Friday, September 03, 2004

A Few World Cup Thoughts

I watched some of Finland vs. Germany yesterday. Suomi's Miikka Kiprusoff has yet to give up a goal. Jere Lehtinen scored an awesome goal ... he was in the slot and fired a no-look, top-shelf backhand that was a rocket. Barry Melrose loved this one - said he hadn't seen a backhand goal like that in the last twenty years.

Russia vs. the USA last night. Russia is F-A-S-T. They had been written off coming into this tourney, but right now I have them #2 in my book. (Though I haven't seen Sweden yet.)

The pace of the Finland/Germany game was WCHA-like compared to the Stanley Cup-like pace of the Russia/USA game.

Ron Wilson did a nice juggling job tonight to put in some young guns who put a fire into the USA while they knocked of Slovakia. Still, it was Slovakia - the US needs to continue to play uptempo, no-mailing-it-in hockey to advance any further in this tourney. There's a good chance they'll face Russia again in the quarterfinals.

I still think Canada is the team to beat in this thing. Too bad tomorrow's Canada vs. Russia game isn't on ESPN ... or for that matter Sweden vs. Finland.