Keepin' Them From The Gallows Pole

Three favorites got out of jail at the very last on quarterfinal day, when the Olympics finally hit the gear that makes this all worth the trouble.

After the novelty of the first day or two, watching the ho-hum nature of most of the group stage, and then the mere formality that the qualifying round became, it was fair to wonder why the Olympics and NHL participation raised such noise. It had been 12 years, so perhaps I had just forgotten the rhythm of these things. But it felt like most everyone was wondering when the ride would really start, or if it would start.

That answer came today, with three breathless quarterfinals that had late tying goals (two with a goalie pulled), three OT games, some controversy (though perhaps thankfully some greater controversy averted), some bewildering coaching, and the tension levels finally raising to the point of the ceiling.

And also Slovakia utterly neutered Germany. And the Penguins season might have ended. But that's a problem for another day.

Let's run it through.

-We'll start at home. I certainly wasn't a fan of the selection process of Team USA. But I didn't get as bent out of shape as some others, given that the talent level on the team was still remarkably high, the defense should have still been incredibly fun to watch, and having Mike Sullivan as coach I thought would smooth out some of the fears of the team selected. I don't think Trocheck or Miller belong there, but I didn't think an addition of Caufield or Robertson would actually be that much of an upgrade in 12 minutes on the ice, in the long run. Most everything was where it should be, and the issues were on the margins, let's say.

I didn't count on the now faded "underdog" mentality that USA Hockey insists on carrying would spread to behind the bench. Though maybe having Tortorella there should have been a clue. Anyone who watched the Pens under Sullivan would hardly call him a conservative coach. Yet here, in his first true test on the international stage, he coached this game with both hands around his own neck and hiding behind whatever sofa was nearest.

I know that USA Hockey has had its brain broken by any loss to Canada, even if said loss was 12 years ago. As you'll recall, in the last Olympics with an NHL tint, Canada simply nullified the US all over the ice and won a 1-0 game that felt like 12-0. It feels like the US went into this tournament, and this game especially, trying to do the same thing when it absolutely did not have to.

While the US didn't need to try and engineer a 4x100 against Sweden, it certainly could have done more than just try and squat on a 1-0 for 20 minutes. In fact, the whole game, their story was about "grinding" Sweden down, unable to fixate on anything other than Sweden having played yesterday. This isn't a back-to-back in January where they flew in from Columbus and got in at 3AM or whatever the fuck. There's no travel, and Sweden didn't really have to break a sweat in their qualifying round game. This was a faulty plan on a phantom premise.

I suppose when a team features a top line with both Tkachuks, trying to play a forecheck game makes sense, especially as Matthew can barely move right now. But everyone? This was against Jacob Markstrom, who has been woeful all season, and the US didn't really test him all that much. They got away with it because Quinn Hughes in a 3-on-3 setting is basically unplayable, but it doesn't bode well.

It just doesn't seem to dawn on USA Hockey that they can outskill and outscore anyone in the world, and that includes Canada. As I've said repeatedly, while the US might not match the heights of MacKinnon and McDavid, look at forwards 7-12 and the whole blue line. The US is no worse than equal there. They can show up and put up a touchdown on anyone, should they choose to. They just didn't, and really haven't all tourney.

It nearly sent them home. Merely dumping the pucks in and out of each zone only asked for more pressure. While the Swedes weren't taking a battering ram to their door exactly, keeping it at 1-0 was always asking for just one great play or one bad bounce to go against them. Enter Mason Raymond with one of the passes of the tournament. Mika Zibanejad can't do anything except hit one-timers from the left circle, and the US gave him one with a minute to go.

The Yanks don't have to go full Battle of Stirling on every shift, but with the blue line they have they can certainly be more adventurous than just chips and rim arounds out of the zone. We should see them getting past forechecks and hitting late-men on the rush for an entire 60. This was trying to grind out a win on the road for two points. That's not the game here. They're not beating Canada that way.

-I'd really like to know how Jesper Bratt isn't worth more ice time than the god-kings Alex Wennberg, or Rickard Rakell, or Pontus Holmberg. European coaches are weird.

-Speaking of Canada, they almost fell down a sewer hole themselves a few hours before. While that would have been hilarious, we did avoid one nightmare scenario. As you may have heard, Ondrej Palat's potential winner was produced through iffy means, shall we say. Count 'em...

Can you imagine the four years, and more likely eternity, of wailing we would have gotten from north of the border if Palat's goal did turn out to be the winner? Sean McIndoe would have gone Spinal Tap drummer. It would probably be on every highlight package TSN and Sportnet produced ever again, and that includes their coverage of the CFL. They'd ask you about it at customs from here until heat death.

(It would also ignore that Canada's power play goal that tied it at 2-2 was a complete gift of a call as well, but let's not start that firefight).

What Canada still should be asking themselves is just how ordinary they looked, during regulation, when McDavid wasn't out there. It's stupefying, even on this roster, how much he stands out above the rest of his teammates....but should he? No one who doesn't play with McDavid managed more than two shots on goal, and until Suzuki tied it, no one looked like scoring.

Perhaps that's only a one-game problem, and Suzuki did tie it up, after all. It's unlikely they'll find much more room against a pretty dedicated Finland team, but they'll have to be better beneath their top line to avoid a similar headache.

Still, as friend of the program Fifth Feather pointed out on The Real Show, that definitely felt like that NCAA tournament game in the 2nd round where Duke would get dragged to the last two minutes by a 9-seed, and then some fuckin' pasty loser would hit a three or they'd get some ridiculous call as the refs were just tired of listening to Coach K's shit, they'd escape, and then waltz to another Final Four after that.

-I'll keep motherfucking Jordan Binnington into making the two or three big saves required, just as he did on Necas at the death and in overtime. I'm not buying it all the way until salvation, dammit!

-I will wonder what this game might have looked like had Czechia not punted on the 2nd period. They seemed terrified of the long change and getting caught on one, so they couldn't wait to just dump the puck in and change. They hassled Canada in the first 20, and parts of the last 20, by stepping up and daring that defense to make plays through them. For the most part, Canada couldn't.

-Finland-Switzerland suffered from going on partially at the same time as the Canada-Czechia game. Finland looked pretty toothless for most of it, as Switzerland is a team that should try to win a gam 1-0 or 2-0, and almost pulled it off. But an actual big goal from Sebastien Aho and then a bank shot of Jonas Siegenthaler got them out of jail in the last five minutes.

Finland might struggle to cause the same headaches for Canada that Czechia did, simply because they're not as big. They'll buzz around more, they are faster, but Rantanen has been mostly a ghost this tournament, so they'll need someone to play the role of Necas to really raise the heart rate.

-Slovakia-Germany was the only beer fart of the round, as no German d-man other than Seider could handle the Slovakian forecheck. They were consistently pinned down, and though Draisaitl did his best glaring routine at everyone, and looked like he might try to win it on his own in the 1st period, the gap between the top of Germany's roster and the rest was just too great.

Slovakia shouldn't be able to disrupt the US breakouts and retrievals in the same way. But if Sullivan goes into that one still breathing into a paper bag, anything could happen.