This is not a disaster. Ceci n'est pas une pipe? No, really, this is not a disaster. Unless you're Martin Brodeur. In which case your tournament is likely done. A strange bat attempt on the second goal, swimming on the third and a puck through your stick and your wickets on the fourth. And where was he on that fifth goal! You're not going to save anything from the bench! We'll forgive that last one, and perhaps we should forgive them all. If we believed Brodeur should start when the tournament began we should believe in him now. I do, however, prefer Luongo.
But big picture. The Canadians controlled the game and looked good doing it. Ryan Miller was doubleplusgood, Martin Brodeur was plusungood and the US team took fewer unsmart penalties. That's it for American advantages until you look under the "goals" column. When we look at the fantastic shot chart from the BBC (if the NHL expands I can only hope it's to London - and I guess I should specify here, London ENGLAND - so that the BBC will start making these for NHL games) the Canadians held a "Fenwick" (Goals + Saved Shots + Missed Shots) advantage of 64-31. There were 25 faceoffs in the US zone compared to 16 in the Canadian end of the ice. Territorially, the Canadians had the advantage and it wasn't just visible in the numbers. My own damn eyes saw it too. But they couldn't cash and the fumbles in the defensive end (Pronger) along with some offensive zone penalties did them in. I still like this team going forward. They're surely one of the best teams in the tournament - better than the Americans who just claimed victory I dare say - and hopefully the wins will follow. They had better, because we're running out of time.
Now really big picture. The path to the gold medal is now a difficult one. The Canadians have Patrick Thoresen and Norway to take care of on Tuesday (Edit: It's actually Jochen Hecht and Germany) followed by a game against the Russians on Wednesday (should they beat the Norwegians for a second time). If they defeat Russia, they have the winner of the United States-Slovakia game (unless this Sweden-Finland game goes to OT). And then it's the final against Scandinavia or the Czechs. A tough road to hoe. It's single elimination now, no room for unexecution or plusunluck. As a famous Duck once said, "Let's get dangerous."
More detail-oriented game discussion after the jump.
Gabriel Desjardins is the man. He directed me to those BBC charts (although they're on the CTV Olympics website now too) and he's keeping track of all kinds of stuff for every game in these Olympics. Check him out. Nonetheless, I've continued keeping the play-by-play for the Canadian side and it's listed below. I'll give some opinion on it after the data. The players will be marked by their jersey numbers for ease of writing but I'll provide a legend first:
2 - Duncan Keith
6 - Shea Weber
7 - Brent Seabrook
8 - Drew Doughty
10 - Brenden Morrow
11 - Patrick Marleau
12 - Jarome Iginla
15 - Dany Heatley
16 - Jonathan Toews
18 - Mike Richards
19 - Joe Thornton
20 - Chris Pronger
21 - Eric Staal
22 - Dan Boyle
24 - Corey Perry
27 - Scott Niedermayer
37 - Patrice Bergeron
51 - Ryan Getzlaf
61 - Rick Nash
87 - Sidney Crosby
First Period
61-87-18 and 27-06 NZ FO
61-87-37 and 27-06 DZ FO ends in US GOAL
21-51-24 and 02-08 NZ FO
21-51-24 and 02-08 DZ FO (Icing)
10-16-12 and 20-22 OZ FO
15-19-11 and 07-08 DZ FO
15-19-11 and 27-06
61-87-18 and 27-06
21-51-24 and 02-08 ends in Cdn. penalty in OZ
10-37 and 06-27 DZ FO
16-18 and 06-27 NZ FO
10-37 and 02-08
16-18 and 02-08 NZ FO
61-11 and 20-22
10-37 and 20-22 DZ FO
16-11 and 20-22
10-37 and 06-27 penalty ends
10-37-51 and 06-27 ends in US penalty in (their) DZ
61-87-12 and 02-08 OZ FO
15-19-11 and 06-22
15-19-11 and 06-22 OZ FO
21-51-24 and 20-22 penalty ends
21-51-24 and 20-22
21-51-24 and 20-07
21-16-24 and 02-07 ends in Cdn. GOAL
61-87-18 and 02-08 NZ FO ends in US GOAL
21-51-24 and 27-06 NZ FO
15-19-11 and 02-07 OZ FO
61-87-18 and 06-08
10-16-12 and 20-22
10-16-12 and 20-22 DZ FO (Icing)
21-51-24 and 20-08
15-19-11 and 27-06
61-18-87 and 20-07 OZ FO with 18 taking FO
61-18-87 and 20-07 OZ FO with 18 taking FO
10-16-12 and 02-20
10-16-12 and 02-08 OZ FO
21-51-24 and 27-06
11-51-24 and 27-22
61-87-18 and 02-07
15-19-11 and 27-06
61-87-18 and 20-22 OZ FO (Icing)
10-16-12 and 20-22 NZ FO
19-16-12 and 02-08 DZ FO with 19 to bench on clear
10-16-12 and 02-08
21-51-24 and 27-06
15-19-51 and 27-06 OZ FO (Icing)
Second Period
10-16-12 and 27-06 NZ FO
21-51-24 and 02-08 DZ FO
61-87-18 and 20-22
15-19-11 and 07-08
15-19-11 and 07-08 NZ FO
15-16-11 and 27-06
15-16-10 and 27-06 ends in Cdn. GOAL
61-87-37 and 02-08 NZ FO
21-51-24 and 20-07
15-19-11 and 27-22 NZ FO
61-87-18 and 27-22
61-87-18 and 02-08 NZ FO
10-16-12 and 27-06
21-51-24 and 20-22
15-19-11 and 02-07 OZ FO
61-87-18 and 20-22
15-19-11 and 02-08 OZ FO (Icing)
21-51-24 and 22-20 NZ FO
21-51-24 and 02-08
10-51-12 and 02-08
10-37-16 and 27-06 DZ FO with 37 taking FO
10-37-16 and 27-06 DZ FO (Icing) with 37 taking FO, to bench on clear
10-16-12 and 27-06
61-87-18 and 20-07 OZ FO
61-87-18 and 22-08
15-19-11 and 22-08 NZ FO
61-87-18 and 27-20 OZ FO
37-16-12 and 02-06 DZ FO with 16 taking FO
21-51-24 and 22-20
61-87-18 and 22-20 DZ FO ends in US GOAL
10-16-12 and 02-08 NZ FO
15-19-11 and 27-06
21-51-24 and 20-07 DZ FO ends in Cdn. penalty in OZ
10-37 and 02-08 DZ FO
10-16 and 27-06
10-18 and 27-06
Third Period
10-16 and 27-06 NZ FO
18-16 and 27-06
18-37 and 02-08 penalty ends
21-37-18 and 02-08
61-87-12 and 02-08 ends in Cdn. penalty in OZ
10-37 and 27-06 DZ FO
18-16 and 02-08
10-37 and 02-08 NZ FO
18-16 and 27-20
11-19 and 27-20 penalty ends
87-19-11 and 27-20
15-19-11 and 27-20
15-19-11 and 27-06 OZ FO
15-51-21 and 27-06
21-51-24 and 27-06 ends in Cdn. penalty in DZ but 27 leaves for 2 during delay
18-16 and 02-08 DZ FO
10-37 and 06-20 ends in US GOAL
61-87-12 and 22-08 NZ FO
15-19-11 and 22-08
15-19-11 and 02-20 NZ FO
21-51-24 and 02-20
21-51-24 and 02-27
61-87-12 and 22-08 ends in US penalty in (their) DZ
15-19-11 and 22-06 OZ FO
15-19-11 and 22-06 OZ FO
87-51-24 and 20-08 penalty ends
87-51-24 and 20-08
61-19-12 and 02-06 OZ FO
21-16-18 and 27-08
15-19-11 and 02-22
15-19-11 and 02-22 OZ FO ends in US penalty in (their) OZ
15-19-11 and 06-08 OZ FO
61-87-12 and 02-22 OZ FO
61-87-12 and 02-22 OZ FO
61-87-12 and 02-22 OZ FO ends in Cdn. GOAL
21-51-24 and 27-08 NZ FO
61-87-12 and 02-08 OZ FO
15-19-11 and 27-06 NZ FO with 24 extra ends in US EN GOAL
15-19-11 and 02-08 NZ FO with 51 extra
61-87-12 and 02-08 OZ FO with 51 extra
End of Game
The defence again saw quite a bit of flux with regard to the pairings throughout. Brent Seabrook drew a lot of praise from the commentators in the second intermission but didn't get a single shift in the third period. Duncan Keith ended up instead mostly with Drew Doughty and the two looked pretty good together. Dan Boyle saw a lot of ice with a wide variety of partners, though mostly Chris Pronger which left Niedermayer and Shea Weber to team up for most of their shifts. When the game was on the line at the end the team turned to Weber, Doughty, Boyle, Niedermayer and Keith - Pronger's last shift came with about seven minutes to go.
Up front, Jarome Iginla started on a line with Brendan Morrow and Jonathan Toews but was moved up to play right wing with Crosby and Nash for the third period, taking the place of Mike Richards who had only one EV shift in the third period on a makeshift unit alongside Staal and Toews which also happened to be Toews' only shift of the period. And that was one more than Brendan Morrow who didn't have a single EV shift in the third, his place taken by the aforementioned Staal. Patrice Bergeron's role continued to shrink with only four EV shifts in the entire game, all of them for an extra center on an otherwise established line. And even that defensive role seemed to be slipping away when Joe Thornton was once put out as the extra-center-straight-to-bench man for a DZ draw in the first.
The other two lines rolled pretty much as usual, the only hiccup coming when Crosby took Staal's place for a shift with Getzlaf and Perry on the PP. Perry was also chosen as the extra attacker when the Canadians pulled the goalie, which I found a bit odd at first and infuriating once Ryan Kesler ate Perry's lunch to put home the empty-net marker. Ryan Smyth wouldn't have lollygagged back like that. I... can't... help... myself...
Did you know that Ryan Smyth is a natural winger? And that he knows how to make himself an outlet option in the defensive zone? And how to get the puck out? And how to play in front of the net when you're looking for dirty goals? And that he can PK pretty good (or at least he could when he was an Oiler, not a lot of evidence of it these last few years)? And that he cursed the Oilers when they sent him away? But we needed seven(teen if you prefer hyperbole) centers. And now we're cursed. Now the losing makes sense. Right Derek?