It will go down of the great Olympic days in our nation’s history. 4 more medals and knocking the snot out of our old hockey nemesis.Life is good.
Canada has advanced to the semifinals in mens’ hockey, thanks to a 7-3 dismantling of Russia. It was beautiful. Usually, when I watch Canada-Russia, I feel like I’m going to have a stroke. It’s crazy. Instead, this was a nice, smooth, relaxing kill – a no doubter.
Think Canada has gelled as a team yet? Think they’ve discovered their scoring touch? How about 15 goals in the last 2 games? Equally impressive was the defence. Had Russia scored a couple of quick goals early in the third, we’d have been in for a wild finish. Instead Big Red managed just 2 or 3 decent chances, their big guns castrated by a relentless, smothering attack.
Meanwhile, Canada’s bumpy road to gold hit a nice stretch of pavement last night. It’s hard to imagine tomorrow’s semifinals will not include Russia or Sweden.
Can I Get the Shocker?
The Swedes were shockingly shocked by Sloshockia, um, Slovakia last night. That means Alfie comes home early, in one piece, with plenty of rest for the Senators' stretch run. Only Canadian gold would be better news than that. Praise Alfie!
So Canada’s opponent in tomorrow’s semifinals is Slovakia. I would never look past the Slovaks. In fact, I can't look past the Slovaks. Not with 8 foot 7, 479 pound Zdeno Chara on their side. The 'Vaks have beaten both the Swedes and Russians in this event. However, if you gave Canada a choice of opponents, we all know what their answer would be. They'd say "Vak you! Beat it, Sweden!"
Put Sweden and Slovakia in the NHL, the Slovaks would finish 40 points behind Sweden. But, as Sweden found out last night, the best team doesn’t always win in a one game deal.
With any luck, the Slovaks will be out of emotional gas. They’ve never gone this far in the Olympics before, making last night’s win over the Swedish dream team the biggest win in the nation’s history. Reminds me of David's monster upset in the 980 BC Conference final. David fans went hard on the fermented grain that night. David had to be excited but emotionally spent after toppling Goliath. But what if they rolled out Goliath’s twin brother the very next day?
You’re not sneaking up on Goliath 2, nor will he stand around laughing while you look around for a nice pebble to fit your sling shot. He’ll just, you know, kill you and stuff.
Canada can now win gold if they play half that well the next two games. If they replicate that performance two more times, it's over and it won’t be pretty for their victims.
As for Russia…they’re goin’ home, Harry! They’re goin’ home.
