Post Olympic Thoughts

- Many in the Canadian media were lauding Scott Niedermayer's gold medal game performance. I thought it was better than he was earlier in the tournament, but that he was generally shaky. I don't remember him playing so recklessly at any point in his career as he did in these Games. And I don't mean good reckless. He was always up in the play, deep in the offensive zone, and not with great results. The guy is a giveaway machine. I hate ragging on Nieder because he's always been a fave of mine, but his game, his defensive game, has been deteriorating badly lately.

- Crosby was largely invisible in the gold medal game until the moment that mattered most. Damn him.

- Chris Pronger played his best game of the tournament in the finale. He was an absolute force defensively.

- I like Mike Babcock a lot but I have to call him out for the way he had his team playing with a lead in the gold medal game. The Canadians totally went into a shell and stopped forechecking. They were playing to not give up their lead, instead of going for the kill. There's a reason the Germans and the Swiss play that way. They have vastly inferior talent compared to the top six or seven hockey nations. They need to do that to keep it close. A team with the talent that Canada has should never play that way. They had success playing a more attacking style to build their 2-0 lead. Why change? Very odd, Mike.

- Phil Kessel was invisible and wasn't really battling. Maybe he's banged up because his face looked as crushed as anyone's after the game.

- Needless to say, Mike Milbury is trash.

- I haven't been as nervous or rattled watching a hockey game since the Rangers Cup run sixteen years ago. I was thirteen then. I've never been as rattled as an adult. The elation after Parise's tying goal was gone in about 20 seconds and I went right back to being a nervous wreck.

- As tough as the loss was for USA Hockey on Sunday, this loss is much easier to take than the Salt Lake loss. We left it all out there. We shouldn't have done anything differently. We just lost to an immenesly talented team on their home ice in overtime, with a future Hall of Famer, and maybe even top ten player of all time when it's all said and done, scoring the OT winner. What are you gonna do? At least Mike Richards didn't score the winner.

- In the lingering pain of Vancouver we must remember Saskatoon. We still have John Carlson. We'll be back.