At Least We're Not Canada Tonight

At least we are not Canada tonight, which is burning. By all accounts. See what you get for throwing the Grits out. Paul Martin would have delivered. If you think US Hockey has problems, at least you don't have to begin your list with "Team potentially a bunch of choking mice."

The Americans did not achieve much in Turin either- but not much was expected. On paper, the US team looked pretty average up front, on the blue line and in the nets- and a little soft in the last few roster spots: Mike Knuble? Some of the defensemen? And ultimately, they did little to modify that assessment. Outside of Gionta, Rolston and Modano, they never got scoring up front- particularly on the power play. Keith Tkachuk (zero goals, a minus five!) and Brian Rafalski (minus three- needed more from him) had bad tournaments. Outside of Rafalski, the defense corps was a little stronger than anticipated- and Mathieu Schneider had some big points today. Perhaps most importantly, they played six games in Italy- and never got one superb start in goal. A chastised national program turns its eyes toward Miller for 2010.

Now, I can do without Mike Modano resurrecting some of those real good feelings we all left Nagano with. His classy post game comments were very classy: "You'd think USA Hockey would be a well-oiled machine, but it's not," he said. "Basically we were on our own for hotels, tickets, flights, stuff like that. Normally we wouldn't have to worry about stuff like that." I guess that is why he was benched late today. He was worried about how he was going to get home. If that was not bad enough, the general manager, a tearful Don Waddell, put a weak weepy face on what was really not a bad effort. For crying out loud, Derian Hatcher knocked out two of Teemu Selanne's teeth. Isn't that as good as a silver medal?

Frankly, not one of their four losses were bad. All were by a single marker. Only the opening tie with Latvia was disappointing- and they had excuses for that one. The Finns are simply having a great tournament- particularly in their own end. Regardless, the United States scored more goals than Finland had given up for the entire tournament- and was in it until the siren- despite absolutely killing themselves with penalties.

So this wasn’t a disgrace like Nagano. Put Mike Richter and a pair of wingers who can carry and move the puck on this national team, and they have as good a chance to win this as anyone.

Ultimately, in the end, the United States needed great goaltending- the kind that could make two, three goals stand up night after night- and they didn’t get it. And just as clearly, the United States lacked enough coherent firepower to score in bunches. Only Russia, so far, seems to have enough forwards going well enough to score north of three every time out. So it ends as forecasted: a gritty group that tried, a step below the best teams- but not horrid.