Perfect Hockey

Hockey has a limited following in the United States. I mean, yeah, there's lots of NHL fans, but most people in America would rather watch basketball than hockey, far more would prefer baseball, and nearly everyone would rather watch football.

People give all sorts of reasons for not liking hockey. They say it's too physical, that it isn't physical enough, that there's not enough scoring*, and that the rules are too complicated. They don't like how the play gets caught in the corners, the interminable whistles, and the stupid term "power play."

If any of those people watched tonight's USA/Canada game, they have become hockey fans. It was a perfect game, with relatively few whistles, physical, fast play, and plenty of scoring. The United States, again led by unlikely hero Brian Rafalski, scored less than a minute into the game and never trailed, despite being heavily outshot. The game itself was pretty even, with lots of end-to-end action, including one sequence where the Americans earned a breakaway, followed by a Canadian breakaway, followed by an American breakaway. This is beautiful, beautiful hockey.

There was plenty of physicality, with hits on both sides of the ice, including a weird collision between two Canadians that wrapped up a third. There was finesse, with players batting passes out of the air and back onto their sticks. There was flow, particularly in the first and third, with lots of point shots and transition offense.

The Candians were victimized by, in my opinion, a poor choice in starting goaltender. Look, I respect Brodeur, but when you're playing in Luongo's home rink against your best competition thus far, you might as well use your best goalie. Luongo doesn't allow the goals Brodeur did, particularly the ugly five-hole goal that hit Marty's stick between his legs as it deflected in. Ryan Miller, however, was brilliant, making some saves in the third period that looked, well, Brodeur-ish.

It was nice to see Drew Doughty representing his country with style and grace. Where Canadians were unlikely to comment on Doughty before, I suspect we'll start to see some #8 Team Canada jerseys before these Olympics are over. He was really, really good, and almost scored late in the third on a brilliant deke and skate into the crease. He was, however, spun around by Kings teammate Dustin Brown before diving to poke away the puck before Brown could put a shot on net.

Soccer is often called "the beautiful game," but hockey looked pretty damn gorgeous tonight.

*For those of you who like football, and think hockey is low-scoring, make touchdowns worth a single point and goals worth 7. Tonight's game was won by the United States 35-21. The Saints won the Super Bowl 5-3, rounding up each team's actual scores of 4.4 and 2.4 to whole numbers. Hockey is not low-scoring.

Oh yeah, I have a blog

I've discovered that I have substantially less to blog about when the teams I follow are playing well. If the Angels win the Series, the Kings win the Cup, and the Huskies win anything, I'll probably spend months away from here.

Regardless, after watching the US demolish Norway 6-1 despite playing about 20 minutes of good hockey and 40 minutes of crap, I figured I'd talk about sports.

Angels

I promise to have a season preview up before the season actually begins. With most projections showing the Angels to be an 85-win team, I'm fairly confident they can win 90, but it's going to take repeat or better performances from Morales and Kendrick, along with some degree of recovery from Kazmir and Santana. Santana is probably the most important player on the Angels. If he can return to his 2008 performance, he becomes a cheaper, younger, and better John Lackey. Kazmir as well, although I expect less from him, largely because he hasn't showed the solid peripherals he maintained during his first couple seasons for the last three seasons.

Joel Piniero was a waste of money. But that will become clear shortly enough. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Tony Reagins is not a top-tier GM.


Huskies

This is a big weekend for Northeastern. The hockey team opens at Matthews against BC tomorrow in a surprisingly crucial game. I say "surprisingly" because the Huskies were clinging to the final playoff spot three weeks ago, giving games in hand to powerhouses like Merrimack, and with the distinct possibility of missing the playoffs for the second time during Cronin's tenure. However, they've since won 6 of 7, with the lone loss coming in the Beanpot, and sit a single point out of fourth place. Fourth is where the home ice is, and that would be wonderful. I'm missing the final home hockey game of the season, so if I want to see more than two hockey games at Matthews before I graduate, the Huskies will have to make a valiant run to 4th.

Saturday brings Louisiana Tech to Matthews for a Bracket Buster battle between* NCAA tournament hopefuls. The Huskies can and should win this game, in front of what will likely be the largest home basketball crowd since Reggie Lewis called Huntington Avenue home. If Northeastern can win its final two CAA games, it wins the CAA regular season title and guarantees itself a spot in the NIT. Win three more in Richmond, and the Huskies dance, forcing me to scramble to find tickets to the regionals on short notice, ensuring the flight will cost more than my annual hockey budget.

Sunday, the hockey team plays BC at BC in a weird 3:00 game, a game I'd like to go to but probably can't make. Later, the US plays Canada in the closest thing we'll have to an NHL All Star game this season.


Marcus

So I updated the Ice Sports Schedules on the right side of the page. My hockey team is an expected 0-3, although my idiot teammates (and I say that in the most loving way possible) decided not to show up to a game on the 14th, so we lost by forfeit, instead of the usual "give up way more goals than you score" method. My next game comes, thankfully, after an Aerodynamics test, and we'll be playing Jeff's team, so our first W might be in sight.

My broomball team, on the other hand, has no losses and two wins, something that's never happened before. I've allowed a single goal on the season, and have posted consecutive shutouts for the first time in my career. It's a weak league this year, but if we can win our next two games we'll make the playoffs for the first time.

Coming up later this semester: floor hockey.

USA Hockey Schedule

Tues., Feb. 16: Switzerland 3:00 p.m.
Thurs., Feb. 18: Norway 3:00 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 21: Canada 7:40 p.m.

All times Eastern. The Canada game's gonna be a doozy.

The 2010 Winter Olympics Have Arrived

Hence the new title block which, I know, is kinda unreadable.

Stay tuned for USA hockey coverage.