Obviously everyone in Canada is flipping out about this right now. Apparently something ludicrous like 50% of all Canadians watched this hockey game. It may as well have been our Super Bowl. And we lost. And everyone was stunned. One of the people I was watching the game with mentioned after the first period “I thought we’d be up 3-0 by now”.
What I don’t get is why is everyone so surprised? Does Canada have a better roster than the Americans? Yeah, obviously. Do the San Jose sharks have a better roster than the Edmonton Oilers. Yes. But no one ever says “It’s absolutely stunning that the oilers beat the sharks”. Even on ice Canada was obviously the more talented squad. They dominated in time on attack, and embarrassingly outshot the Americans. But Miller made Brodeur look like a rookie who didn’t understand the game of hockey and the Americans capitalized on their opportunities. That’s it. The fact of the matter is in one game elimination tournaments variance plays a huge role and the best team doesn’t always win.
So Canada, yeah, our team is stacked, but don’t count on anything.