Jerry D’Amigo is the fucking truth. That’s all you need to care about now. Embrace your 6th round American overlord and savior.

You know it’s a game right :)

the semi Swe vs US was the REAL final!
They were the two best team in this years Juniors- tournament.

When both starting goalies get yanked, you know it’s going to be a crapshoot in the end.

Canada could have won if they converted on the near-misses they had on their early 3rd period PP, on their last-minute chances in reg, or on their post dribblers in OT. The US could have put the game out of reach with their chances in the 3rd.

Both teams allowed defensive lapses to allow the other side to take control of the game: Canada with USA’s fast 2-goal lead, and the Americans with Canada’s late-game goals. Allen was not what the Canadians needed as the game ended, and Lee was unacceptable for the US in the early game.

4-on-4 is designed for this kind of ending: trade chances back and forth until one team gets caught and an odd-man rush goes back the other way. But from the Canadian side, why wouldn’t the coaches plan for that and have more balanced pairs on the ice? Kadri tried his best to get back and take the 3rd man, but Carlson just ripped it without needing to pass. When you’ve already seen shaky goaltending in your end, you have to be more defensive.

Oh, and watch the replays of Carlson’s shot. The reason why he had a barn door on Jones’ right post is that Jones was cheating on the pass. Why? Because Carlson didn’t look at the net the whole time he was coming at the net — it was a pure no-look fakeout snipe of a shot. What a great goal to win it on.

The sad thing is, we will care more about the loss than:
- the Americans care about winning the gold
- we would have cared about winning the gold
- the Americans would have cared about losing the gold
Sure it would have been nice to win another, but in a 5-5 OT game its a coin-flip.

A great game to watch and enjoy, but great hockey this was not. Look on the bright side: at least the Leafs made up ground on the East… playoffs???1

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(Also Kadri had some great moments in this game and has me excited as a Leafs fan. Sure he missed a couple chances to put Canada up or win the game, but he was in the right places and over an 82-game season I know he’ll convert more than his share of them)

was the Swiss sieve voted Best Goalie!??
To steal/loan a Simpson word; umbelievable!!!

Jared Cowen gets nothing.

But Tyler Johnson does!

I love my Chiefs…

slowly raises fists for oncoming Toronto based onslaught

Seriously though, as an American (who watched my teams “goalie of the future” get blasted no less), I enjoyed the game. I harbor no ill will toward you nice, yet clearly aggrivated folks. Toronto is still my 2nd favorite team due to my best friend being from the Great White North.

Still, to be fair to my guys…

Petro got called on a play that the rules are different for in the NHL. It would have been 2 minutes in the NHL sure, but different rules mess with kids (and remember they are kids). Also, Petro made a key assist, and taking big shots for offensive breaks is what you try to do during 4-4 hockey. Unless your playing to get it ot a shootout, and you don’t do that in a 20 minute OT.

As for Allen…. Well, I don’t think he was the worst goalie on the ice. Mike Lee allowed 3 goals against 7 shots. Still, that was a rough outing. And I guess his entire home country is gonna hate him for a long while now, so I kinda want to get him to Alaska… now. CROSS THE BORDER JAKE!

Howeva, if Allen becomes a Fleury esqe goalie, I don’t think I’ll be doing too much complaining.

Honestly, I think the lack of competion is what got to Canada. The only good team you played was the US. After our game to Canada (which gave us confidence going forward), we then went out and beat 2 good teams to give us momentum going into the game while you guys got a day off and a matchup with the Swiss. I’d even have 5 bucks that if the US would have won the shootout, Canada would have gotten pumped and killed everyone and beat the US by like 3 in the gold medal game. But that’s the breaks.

And good on you for calling them out on that.

I hope no one at the olympics actually starts that cheer.

My thoughts exactly. Not taking anything away from the Americans but Canada losing is an embarrassment, period. I accept nothing but total victory, there is no second place or consolation prize, you either win the effing gold or you lose it all. That’s it.

Allen was absolutely god-awful, his glove-hand was positively Tosk-Coft-licious and our defense did dick-all to help him out. Bloody Desjardin should’ve yanked him two games back, I don’t understand why Allen got the starter job, he never looked comfortable in net and was a complete sieve on every odd-man rush.

Terrible. Just terrible.

Kadri can shoot, but he needs to work on his passes. Eberle was the only consistently good player on that team.

I saw him skate at the Under 18 and was amazed he lasted to the 6th round of the draft.

The USNDP is one of the the top hockey factories in the world. The US team didn’t have some of the high end talent that Canada did, but they seemed to play better as a team. They had an excellent game plan and capitalized on mistakes.

As for Kadri, I actually think he played really, really well in the tournament. He made the roster as the 4th line center, but by the medal round he was centering the top line. He was also the go-to center for Desjardins down the stretch. He played with Hall and Eberle on the top PP unit and was one of the two PK units on the team. He must of been out on the ice for almost the entire final 5-6 minutes of that hockey game That speaks volumes about how highly the coaching staff thought of him. I know he didn’t score as many goals as people were expecting, but he had some really good chances late in the game where Campbell made some excellent saves. Kadri played fine in my book.

The better team won. I mostly just needed to vent and want Chemmy to NNN this :)

I haven’t seen that many happy Americans since Hardee’s introduced the Monster ThickBurger!

The Leaf fan in me is going to trump the Canadian in me for a second here…

If it weren’t for Eberle’s heroics at the end of the third, then the most recent World Juniors and the Memorial Cup, undeniably the two most important competitions in the world for U20 hockey players, would have been iced by Leaf prospects. (D’Amigo for USA, Dale MItchell for Windsor)

Especially on that top line. three guys used to carrying a team all by themselves decided to stop playing as a unit and tried to win the “big game” all by themselves (and yes, I’m talking Kadri too…) The checking line looked much better out there for Canada.

That said, I liked Kadri’s game, saw fewer of those low percentage plays from him, and Eberle looks NHL ready now. Very impressive. Taylor Hall was brilliant in fits and spurts, but the drop off between he and Tavares is noticeable. If Hall is the consensus #1 pick, then who cares where the Leafs finish.

The penalty called on the US near the end there for goalie interference was weak sauce. If that were called against Canada, i’m fairly certain the refs and linesmen would all be in witness protection. Brutal, brutal call. Lots of weird non-calls as well. Not sure what was going on with the refs, but either the IIHC needs a better class of officiating, or their rule book is far more open to interpretation.

I got to listen to the absolutely homerific, USA-centric play by play on the NHL network last night. It hurt. When the US pulled their goalie and put in, whoever that other goalie was (can’t be bothered to look it up…) it was a brililant move because when goalies come in off the bench to a tie game, they only need a few shots to get their groove and they’re already focused.

A few minutes later, Canada changes their goalie. This is a bad move according to Mr. Colour Commentator because the goalie coming in off the bench is cold and may not be focused. WTF?

On and on this guy went about stuff like that. Finally had to mute it.

All in all, I thought both teams played well, but in the end, the US had a better team. Canada had a better bunch of talented individuals. it’s the same thing that worries me for the Olympics…

Jordan Eberle gives me a boner.

from here: http://www.japersrink.com/2010/1/6/1236434/carlsons-no-look-shot-in-20-frames