Wow! So much for playing well against the Russians. To be fair, although the scoreboard said 7-2, there were two empty netters and a garbage time goal at the buzzer, so it wasn't quite that bad.
Actually, team USA looked pretty good. After giving up the first two goals, we played really well defensively despite being on the penalty kill most of the night. Not a complaint about the officiating, mind you. They really only blew one call, when they should have awarded USA a penalty shot when Russia deliberately took the net off the moorings while the puck was in play in their own zone. We just took way too many penalties and found other ways to put ourselves in harm's way. Offensively, we played okay, but we couldn't finish some key plays. In the net, Montoya did way more than could have been expected.
Hats off to the Russians for playing a really solid defensive game and to their stellar goalkeeping. However, they really demonstrated some incredibly poor sportsmanship by taunting the USA players and fans. Thankfully it didn't get ugly, but it easily could have.
As much as I hate Barry Melrose, I liked the amount of optimism he has for saving the NHL season. I'm not that optimistic, but he's got a finger closer to the pulse of the game than I do.
Okay. So now we get to play in a meaningless bronze medal game on Tuesday. I only hope that our pension for brinksmanship doesn't do us in. It would be a real shame for the defending champs to fail to take a medal.
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