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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

So Close, But So Far Away

TSN's James Duthie perhaps said it the best on a tweet moments after the final buzzer. 6-5 was the score for Canada in Ottawa when they beat Russia on the Jordan Eberle goal. It was 6-5 again on Tuesday night, but this time for Russia. Sometimes you get miracles, sometimes you get the post.

Canada was a post away from an improbable comeback----one that some may not have seen because they turned the channel(yes, I was one of those for a short time as "Mitch"igan was playing in the Sugar Bowl). Canada trailed it 6-1 after two and they looked ugly in doing so. The goaltending was horrific and discipline was starting to become an issue, but the Canadians heart came through again and before you knew it, it was 6-5 and oh so close to being 6-6 only to have Ryan Strome bounce one off the post in the final minute.

You had to feel bad for local product Ryan Murray. He had a brutal night as three pucks went off of him and into the net. I joked on Twitter that he would be in trouble if he were a Colombian soccer player. Murray is a great player and a good kid and will be heard from in this tournament again along with being a solid NHL'er if the progression continues. However, he will be haunted by this game for a long time.

Thumbs down to those in attendance at the Saddledome for booing the Russians at the end of the game and their player of the game announcement. These fans (who should be used to being disappointed by the home team) should show a little class and perhaps applaud what turned out to be a great hockey game and one that would have been talked about for many years had Canada come through to tie it up.

Then again if Canada had tied it up, we might have had to go to the shootout. I don't know what your thoughts are on the shootout, but I hate it. I always have and I always will. For 65 or 70 minutes, 20 players give it everything they can, but then it comes to a glorified skills competition with a lot of players not getting a chance to have a say in the final outcome. I can understand a shootout in the NHL, but when it comes to a competition like this, play until a goal is scored. A skills competition is not the way to determine who goes to a gold medal game and who doesn't like the Finns and Swedes showed us earlier in the day.

One last thing. This is the 3rd straight year that Canada now comes home from the World Juniors without the gold medal. This will prompt some to say "Is there something wrong with our game?". The answer is NO! The rest of the world is becoming very good at this game as well. This has been a very competitive tournament with many close games. The gap between the top eight teams is not that wide. If you played this tournament again, I don't think you would have the same results. If there is anything wrong, it is the fact that some of our top juniors are staying with NHL teams. If NHL teams didn't allow players to start playing until they turn 20, Canada would be much stronger. I am not advocating that the NHL create a minimum age and I am not suggesting that NHL teams send their junior age players back for a month because there is no reason for it unless that team thinks it helps their development. Canada may have won gold with Tyler Seguin, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan Johansen. etc. etc. etc but there's no guarantee---especially when your goaltending lets you down and that is what happened this year.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kuznetsov was diving all over the ice every time he was touched,and was chirping an injured Jenner the entire time he was down. Player of the game or not, he deserved what he got. It was an embarrassment all around by all involved. The Russians looked like fish out of water, Canada let the emotions get the better of them, and the officials left much to be desired in both semi-final games.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree more with you on the shootout thing. Its a brutal way to end a hockey game. How many OT's did we see in College Football over the last couple of days. Why didn't we just put the ball at the 25 and have a FG kicking contest with the ball going back 5 yds everytime. Stupid!

Brad

Anonymous said...

Its not Canada's right to play for or win gold every year. Other teams in this tournament are good and we as a country don't seem to want to recognize this. Canada has the best developmental leagues, but we lose our best players to the NHL and that is a detriment, but we can't do anything about it. I am proud of the kids for not saying die last night and coming oh so close to tying it up.

Mike

Anonymous said...

Goaltending was a problem going in and it stayed that way. Wedgewood came up short when we needed him the most.

Anonymous said...

I don't think I've ever seen one player accidentally contribute to three goals going in off of him in one game. That will haunt Murray for a while, but he is a great kid and a good player. Hopefully, he will laugh about it one day.

Gary

Lee-Anne said...

Who was the last "stud" goalie to come up big for Canada and win some games by himself? The last one I can think of is Dustin Tokarski. This position has been an issue for at least 4 yrs, and I can't see it getting better any time soon. I believe the fans were booing the Russians because of their antics throughout the game. Too much diving, hotdogging and taunting for my liking. This has overshadowed a very good hockey team, who probably could beat some NHL teams. It leaves another stigma with the European teams. JUST PLAY HOCKEY!!!!

Anonymous said...

We have stopped playing Canadian Hockey, Trying to outskill Europeon teams(without our high end guys who are in the Nhl)isnt working! Get back to bangin and crashing and pick a team to do so. Skill is great but we have always won with heart and grit!!