From elation to disbelief, all in a matter of about a half an hour.
When Zach Parise scored the tying goal with 24 seconds left in the third period for the United States, the air was sucked right out of Canada Hockey Place as team Canada went into the locker room at the end of regulation. The United States were still celebrating as they went in with a wave of momentum on their side heading into OT. Canada would have to kick it into another gear to sustain the U.S.
One thing they had going for them, 4 on 4. The United States was no match against Canada 4 on 4. In fact, play a full 60 minutes 4 on 4 and Canada wins hands down. Too much space for the superstars on team Canada to utilize their skill and create scoring chances. And sure enough 2 of those superstars would create the situation for the game winner. After a simple dump to the corner, Jarome Iginla and Sidney Crosby worked a simple cycle play along the boards. Defenseman Brian Raflaski let Crosby get ahead of him and left him in alone on Miller. As Miller went to poke check the puck away from Crosby, Crosby looked up, saw Miller reach out, and pushed the puck in the exposed 5 hole of Miller. Its one of those bang bang situations for a goalie that once you decide to go for a poke check, you leave the 5 hole (the area between the goalie pads) totally exposed. The helpless Miller fell to the ice in disbelief as Crosby and team Canada celebrated to his left along the boards.
If that same situation had happened 5 on 5, that goal never happens. Once the puck is dumped in, a defenseman and the center would flow towards the boards in pursuit of the puck and the second defenseman would stay back. In that situation both defenseman went along the boards to pursue the puck and the centerman stayed high to defend the point. Its just a situation that is not practiced a lot by NHL players because they rarely play 4 on 4.
But to get to that point in the game, Zach Parise had to get us their. And who would anyone else think it would be besides him? With the goalie pulled under a minute to go, Patrick Kane cycled the puck around the net, turned, and shot towards Luongo. Both Parise and Langenbrunner were left alone in front of Luongo behind the defense as everyone on Canada was watching Patrick Kane. Parise would put home the rebound on Kane's shot to tie the game. Another huge defensive let down that we saw too much of in this game from both teams. On Canada's first goal, Eric Johnson tried to pass the puck up the middle to his defense partner rather than clearing high up the boards. The puck was turned over, and Jonathon Toews buried home a rebound for the first goal for Canada.
The great thing about this game and these Olympics is the exposure hockey is getting. Normal people who normally do not watch hockey were glued to their TV sets over the past 2 weeks, and are still talking about the game today. The U.S. Canada preliminary round game was the highest rated show on MSNBC besides Election Night coverage (not a shocker by any means). The NHL needs to take advantage of this for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs this year in their marketing. Let the casual sports fans know that this is what happens year round for all 30 teams for 82 games followed by the Stanley Cup playoffs. Their case isn't helped by the fact that Versus is not carried on DirecTV in an ongoing dispute over a contract.
Another thing up in the air is the 2014 games in Sochi. The NHL collective bargaining agreement will expire prior to those games, so the NHL right now will not commit to sending their players to them. It would be a monumental mistake should the best hockey players in the world NOT be playing in those games. Every player that was their this week said they would not give up a chance to play in these games for anything. Lets keep it that way.
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