USA-Russia, Take 2
Prepare yourselves for a less-than-coherent set of observations from tonight’s World Cup of Hockey quarterfinal in St. Paul, which the USA won 5-3 over Russia.
- It’s probably not a positive comment on the economics of the game in the USA when a Canadian bank with no business in the USA is buying advertising space on the dasherboards in Minnesota, where Canada will not play a single game.
- These two teams are actually pretty close in terms of ability — give Russia the edge on forwards, US barely on defense (neither team is that good), US slight edge in goal because of the development of Robert Esche. (I know Rick DiPietro won the Slovakia game, but the guy scares the heck out of me in a big game — just too flamboyant a G for my tastes.)
- Breaking down the forwards a bit further, Russia scared the heck out of me when they were trailing precisely because of their snipers — Kovalchuk, Yashin, Datsyuk, Kovalev etc. They’re the most frightening team in the tournament to play with a lead, because they can make a goal happen so quickly. But perhaps the USA’s strongest point is its collection of power forwards, even with Jeremy Roenick running his mouth in the ESPN box rather than on the ice. There aren’t many American pure scorers these days, but nobody grinds better.
- A few birthplaces jumped out at me when I read the American roster. Brett Hull of Belleville, Ontario? His mom is American, and the Canadian junior national team turned him down when he tried to move up to the international level. So I can buy that one. But Brian Leetch of Corpus Christi, TX? Even more surprising, Eric Weinrich of Roanoke, VA?! I guess both these guys’ families moved up to New England at some point (they both did prep school up there). I think if I’m looking for local interest, the closest I’ll get in reality is Jeff Halpern of Potomac, MD.
- Eric should consider himself lucky that, having been in Montreal for the past week, he wasn’t subjected to 5-7 rounds of those idiotic commercials for the Bounty Hunter show on A&E every time he wanted to just watch the hockey game.
Depending on Canada’s result tomorrow night against Slovakia, the U.S. will either play Finland or the Czech Republic Friday night in St. Paul in the tournament semifinals, for the chance to advance to the final in Toronto next Tuesday night. With a looming labor war (and how sad was it for me to receive an automated e-mail from Ticketmaster with the preseason schedule I know my Hurricanes won’t be playing?), this may be the last hockey we see for a while, so I’d like to hold onto it as long as possible.
7 September 2004 / 0 Comments / Tags: hockey