redwing77

You can't spell ass without Tanner Glass.

Wow. Can we play smart hockey here? We're just putting ourselves down now. Radke... now Forney... who's next? Jones? Finley?

Not as interesting to see Finley on the powerplay. I support Finley (duh) but offensively minded he is not! Foyt, on the other hand, has played both D and F in his career (both at UND and in juniors). Despite his limited play, I'd still put him on the powerplay over Finley.

1-1 tie. Folks, I hate to sound all negative, but please tell me why we allowed a short handed goal? I missed it (was eating dinner) but seriously, there is no excuse for a group of four players to be able to out offense 5 players. And that goes for Dartmouth as well. Seriously, how pathetic. And 20 shots on goal.... COMBINED thus far. WOW. Lastly, the last Sioux powerplay featured us mostly in the offensive zone with 1 shot attempt and 1 SOG... with the last seconds of the power play expiring. Uh... that's not a power play, that's killing off your own powerplay. Seriously SHOOT THE G-DANG PUCK! In the third period we need to do one thing and one thing only: SHOOT SHOOT SHOOOOOOOT. The next goal, I feel, will be the game winner.

Sweatt did look amazingly good, but I don't think Okposo looked poor either. I don't know offhand the lines for Team USA, but if they aren't already, Sweatt and Okposo should be on the same line. IMO they really were the heart and soul behind the offensive effort even if they weren't exactly point getters. I don't know what to take about Skille. He clutches and grabs a lot, but on the other hand, he does manage to escape getting called for it. He definitely does have talent but who really knows in this setup? Goon is right. Not enough role players, for sure, but even so, cohesiveness as a team and knowing one's role on it are Team Canada's bread and butter. Canada isn't unbeatable, but the weaknesses they do have are much harder to expose because of how well they play as a team. Truthfully, I think the US could be a force to be reckoned with. However, there's a lot that needs to change for that to happen.

Hmmm... Perhaps, but even so, why would Hockey Canada not try to put a winning team on the ice for international competition? The Olympics, World Juniors, World Championships, Spencer Cup, U18, U17, and so on tourneys are big deals (relatively speaking) to the Canadians in terms of hockey accolades. SUre, the first three are more important than the others, but still, a Gold in hockey in international competition is important to Hockey Canada, I'd think.

Yeah, the system needs to change, and, as was stated earlier, it probably won't be. Here's something interesting: In the U18 and U17 Tourneys Team USA may not win Gold all the time, but at least they are consistent medal round competitors. Now, what the hell happened to make the U20 team so weak? How can one arm of USA Hockey not know what the other arm is doing? HOckey is big time in many places around the world (Canada, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Latvia, other former Russian States, and to a certain extent Germany) but it isn't all that big in the US. Now, I think the US is heading in the right direction long term: towards the bottom. I really think the US needs to barely make the tourney, or maybe not qualify altogether for the organization to make a turnaround. Relegation next year MIGHT wake the organization up. It might not. WHo knows? Is it possible to import a Canadian coaching staff for Team USA next year? Maybe have Lou Lamorello do the selecting? I dunno. It's disheartening to see Team USA be awful for 4.5 of the 7 periods of hockey they've played thus far.

I didn't say anything about that because I don't know how the relegation system works, but if so, that's a truly sad situation to be in. Maybe it's time to scrap the current practices entirely and start over. Is there anything that can be done with the amount of time the team has to play/practice together to make it larger? Or are there certain regulations that they must follow?

Though Toews hasn't scored at the clip he did last year thus far for the Sioux, he's not exactly playing poorly for the Sioux. That being said, he's really doing well for Team Canada. Two games, two player of the game honors (one official, the other attributed by a third party, IIRC).

Toews get player of the game.

JJ is #3 EJ is #6

Helm ices the cake. USA goes 0-2. Now questions are: 1. Who is the player of the game? 2. Will USA win a game? 3. Can USA recover?

Canada scores. Helm scores and hits the goaltender. EJ gets burned this time. Looks like it would have been a penalty shot anyways.

Not flashy, but Okposo made a beautiful defensive play preventing a breakaway. Man this kid is good.

USA scores on a gift. Stoa ran unabated into Price.

TOEWS PENALTY SHOT GOAL!

For the first time in quite a while, I can say that Team USA has won something. They outscored Canada 2-1 in the second period. They've now made this a game. I hope they come out in the third and limit Canada to one goal or less (if it is a Canada goal, let Toews score it) and keep up the scoring.

THis is becoming a penalty fest. At least Team USA is finally playing well. sagard- It is JJ. Sorry. EJ is playing good. JJ isn't having the best game.

Wow. Johnson smokes a Canadian player in the head against the boards. Apparently in the CHL that's a DQ-able offense. It looked nasty. USA- I don't like his attitude. It has nothing to do with his play. I understand why he was named to the team and I can even see his talent as a first round talent. But his attitude isn't very good.

Lee goes for interference

I'm not impressed with Downie. Why does this guy wear a letter?

Carman from Sweatt 3-2

USA Scores. Johnson scores. CHorney gets an assist.

TOEWS!!!! 3-0 Canada

So can Team USA turn this around? I mean, it is so plainly obvious how well Team Canada plays as a team and just as obvious how poorly Team USA plays as a team. They aren't physical, they're coasting instead of trying hard (I mean, they lost to Germany and that should tick them off. They go on to play Canada, Team USA's archrival (if it isn't the Gophers ) and that should fire them up, but it apparently isn't)... They need to step it up and start playing good hockey. NOW. Right now, if both sides play the way they are currently playing, Canada wins at least 6-0.