The 2014 Olympic hockey champions have been crowned. Team Canada steamed, not steamrolled through the competition, ultimately showing why they were the pre-tournament favorites.
While the performance wasn’t dominant if you peeked at the scoreboard, the Canadians played every shift with a deliberate purpose of shutting their opponents down. A closer examination shows that the 2010 champs were one of the most dominant Olympic champions in history.
The sixteen goals scored hardly seemed like they would be enough if you checked the doomsday prophets that said Canada was struggling. Though yours truly felt like the defending champs needed more offense than they produced in their semifinal win over the United States, it was a historically superior defense that provided the margin that a "sputtering” offense could overcome.
The tears are still only beginning to dry on Henrik Lundqvist’s well-chiseled cheek, but it is still time to reflect on the some of the biggest disappointments from the Sochi Olympic hockey tournament.
Team Russia-While we’re not ready to condemn them to be the colossal disappointment of the tournament, the Russians had to consider themselves to be one of the gold medal favorites. Let’s consider for a minute that the “off the post” goal against the United States was allowed.
The Russians could have finished the first round undefeated gotten a first round bye and a more favorable opponent in the medal round. They lost to a Finnish team that pushed Canada to overtime with arguably the world’s top goaltender. Their overall performance was at times lackluster and they did look like they were playing as a collection of all stars rather than a team of all stars.
Tuukka Rask’s constitution- While conspiracy theorists could claim that Rask’s oatmeal was spiked after he shut down the host nation. Whatever the reason, Rask was unable to play against Sweden in the semifinals possibly costing the Finns a chance to play for the gold and another crack at Canada. Of course it is only speculative and Kari Lehtonen played very well even in defeat, but Rask is at another level and could have been the difference in an already tight game.
The United States bronze medal game-Chalk it up to a big game let down or just plain indifference, but the effort, or lack thereof from the Americans in a significant international game was embarrassing. Sure it stung to be playing in the lesser of the two medal games, but the absolute lack of pride and heart was very hard to watch.
Lack of production from stars-Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews made the most of their only goals in the tournament, saving them for the gold medal game. It is understandable that it takes time to develop chemistry for teammates when these teams are thrown together, but there is something to be said for the stars to shine in the biggest games. Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, John Tavares and Zach Parise combined to be outscored by Lauris Darzins of Latvia.
Who?
Exactly.
Well it’s back to the grind of the NHL season this week with a prize to play for that is on the same level as a gold medal, the Stanley Cup.