VeeshanVault

Just thought it was odd there was no mention of the tournament here at all. Am I the only one (trying) to watch it? Kinda rough when the games are starting in the mid-morning here in NF.

Also fuckin sucks that the golf medal game...Canada vs the US is on during a time when most people from those countries are at work. Seems that Sunday morning would have been a more sensible time to have it.

Anyway...as I post this, Canada is up 3-1 at the end of the second....GO CANADA!

Narmgarf

I'm watching it at the moment. Good game so far on both ends.

I don't even know what sport you're talking about.

Or is this like the Junior Olympics or something?

It's the World Juniors for hockey. Geez...what other world juniors would a Canadian be excited about?

Narmgarf

3-2 now

My bad, I had originally thought it had to be hockey, but I wasn't aware there was world junior hockey tournament. My mistake.

Gratz US...played a good tournament. Canada played well too...can't knock them for it...and all in all silver is better than bronze.

My thoughts are that overall Fleury didn't really live up to the billing. I suspect that's at least partly because there was no real pressure up until the last game.

Wish I'd seen the game...don't even think I can watch the replay tonight cause I'm in the Leafs region and will get stuck Toronto and Pittsburg on tv...

Narmgarf

Missed it.

This is where Gretzky got noticed on television for the first time I believe. I think he was only 14 at the time

The disappointment is fading enough for me to comment on this

My thoughts are that overall Fleury didn't really live up to the billing.

Wrong.

Was Fleury outplayed by his opposite number? Yes. Montoya had a HUGE game for team USA: in the words of the TSN commentators he went from being a nobody to a somebody in the hockey world. However of the 4 goals only 1 can be blamed on Fleury if you've the inclination. The first goal, was a bad bounce (clearing attempt goes off the ref to Team USA), the other 2 were defensive lapses by the Canadian forwards and defense. Only the game winner was Fleury's fault and it was more bad luck than anything else, and even it started with sloppy defensive play by the Canadian skaters.

Overall, I though Team Canada deserved a kinder fate than this: they outplayed Team USA for most of the game, but Team USA weathered the storm, rallied behind a hot goalie and took advantage of opportunities where Canada didn't. It was interesting to me that Team USA was finally able to get back in the game when the coach abandoned his reliance on his top 2 lines and 3 defensemen, and used his whole bench: when he used the whole team, they were able to compete, but not when he was trying to showcase his top players.

Grats Team USA on first ever Gold medals, but beware: this younger Canadian squad will be back next year and want some payback!

I'll try and switch around what I said a little (given that I'd posted shortly after the loss and was pretty put out by it).

I still was not impressed by Fleury throughout the tournament. Never struck me as being anything other than an average goalie...probably in large part because he was getting bored. Regardless, I didn't see any exceptional goaltending on his part during the tournament.

I agree that the fault for losing the gold isn't his though. They didn't lose 1-0 and you're right in saying that he only directly caused one of the goals. So while it's true that a hotter goalie might have made the difference, a better performance from the offense/defense would have probably had the same result.

There's always next year

narmgarf