E.L. wrote:
They should play a best-of-7 every year.
My god. They'd kill each other! After Poulin's hit on Decker, could you imagine 3-6 more games? I mean, I'm all for it! The 2022 pools:
Group B (for Bronze): All teams play each other once and then compete for the bronze medal in a single elimination tournament beginning with 1v6, 2v5 and 3v4.
Banned dopers from Russia
Swiss
Finland
Sweden
Japan
Cobbled together host country
Group A (For Gold): 7 game gold series!
Canada
USA
Done.
Pokecheque wrote:
Canada did a great job in regulation keeping shots to the outside, the US simply couldn't get anything going offensively, even after getting a slew of power plays (yes, Scott Moir, I thought that one call was a bit iffy too). But once OT started it blew wide open and I felt like the US flat-out dominated, and Canada looked completely gassed. If they had just kept doing OT like they should have I'm reasonably confident the Americans would've won, but I can't say that with a ton of certainty since, y'know, Marie-Philip Poulin.
One thing about the women's game that drives me nuts though...the refs need to do a better job of getting the hell out of the way. Given how much ice was out there you'd think they'd be able to do so.
Hate that it ended in a shootout (even though that Lamoureux Britney-inspired dangle was siiiiick) but I'm thrilled the American women did after 20 years what the American men simply haven't been able to do for a good, long time--bring home the gold.
The US game was all about speed and when they couldn't beat the Canadians to the outside they had no shot, other than Hillary Knight. I hate shootouts too, but have to admit that one was amazing, and not just because the US won. And yes, the officiating was horrible, and both teams benefited or got hosed alternately. I've seen Canadians saying the refs wanted the US to win, and Americans yelling about the Poulin hit on Decker going unpenalized, when she probably should have been tossed. And yeah, they were constantly in the way! Ridiculous. It's like they find officials who never played and have no idea where the puck is likely to go. Or maybe they were recently players and are going to the open space to get it.
The US Men- it will be at least 42 years between gold medals, and probably a hell of a lot longer. We've gotten a lot better at hockey, but not good enough. I was hoping they'd recapture some Miracle aura by having some college kids, but that obviously didn't happen.