Cold Comfort

Team USA and Team Canada were both unceremoniously dumped from the Olympic men’s hockey tournament Wednesday, America 4-2 by Finland and Canada 2-0 by Russia. They won silver and gold in Salt Lake City four years ago, but will fly home from Turin empty-handed this time. Reactions from the hockey press both north and south of the 49th have been rather vitriolic at times, but I’m not sure that’s called for.

The general tenor in the USA has been the calmer of the two for two reasons: this team wasn’t expected to do well, and hockey simply doesn’t matter as much here. The team’s final record was 1-4-1, but the flow of play actually looked better than most hockey observers expected from this team before the tournament; the three preliminary losses were by one goal, and America wasn’t able to finish plays with any regularity.

American hockey is caught in a generation gap this year. The core of this team has been intact since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey win, and the brightest American stars since then are currently in college or just beginning their NHL careers: expected 2006 #1 draft pick Phil Kessel at the University of Minnesota, 2005 Carolina #2 Jack Johnson at the University of Michigan, New Jersey’s Zach Parise, etc. Those players will feature at the 2010 games in Vancouver, but were not ready yet; meanwhile, the ‘96ers were mostly in their upper 30s or early 40s, and it showed, especially on the larger international ice surface that required consistent hard skating. It’s arguable that head coach Peter Laviolette and general manager Don Waddell could have selected a few more young players, or even changed up a veteran or two (Brian Leetch for Derian Hatcher seemed to be the primary desire pre-Olympics), but results likely wouldn’t have been much better. You can’t win all the time, and sometimes we Americans have trouble with that concept.

That said, a few players did earn positive recognition. At the risk of being partisan, Erik Cole of the Carolina Hurricanes was the best player on the ice for the United States over the course of the tournament. Brian Gionta of the New Jersey Devils and the Islanders’ Jason Blake were both all over the ice, and for three games in the preliminaries, Rick DiPietro shut us all up with the kind of goaltending that made him the #1 overall pick in 2003. His kamikaze style scares the daylights out of me, and by all reports he’s got an ego and a half, but he cares, and I love how proud he is to play for his country.

Read More » 25 February 2006 / 0 Comments / Tags: hockey

USA-Latvia Liveblogging

I’ve got an odd venue for liveblogging USA-Latvia, as I’m at a Tex-Mex bar near my office with the laptop on the bar. Terminally uncool? Yep, that’s me. The television is muted, so Ray Ferraro is talking, but the only sound is Mexican adult contemporary pop. Kinda surreal, really.

One resource you might like is Justwide’s USA Olympic roster — USA Hockey only provides it in a Microsoft Word .DOC, which is merely inconvenient for us Mac users and dangerous for PC folks (who knows what fun lurks behind a humble macro?).

Also, if you’d like to see more about the earlier games, go check out fellow Caniac d-lee’s work at red and black hockey.

First Period: I arrived just in time to see my boy Erik Cole take an inadvertent slash across the face, but he was back out a few minutes later. If you liked seeing John-Michael Liles jumping up on the play that resulted in the first USA goal, get used to it — we Canes fans have been treated to that sort of play all season long. Peter Laviolette isn’t afraid to let defensemen who can skate join the rush. Team USA doesn’t appear sluggish, but Latvia is obviously trying to spread the ice on odd-man rushes, the classic play against North American-based teams. Their goal was scored exactly this way, as the right D for Team USA (didn’t catch who) was unable to cover the two men on him effectively. Lack of experience together prevented good communication between him and goaltender John Grahame to isolate on one forward.

Second period: Was I saying something? The USA looked ragged, but was managing to hold puck possession until about 14 minutes in. Grahame had also looked solid to that point under limited work; not exactly afterward. Latvian goaltender and Canes 2002 hero Arturs Irbe has stood his ground, and his team’s experience together showed, interrupting passing lanes and connecting where Team USA simply wasn’t able to. The talent disparity is clear, but so is the brains disparity (at least under current travel- and team composition-related conditions) that goes the other way, giving us Latvia 3, USA 2 through 2. Peter Laviolette didn’t look to have lost his composure, but let’s hope he has a couple of ideas in the dressing room. Read More »

15 February 2006 / 0 Comments / Tags: hockey

Foursquare

Oh no! I’ve been tagged!

Four jobs I’ve had:

• computer programmer
• bus driver
• intramural sports referee
• network design consultant

Four movies I can watch over and over:
I’m not much of a movie person, but here goes…

• Sneakers
• Office Space
• Grosse Pointe Blank
• Miracle

Four books I could read over and over:

• Open Net, George Plimpton
• The Guns of the South, Harry Turtledove
• The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Tom Clancy
• Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby

Four TV shows I love:
This is going to require some cheating. I don’t watch much non-sports TV.

• Hockey Night in Canada
• ESPN College GameDay
• Pardon The Interruption
• Sliders (last regular show I watched… cancelled by Fox in 1997)

Read More » 9 February 2006 / 2 Comments / Tags: life

A (Travel) Day In The Life

This is the story of Friday, the beginning of my Arizona trip. All times are 24-hour (subtract 12 from hours over 12 to get the PM time), the name of the airline is unchanged to leave the guilty party unprotected. Photos will be available by the end of the week… keep your eyes on my Flickr.

0630 Eastern Time: Wake up. Boarding pass is already printed from online checkin last night for Northwest Airlines flights at 1715 from Washington Dulles (IAD) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and at 2155 from MSP to Phoenix (PHX). While electronics, shirts, and socks are packed, pants are not. Maybe I should pack some pants.

0830: Arrive at work. Work is work. I’d rather fly.

0900: Call Northwest, ask if I can stand by on the 1159 Reagan National (DCA)-MSP flight, even though my ticket is out of Dulles. This isn’t a problem when flying United or U.S. Airways. Customer service agent says no problem, just go to the airport and get yourself added to the list.

1030: Metroing myself out of here, with code on the USB drive that I can look at on the airplane.

1100: The Northwest check-in staff at DCA has a different opinion from that of their 800 number. No standby for me. I love wasting my time, especially when I called them in advance precisely to avoid doing so.

1130: Back down to the office parking lot, where I take one look at the building and decide trying the 1415 at IAD is a more enjoyable option than returning to work. Go TDI go.

1230: Arrival at Dulles, where the Northwest staff is more helpful, promptly confirming me on the 1415, since my original flight is badly overbooked, and placing me on standby for the 1715 MSP-PHX. In this process, they inadvertently cancel my reservation on the MSP-PHX late flight; resurrection of this ticket yields an exit row aisle seat. Cool. I’ll have to check in for that flight at MSP, but that’s no big deal — gives me a chance to scout the gate location at a brand-new airport for me in a brand-new state for me.

Read More »

7 February 2006 / 0 Comments / Tags: travel