, has less goals than a defenceman, yet that’s how it is at the moment.
Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty is outscoring Sid the Kid. A worrying sign for Canada, especially against a team unlikely to give their opposition much room to operate.
Whereas their opponents from the Great White North have a roster stacked with star players, many of the Americans are gritty role players.
This was thought to be a bad thing coming into these Olympics. It’s working out pretty well now, isn’t it?
I think of players like Ryan Callahan and David Backes and I think of guys who’re propelling this American team forward. They are the real engine room of an impressive team that may be short on absolute star-power, but is certainly not short on guys who’ll put their bodies on the line.
Head coach Dan Bylsma and absent general manager David Poile did a tremendous job building a solid team, the core of which were present four years ago and know well the bitter taste of defeat. It should spur them onward on Saturday night.
A semi-final win and a place in the gold-medal game will earn Bylsma and Poile great kudos, and it’s well-deserved, too.
The big question is whether can they break that hoodoo and beat the Canadians.
Surely, Crosby and co aren’t going to remain dormant for long. If there is a time to realise their full potential, it is now, with a place in the gold-medal game on the line and the hopes of a hockey-mad nation riding with them.
American goalie Jonathan Quick will have to be at his very best, as he was again and again in the face of the Russian shooters. As Quick rises and falls, so will the skaters who wear the uniform with stars and stripes emblazoned.
It will be a close-run thing, like the Sweden/Finland game, but I think the team who’s looked the strongest this tournament comes through in the end.
According to my selections, we’ll see Team USA and Sweden playing for Olympic Gold on Sunday night, though I’m far from overwhelmingly confident about either selection. Both games could go either way.
Strap in – a truly epic weekend of hockey is almost upon us!
Twitter: @akitchener
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