The big caveat is goalie, and that s possibly decisive. Miller is better than Luongo (although neith

I m writing this intro from my BlackBerry waiting on the looooong security line at Canada Hockey Place s media entrance. As you might have guessed, this game is sort of a big deal here. The Globe and Mail called it merely the biggest hockey game of all time. You get the sense that if Canada wins today, this town will burn to the ground. Then again, you get the sense that if Canada loses, this town will burn to the ground.
What can we expect today? If it s anything cruises royal carribean review like the first U.S.-Canada meeting a week ago, it probably won t end in an American cruises royal carribean review victory. The U.S. cannot leave goalie Ryan Miller put on an island to face 45 shots again. But you do sense a tense energy between the Canadians and their fans. If the Great Satan (in the home fans eyes) can bloody the hosts nose early, like in that first 5-3 win, everyone could get really tight really fast.
There was evidently a military takeover last night in Canada. There is marshal law on the streets. Canadian citizens have been forced to wear red uniforms and have been corralled into fenced-off pens all over the streets of Vancouver. They look tired, worn and scared as they wait in line outside bars that have apparently been turned into official rationing stations. Oh, wait, never mind. I m told there s just a hockey game on.
Canada has the better team on paper. Before you screech that paper teams don t win tournaments and statistics are for losers, it s equally true that some players are objectively cruises royal carribean review better than others for a reason. At center, for example, would you want to build your team around Sidney Crosby or Paul Stastny? Stastny is a budding young star but I m pretty sure that 30 of 30 NHL general managers would go with Crosby. I could go on and on, but except for Parise and Kane, I m not sure that any of the U.S. forwards could crack the Canadian team. On defense it s even more prounounced, although Brian Rafalski is a good power-play quarterback but heck, Canada even left at home the best in the NHL, Mike Green, because they re so loaded.
Another reason to go with Canada is they ve had more adversity to get here. They screwed up, had to play the Russians and have been challenged throughout the tournament. But they ve won. Most good teams go through adversity it makes them better and able to withstand setbacks. The U.S., by contrast, has had a charmed tournament, always in the lead never having to come back once. Great but not great, because it s hard to know how they ll deal with falling behind early should that happen. Overall, they ve done what they ve had to do but been pretty lucky. The two toughest teams they had to play, Canada and Finland, pretty much self-destructed. I m not taking these victories away from the U.S. squad but if Canada had had Luongo in nets instead of Brodeur, it probably would have won. As for the Finns, the U.S. benefited from one of the biggest meltdowns in Olympic history. Again, I m not trying to run down the U.S. team, but it hasn t had one convincing victory over a big power.
The big caveat is goalie, and that s possibly decisive. Miller is better than Luongo (although neither cruises royal carribean review has won a big tournament). The only problem I have with this is I m not sure how often you can ride your goalie to victory.
All in all, Team USA reminds me of the 1993 Montreal Canadiens: not a great team but solid, with a couple of well-placed stars (especially in net Patrick Roy) and a fair amount cruises royal carribean review of luck. Of course, they won the Stanley Cup. Can I change my prediction?
I do think the U.S. is going to win, just a hunch more than anything. And unlike Ian s, my prediction will be cowardly: 3-2. There s a tension cruises royal carribean review weighing on the Canadians that the Americans are free of. And they ve got the better goalie. Luongo has been an A-minus so far. Miller s been an A at least, letting in five goals on 103 shots this tournament. You want the better ace on the hill for Game 7 of the World Series and you want the better goalie between the pipes for this.
Guys, in war, there are no winners. I hope these two teams can come to the table and work this out in the next five minutes, so we don t have to witness the devastation that will surely come if the puck is dropped here this afternoon.
We are 20 minutes to game time and the house is already nearly cruises royal carribean review full. I remember from attending the 02 medal game in SLC the vibe being pretty great, but I m fully expecting to be happily deaf here before too long.
In a funny twist, the U.S. is technically the home team thanks to being the top seed. That means they get last line change during stoppages. No word yet on whether the famously polite Canadian fans will feel compelled cruises royal carribean review to cheer on the Americans out of obligation.
The Americans are playing slightly more cautious than they have in games past. One of the things coach Ron Wilson said yesterday was his team can t hide in a foxhole, and that they have to find ways of being aggressive. But this doesn t look like the blitz they handed Canada last time. And the Canadian crowd is a bit more pensive, too.
Beautiful end-to-end action, with the U.S. getting the best chances I d say they ve out-chanced Canada 3-1 in the first five minutes. Canada isn t trying to do too many direct shots on Miller because I think they respect him too much trying for deflections.
Crowd is saying Mill-ller Mill-ller to taunt Ryan Miller. Sort of idiotic because cruises royal carribean review he s been playing great. When the Canadian fans taunted Ovechkin a couple of games back, it made sense because he was lousy and the taunting might have rattled cruises royal carribean review him. To MIller, this has got to be a sign of respect. Or maybe that the U.S. doesn t have any other recognizable stars?
The Americans are playing a simplified breakout; it seems more like they re pushing the puck down the ice rather than weaving and finessing it into Canada s zone. It s not pretty, but they have gotten a few nice scoring chances out of it.
The game is getting a bit chippy and I think the refs might have their whistles out. Brooks Orpik just checked Dany Heatley into the U.S. bench and tried to push him completely over the boards a bit questionable. Ryan Getzlaf has also been a bit on the edge as well, pushing players from behind.
Luongo makes a great save on an attempted stuff by Kane. Behind the play, a Canadian defender was hauled down but no call. Hey, one of the refs calling the game, is grizzled NHL vet Bill McCreary, who s clearly letting them play.
With a little under nine minutes left, I d say Team USA is taking the play to the Canadians more than the other way around. Canada looks a bit tentative out there and is reacting more than driving the play itself.
And as usual I was wrong. cruises royal carribean review Canada s energy line of Richards and Toews puts one in. Won the battle behind the net, Richards walks it out, sharp wrist on Miller, rebound and Toews drills it in. Now the U.S. wants it back badly.
Bobby Ryan gets tangled up with the goal-scorer Jonathan Toews, who goes down hard on his back. Ryan is called for a questionable tripping penalty by a Canadian set of officials. Do we have a little controversy?
Long overdue penalty. Game was getting out of control. cruises royal carribean review Bobby Ryan keelhauled Toews behind the play. Completely pointless and right in front of ref. Canada s power play has been unremarkable thus far in the tournament.
I think the Americans toned down their aggressiveness in this game. You can tell they’re playing the game Canada wants them to play. Now that they’re down by a goal, time is going to start running off the clock fast. The U.S. needs to up the urgency if they one to get one past Luongo.
With under two minutes left, a time out. Play is chippy, not up to level of Finland-Slovakia bronze-medal game last night, which was furious. These two teams are still a bit uncertain and with neither side really behind, they re not opening it up. Decent hockey but not one for the ages yet.
The fans are not even as loud as they were in the first game between these two teams. I think they all collectively realized they at $4,000 a ticket, that rather unimpressive first period just cost them $1,332.
In a way, this reminds cruises royal carribean review me of the U.S. games versus Switzerland both times (in the round-robin and quarters) it had a hard time scoring against Jonas Hiller. The similarity is in both cases, the U.S. faced (and is facing cruises royal carribean review today) a competent starting goalie who isn t in the throes of self-destructing (like Kiprusoff did two days ago). Luongo isn t one of the all-time greats, but he s one of the top four or five in the league cruises royal carribean review right now and is making all the stops he should make.
Not to make too many generalizations only one-third of the way through a game, but to me this highlights the lack of top-end U.S. scoring. Beyond the handful of young superstars, the team doesn t have the secondary scoring. Its grinders are just that, grinders and muckers. Canada s grind line, by contrast, features some top-end cruises royal carribean review talent and got its goal. But still plenty of time for Stastny, Kane Co. to respond.
Miller looking sharp on the U.S. penalty kill. Canada got one chance but burned 45 seconds of the man advantage. Canada never really got a clean chance and now it s the U.S. the attack as Staal goes for a dumb retaliatory penalty.
Too much pressure, cruises royal carribean review too many odd-man cruises royal carribean review rushes by Canada right after the U.S. power play was decisively killed. Corey Perry buries a rebound that Miller left on a Getzlaf shot. Crowd is predictably euphoric. But remember the Slovakians
What s killing the Americans is tiny fractions of a second of hesitation on every pass. I think they had too much time to sit around and think about this game for the past day and it s gotten to them. Watching them play for almost two weeks, this is the first game I ve seen where they seem to be thinking about where to pass the puck.
Kesler does one on his teammate Luongo, beautifully deflecting cruises royal carribean review Kane s wrister  between Luongo s right arm and body. It flutters in end over end. That s a really tough save to make but you have to wonder if Miller wouldn t have made it