Vancouver 2010 Team Canada vs Team USA Hockey
byIt comes to this – our neighbouring nations play each other in tournament hockey action at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Team Canada takes on Team USA at 4:40pm PT today over at Canada Hockey Place and even last night you could see flags from both countries being paraded up and down Granville street. The city is a rumbling mass of patriots from around the globe and none more loud and present than those representing Canada.
People keep asking who we will be cheering for, me being born and raised in Metro Vancouver and John being a permanent resident of Canada, originally from Iowa. Even though he’s in love with his new host country, one thing is certain, he is a Team USA guy to the core. John will be cheering on the team that brought us the legendary Miracle on Ice back in 1980, a team that has a proud, strong tradition of hockey and undying patriotism. The Vancouver Canucks’ own Ryan Kesler will also be sporting the red, white and blue, which is another reason he’s excited to cheer for his home country.
On the other hand, I did spend some time in Boston so you’ll catch me cheering for the Bruins now and then (when the Canucks aren’t in the picture). However, when it comes to international play such as this you can be sure that there is only one team that will move my soul, and that’s Team Canada. I know where I was when we won gold in Salt Lake, I have painted a maple leaf on my face, I have joined in on spontaneous versions of O! Canada (in either French or English), and growing up I played pond hockey on frozen fields in Surrey (even though as the goalie I had to use a broom).
This is Canada’s game, this is my country’s pride and joy. No matter how much I love America for being such a friendly and loving neighbour (filled with amazing people, most of them with the last name Bollwitt) I’ll be wearing red and white today.
Sitting with my husband wherever we choose to watch the game I know there will be cheers for both side of the 49th parallel. The city will erupt with each goal, regardless of the net in which the puck lands. This is the beauty of Olympic hockey.
Places to watch the game today
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Another great deal and venue for watching the game…Edgewater Casino’s Stadium Club has $3 beer & $2 hotdogs in their theatre. 3 big screens to watch the game on, and no lines 🙂
Down with Team John!
According to Vancouver Is Awesome, I think Shine will be showing the game on their boob tubes.
Oh yeah: I heart USA! *And* Canada!
Will be watching the game at home with the gf 🙂 No lines, decent sized TV, theater sound blah blah blah. lol
Right on! Will be keeping tabs on twitter, NBC doesn’t do a good job with delayed broadcasts 🙁
here are my thoughts on canada and on canadian hockey as the tournament appears to be slipping away:
As a canadian and as a hockey fan, I think there is too much panic in the canadian game – not just this team, but the canadian game in general. What I mean by this is that we have this white-knuckle WE HAVE TO WIN OR ELSE mind-set – and it cripples the creativity and flow of our game; this process starts right at the grass-roots levels. I tried to watch the game dispassionately tonite and it struck me how the canadians always seem to be running a chinese fire drill in their own end; by contrast, watch how (usually) efficient and economical the swedes or finns (especially the finns) are in their own zone. Our players appear to have a very low panic threshold and we saw the same thing at the world juniors, too. At some point, we are going to have to teach our kids to just go out and play rather than squeezing the sticks so tight that you can see the sawdust spitting out between the fingers.
Beyond that, canadian hockey really needs to break away from this myopic shit of looking only at playing the “canadian style”; christ, i am so sick of listening to the Hockey Canada junior coach du jour talk about playing “the canadian style”. How ’bout, just for a change, we play “the winning style?” What does that mean? Well, it really means taking a step back and looking at what other countries do well and maybe deciding that such a style can work for us, too. Take the russians: this team seems to need fewer chances than canada to score just as many goals. Obviously, having ovechkin and kovalchuk helps – but I truly believe that canadian hockey does a poor job of creating “finishers”; we seem to work too hard to score our goals in international play. Additionally, as canadians, maybe we need to ease up on the accelerator:we put so much pressure on these kids to win that they often play beneath their potential; I believe we are seeing some of that in this tournament.
Finally, I think its fair to say that canada is done in this tournament. Even though I was always ridiculed for saying it, I always thought that brodeur was a good goalie who played in a great situation – rather than a great goalie who made his team better. think about it: put hasek in New Jersey for 15 years, and what sort of numbers does he put up? The thought of it is frightening.
Right now, canada is in a helluva pickle. Luongo has never shown he can win the big game in the playoffs, and can we afford to put him in at this juncture? My guess is that they will go with luongo in the german game and then come back with brodeur (I am assuming that they actually win the german game – which is far from certain). Personally, I can’t see any other options: Brodeur is not going to win you a game at this level against the elite teams – he may have lost canada this one tonite – and Luongo may or may not be ready for a show-down with the russians less than 24 hours later. The sad thing is that I could see canada losing pretty decisively to the russians – and we will suffer that ignominy even though, I think, this is the best-balanced and deepest team we have sent to the olympic games since pros started being used back in 1998. Its too late now, in any case; they’ve crossed the rubicon, so to speak, and unlike ceasar, there is no conquering goin’ on here.
A lot of questions are going to be asked about this team in the post-mortem – but let’s not direct our fire at steve yzerman or mike babcock. Steve picked the best team possible (everyone is dumping on seabrook and pronger but name 2 canadian D-men who would be better at this level? As for iginla, that is the one guy I would not have taken because he’s never impressed me with his hockey IQ and he lacks the skill level to play on the top line – but its too late now). Furthermore, I still think babcock is as good a coach as there is in the NHL. The questions, I believe, should be directed at Hockey Canada and how it develops players for the world stage; the same formulaic, “Canadian style” no longer works because it no longer intimidates the opposition. Canada is going to have to work at increasing the pace of play at all levels (the Americans are hardly a team of superstars but they were faster than canada tonite) and at developing more finishers; this team right now seems like the sort that makes opposing goaltenders look good.
Just wondering if you could post a tweet or something clarifying when the Canadian men’s hockey team will play next. By looking at the vancouver2010.com http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-hockey/schedule-and-results/men_ihm400000vm_playoff-dE.html chart it looks like Canada finished 6D and would play 11D(Germany) in QP #4, but according to a lot of websites like nhl.com and certainly fan to fan ticket prices they are going to play Germany but it will be QP#2. I’m so confused… please help!
[…] Olympic experience involved getting up early and heading to Yaletown to drink some gin ahead of the big game. Over the last year or so I’ve received many requests to judge competitions, from chocolate […]
haha CANADA IS AWESOME !