Well, knowing that I’m going to be lynched for saying it - the hockey game yesterday wasn’t the best game I’ve ever seen. Hell, it’s not even the best game that I’ve seen this week. It was a good game though, with some fantastic memorable moments - for instance, the expression on Mario’s face, when he missed the open net on the power play, and couldn’t believe it himself. The skate halfway down the ice by Paul Kariya with a stick lodged in his skates. The fantastic undressing of the entire US team by Theo Fleury (If he’d have scored, they’d be playing that clip from now until the end of time…) Even the lip reading (both Steve Yzerman’s rendition of “I respectfully disagree with you, and call your parentage into question” and Gretzky’s exclamation of delight upon seeing the 4th goal go in)

There were a lot of things to recommend the performance of the Canadian team. They played hard, and they won. Despite what the shot totals would indicate, Canada outplayed the US for the first two periods, quite badly in several instances, but were unable to bury their chances (and thus their opponents) The third period was also lopsided, though more in the US’s favour. Fortunately Canada capitalized on their chances, putting the game away when it mattered.

As to why it wasn’t the best game I’ve seen this week even - there was some tough competition, because I personally rank the Canada Finland game as one of the best I’ve ever seen (notice, it still didn’t match up with some of the playoff games that I’ve seen) Good hockey all around though.

My theory on why the Canadians took a little longer to gel than the Americans? I know you’re all wondering what it is. Basically, my theory is that as a team, the US team has played together many times before. There are not that many elite Americans in the NHL, and the core of the US team has played together for many years (Modano, Hull, Chelios, Housley, Suter, Tkachuk, Roenick, Leetch, Richter, etc…) While in Canada, the constant turnover of talent means that only a handful of these guys had played as a team together before. Yes, you’ve got Yzerman, Sackic and Lemieux, but guys like Peca, Nolan, Iginla, and Smyth were very important pieces of the Canadian team.

Another theory - Why didn’t Roy play for Canada? My guess is that he didn’t want to have to watch what he eats quite so much - between dietary supplements, and off the shelf medications, I think being an Olympic athlete was too much hassle for him. That’s my theory at least, despite the fact that I’ve not heard anyone else even whisper it.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I made a game of it. Seeing how many times I could bounce the ball in a day, then trying to break that record.” - Principal Skinner