By The Meatriarchy.
The professional sports journalists in Toronto haven't been exactly optimistic today regarding Canada's chances to beat the Russian team.
It is a game that might be too close to call but if you were to listen to Howard Berger of The Fan 590 or Bill Watters of Leafs Lunch today we might as well pack up and go home now.
Berger basically said he hopes Canada loses this morning on the radio claiming that if we win the next two games because of outstanding goaltending it would be a "cop out". His entire premise being that Canada has looked so poor in the preliminaries that we have to depend on superior goaltending to cover up just how bad this team is.
He then went on to say without missing a beat and without a trace of irony that he had spoken to Jaromir Jagr yesterday who told him that the preliminary games were a complete waste of time. To which Howard seemed to be in enthusiastic agreement. Gee you'd think this guy was covering the Leafs or something.
Bill Watters meantime is in full blown hysteria over the poor selection of Team Canada claiming that rookie Dion Phaneuf should have been on the team (but he somehow doesn't think Sydney Crosby should be) and that Brian McCabe shouldn't because of his lack of international experience. Which I assume that Phaneuf has in spades??
Also coming for heavy criticism has been the choice of Bertuzzi over aging winger Brendan Shanahan.
But the biggest problem for Team Canada according to the Leaf's lunch crew? That the Russian's top scorer is Evgeny Malkin who they took great pains to tell us "doesn't even play in the NHL!!".
And to refresh your memory Malkin played in the World Juniors and completely folded under the physical play of the Canadians.
Look the winner of this game will most likely win the gold medal. So unless Canada gets blown out it isn't a complete disaster. But please lets leave the Monday morning quarterbacking till tomorrow (which is Thursday I know).
Leafs vs. Sens - Commentary from both sides of the aisle.
2-0. It was the Black Jerseys of Death I tell you.
ReplyDeleteBack to the mustard for 2010.
Fucking fuck.
ReplyDelete"Umm guys, you can't score from BEHIND the net. Get off the boards and walk in a couple of times."
Doesn't really bode well for the Leafs or the Sens as none of those guys managed to elevate their game enough when it really mattered and the inability of the team to get a decent powerplay or, really, anything offensive together has to fall at least a bit on the coaches.
Looks like a lot of that pre-game doom was justified. There is no way that the team selection and coaching aren't going to be the centre of a solid week's all-consuming debate.
ReplyDeleteCanada could go to war with Norway tomorrow, and we'll still be reviewing who got cut and who got played.
To be fair, it's gonna be awful easy for a number of people who had doubts before and are gonna be able to play the "I told you so" card. So, perhaps we discuss curling here until the NHL returns? (Or, as a Leafs fan, September).
Just finished watching the game, Brodeur was phenomenal once again in order to cover up some defensive lapses. While RUS didn't capitalize as much as they could have, once again we spent too much time in the penalty box. Doan line was good, at least Shane was hitting everything in sight. Lecavalier-Smyth-StLouis line was good too, things were "happening" when they were on the ice. Watching some of the other guys skating/playing today, I don't think their heads were into the whole thing, Nash and Heatley to name a couple. And after it was reported that Nash was benched the other day because his shifts were too long and he was floating out there, well that's an attitude we certainly do NOT need. But whatever, it's done and while I'm disappointed, I'm certainly not FREAKING out like Wilbur and Berger.
ReplyDeleteThere's armchair quarterbacks and then there's talking heads going into hysterics. Whatever Wilbur says I just wave off with my hand because he has bad hair plugs and he has a vendetta against his ex-employers. As for Berger, for a guy who I thought was kind of intelligent for a sportswriter, he sure has gone off the deep end with this one. So what if the team might have won the next 2 games with superior goaltending? Sometimes that's how you win games you dope... This team is certainly not BAD, it just looked to me like only some guys were on the same page and that has to do with attitude/ego/mental prep. So for 2010, let's hope this will not be an issue and everyone on that team can stay in it mentally.
So Howie, while the loss is a bit disappointing, the sun is going to come up tomorrow and someone else will be wearing the gold, just not us. Life goes on... So stop dumping on the team so fervently and try and live with the fact that the world has now caught up to Canada in the hockey skill dept.