First of all, congratulations to the 2022 Canadian Women's Olympic Hockey team for their gold medal win last night! As usual, an amazing game and this time the Canadian women regained their status as the best in the world. It was a big day for hockey for our country and my city and as I said in the title, 2 out of 3 of those games went well.
Disappointment: The Canadian men's team didn't fare as well as the women and their games ended the same day as the women (at least in my time zone) with a loss to Sweden in the quarter finals.
- Did we really think the Canadian team (and the US) had a hope in winning gold? Without the NHL players, the European teams had a much larger pool of talent playing in their leagues. There are still a lot of really good players that haven't come to North America and it sure showed in the depth of their lineups. Former Hawks, Marcus Kruger and Lucas Wallmark were in Sweden's lineup with Wallmark scoring the winning goal against Canada. The medals will be won by a European country, just like the old days.
- Please don't attack or blame the players online after the loss! It wasn't their fault they were thrown into this mess and they gave a valiant effort. Keep your snide comments to yourself and move on. The NHL season is starting to ramping up so there is lots of exciting hockey happening.
- During the broadcast, as Canada was losing, the camera showed Shane Doan, Canada's GM, "he's not used to losing..." I had to laugh out loud because he played for Phoenix/Arizona, right? This was followed with "as a member of Team Canada" Oh...ok.
Redemption: The Jets redeemed themselves, at least temporarily with a convincing win against one of the top teams in the league, division rivals, the Minnesota Wild 6-3. This reinforces the theory that the Jets seem to play to the level of their competition beating the better teams in the league and losing to the bottom dwellers (Chicago, Arizona, Philadelphia, Buffalo etc.)...oh oh, the Kraken are in town tonight!
- Good news for the Jets, Mark Scheifele is starting to finally heat up. A hat trick last night and goals in his last 5. If Scheifs and Wheels can stay hot their chances look pretty good. A much needed shot, the Connor's can't do it themselves.
- This was the first game of increased capacity and about 12,500 fans showed up. What a difference with more fans in the building and the atmosphere seemed to be more pumped up than previous games. Still a lot of empty seats, but a more accurate measure of the fan's warming up to returning will be this weekend against the Oilers. It'll be interesting to see if True North will stay with current restrictions once the proof of vaccine and mask laws are lifted or if the unmasked anti-vaxxers will return. Yuck! Stay tuned!
Jubilation: What can be further said, the games between Canada and the US seem to go either way, but this year the Canadian's had a much more dominant Olympics than the Americans, crushing the competition. The Americans barely beat the Czechs and Finns in the quarters and semis and I wasn't convinced they could beat Canada in the finals. I think goaltending was a major factor for both wins against the Americans, as the Canadians were out-shot (quite badly in round play) and Desbiens clearly outplayed Cavallini with the Canadian's scoring timely goals. Too little, too late for the US.
Up next: Jets/Kraken and Hawks/Blue Jackets
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