Getting My Jingo On

I’m stealing a title from Eric here for some liveblogging of USA-Canada in the World Cup of Hockey, live on ESPN2 from Montreal.

2137: And it’s final: Canada 2, USA 1. Not sure who made the most improvement over the game, the USA as a team or Jeremy Roenick as a commentator. (For some reason, I keep trying to type his name Roanoke.) The US got Esche off the ice with about 40 seconds to go, and sent one puck hard across the crease but couldn’t turn it in.

I like the US against Russia on Thursday night, with the perpetual disarray that country’s national federation has been in since 1992. Now, if we can just keep our defensemen healthy…

2134: At the time when we need to be making a push, Canada has controlled the puck. 1:00 to go, timeout, and my CANE boy Peter LaViolette is drawing things up for the USA.

2117: Quote of the day from Gary Thorne: “Brett Hull’s forechecking and Mario’s fighting. What in the world is going on here?”

2108: Aaaaaand we’re underway in the third period. Play going from end to end — it’ll be a heck of a finish.

2049: End of the second at Canada 2, USA 1, and Barry Melrose is singing the praises of the too-small 200’x85’ North American ice surface, designed when players averaged 5’10”/170ish rather than the modern 6’2”/200+. The international standard 200’x100’ would be too big, but 200’x90’ would open the game up just enough to screw with the traps, which would benefit the game tremendously.

2041: At 18:37 of the 2nd, all heck breaks loose. Brodeur tries to yank Steve Konowalchuk into the net with him after Kono crashes the net. Kono gets free, and Mario Lemieux has a flashback to Pittsburgh-Washington playoff series and LOSES HIS MIND. Refs separate those two quickly, but meanwhile Jeff Halpern and Scott Niedermayer have a go to no discernible result. Penalties are 5 each to H and N, 2 to Lemieux, and 2+2 to Kono, which is a total joke — if he were anyone else, Lemieux would get an automatic 10 for third-man instigator. (The World Cup is played by NHL rules.)

2035: Canada is wearing heritage jerseys from its 1920 Olympic gold medal-winning team that are… how do I say this… baby-poop yellow. In play, the US has picked it up and basically dominated play ever since the score. Unfortunately, it looks like Brodeur wasn’t lulled to sleep by our early inability to challenge him.

2025: SCORE USA! Bill Guerin puts it mid-height glove side past Brodeur, and that’ll bring our heads back into the game.

2016: FIGHT, no result, and now Mike Modano has gone to the bench?!

2012: At 25 minutes in, Esche has 22 saves. The USA has not registered a shot in the second period, and the “chances” are eighteen to nothing in favor of Canada. Ugh. We suck.

2006: Joe freaking Sakic. Canada 2, USA 0.

2005: Canada kills off an American power play to start the period without allowing a shot, and Team USA immediately commits another penalty in desperate play in front of its own net. Argh.

1957: OK, the 1st is over with the score **Canada 1, USA 0*, so I can think about topics more weighty than the need to keep from throwing my laptop across the room. Meanwhile, ESPN’s running an interview with Roenick about his gambling habit. J.R., you’re not impressing us by saying you only bet “small sums: a thousand here, couple thousand there, five hundred there.”

Ron Wilson is probably right not to be terribly concerned about the USA’s age for a short preseason tournament. I do hope that after this tournament, though, the USA will shift its attention away from the Chelios-Modano generation for the 2006 Olympics in Turin.

1943: It’s 1-0 and it ought to be 3- or 4-0 Canada right now. Esche is making miraculous saves, and the US can’t get much going in the offensive zone.

1939: SCORE CANADA on the power play, Martin St. Louis from Joe Thornton and Scott Niedermayer.

1934: To explain the defense comment: the USA defenseman pool is very weak in general, and it’s been hit hard by injury opt-outs: Mathieu Schneider, Hal Gill, Derian Hatcher, the list goes on.

1926: In the first ten minutes, it should be noted that Team USA’s defense is — to use a technical term — t3h suck. Esche has kept us in it so far.

Jeremy Roenick is trying too hard to provide comic relief in the booth, as injuries prevented him from playing for the USA in this game. He’s rooting hard for his Philadelphia Flyer teammate Robert Esche in goal in particular.