Here is Team USA with most of its players under the age of 26 and playing in their first Olympics. A trip to play for the bronze would have been a huge win for this team; some well earned experience before the next big tournament. But then we beat Canada. We saw Ryan Miller become a household name as he spearheaded the Americans to win after win. The honor of the Tournament MVP almost didn’t seem to do his play justice. 

The Americans got inspired performances from young and old, hyped and maligned. It was 22 year old Bobby Ryan getting the scoring started for the tournament and 36 year old Brian Rafalski who sparked Team USA to an opening round win over Canada with two goals and an assist. Patrick Kane recovered from a slow start to net two goals and a gigantic assist in the final two games, while a much debated selection in Chris Drury had a wonderful tournament in his own right. 

Any hockey fan worth his  or her salt would have said that Zach Parise needed to play well in this tournament for the US to have a shot. As the game was winding down, it looked like Luongo and the Canadians were going to hold off a furious, but sloppy attempt by the US to tie the game. While the Americans had many chances in the third period, they couldn’t seem to manufacture great ones in the last couple of minutes.  Parise managed to get behind both Canadian defenders though, and tipped home a rebound to tie the game with under 30 seconds to go. What a moment.

But then there was Canada. Taking off the star spangled glasses, this was a magnificent story for our northerly neighbors. The Canadians had to take the long road to the gold medal. They benched their star goalie in favor of another premiere goaltender who was playing in a city he was quite familiar with as a Vancouver Canuck. Players like Brendan Morrow, used to the glamorous role of star found themselves in front of the net taking shots to the ribs just in case they could block a goalie’s line of sight.  Nine Canadian players were captains on their respective teams, including Jonathan Toews, who put the US on the wrong side of the scoreboard for the first time in the entire tournament when he gave Canada a 1-0 lead yesterday. 

Finally, much to the dismay of most American hockey fans Sidney Crosby netted the game winner. The captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins took a pass from Jerome Iginla that barely missed the sticks of Ryan Suter and Brian Rafalski and slipped the puck past Ryan Miller before the US goaltender was ready. The play happened so fast and just like that it was over. 

Ryan Miller slumped over. The young Americans watched from just outside their own bench as the Canadians went crazy among thousands of euphoric fans. Aside from national pride and the “why Crosby?” factor, they deserved this.  It was a fitting end to the Olympics, with Canada winning the gold they had hoped for. The only gold they couldn’t do without. Team USA will eventually be able to look back on the silver medal and appreciate the amazing feat they accomplished, but for a while its going in a drawer. Because with all respect to Canada, we deserved gold too.

U-S-A! U-S-A!  The Americans fielded (iced?) a team made up mostly of players 26 and younger, very few of which had seen action in the Olympics. The results so far couldn’t be better. Team USA is unbeaten in the tournament and plays Finland in the semifinals today at 2 CT.  Of course things got real when the Americans beat the host nation last weekend; the first time we had beaten Canada in 50 years. If we take down a tough Finland squad today, it will likely set up a rematch of USA-Canada for the gold medal. 

Take my running back, please.  Think back to three years ago and how much drool would be spilled over this running back free agent class. Tomlinson, Westbrook, Larry Johnson, and Thomas Jones will be available this off-season.  Seriously, if you told me three years ago they would all be available and they should all be approached with caution, I’d have gone all Brian Fellows on you. Anyway, a couple teams looking for a solid veteran back is going to be pretty happy. 

Don’t talk about ESPN’s lady like that. Tony Kornheiser made fun of Hannah Storm a little bit this week and ESPN was real pissed. Storm’s attire has drawn some attention before and Kornheiser really just said what a lot of people were thinking  anyway. Of course, there is no big problem with how Storm dresses, it’s just ridiculous. What’s up with the two week suspension? It started at three days and was extended to a week. Message sent ESPN, no criticizing co-workers. So Tony, next time you think about poking fun at Steve Levy’s suit, check yourself.

Durant’s amazing streak ends.  Without enough people knowing it, Kevin Durant is having an unreal season for the OKC Thunder. This week he ended a streak of 29 games scoring 25 or more points. Only Jordan put together a longer streak when he went for 40 straight games in the late 80’s. The Spurs put it to an end holding him to 21 points and shutting out the star in the fourth quarter. During the streak Durant averaged 32 ppg and shot 50% from three. Kid deserves some MVP votes.

Thank you Twitter.  There are so many ways to be heard today, which is great when you have someone as interesting as Ozzie Guillen. The Sox manager opened his Twitter account this week and the Internet may not be able to contain the awesome. Nothing earth-shattering has been tweeted thus far, but early on my favorite part is the broken English. I really hope he uses this thing to its full potential because honestly one problem with Ozzie is that I can’t understand a lot of what he’s saying at times.  Twitter should really allow him to bring the crazy in HD, but still keep that adorable habit of butchering the language.  For example, “Bed and bath I love this places,” or “going to eat in half hour why dye no have a job?”  These are the things we must know! Love it.

Tiger Woods y’all. As this post goes up Tiger will be giving his statement to the media from Florida regarding his future and certainly the past few months. I love how the media is so offended and outraged that Woods is controlling the situation. No questions?!! Well, I never! Settle down journos, I think you got your fill of TMZ-ish dirt on Tiger from his harem. Tiger owes you nothing-whether you’re a journalist, a sponsor, or fan-and if he wants to give a statement regarding his future that’s his call and you have no place to dictate or bitch about how it goes down. Now, make it up to me by yelling “you the man Tiger!” when he walks in the room. Thanks.

Olympics opening week.  Personally I have loved the first week of the Olympics more than I predicted. There have been some very compelling and exciting events like Apollo Ohno skating to a medal in short track. Short track speed skating is phenomenal. A small group of skaters fly around this tiny track and pass each other a bunch of times in the last few laps. It’s like a watchable version of NASCAR; there are even crashes! Anyway, America’s biggest stars all found their way to the medal stand this week with Shani Davis (from Chicago!), Shaun White, and Lindsey Vonn taking goldwhile Bode Miller and Apollo Ohno have also medaled.  The US even took gold in men’s figure skating last night as another Chicagoan, Evan Lysacek, became the first American man to win the event since 1988. U-S-A, U-S-A!

NBC fail, but not really.  There has been fury from fans regarding NBC’s Olympic coverage and for good reason. Dick Ebersol and the rest of the folks at the peacock have created an event that is tough to stomach for sports fans. Despite the games being conveniently located in Canada, Americans have been forced to watch many events on tape delay. There have also been a ton of commercials. I like to complain how the NFL broadcasts have the annoying policy of going to commercial after a score, then back for the kickoff, then back to commercial before the ensuing drive. NBC has taken this to another level of torturous viewing hell. During tape delayed skiing runs, they went to break after almost every three minute run, we missed large parts of hockey games while they covered post-game for curling, and there have been times where the advertising has seeped into coverage infomercial style. Despite all of this, ratings have been huge, once again showing that the bottom line is more important than pleasing your audience.

Trades!  The trade deadline in the least competitive league in professional sports passed yesterday. Of the four (two?) teams that could plausibly win the championship this year, the Cavs were the only one to make a big deal, acquiring Antwan Jamison from the Wizards for pretty much nothing. The Bulls made some moves to clear cap space next year, which seemed to be the goal of a lot of teams at the deadline. That is sad. Can the Lakers and Cavs just go ahead and play the finals now? If the NBA promises everyone a few million in cap space, everyone might agree to it.

Pitchers and catchers report. Almost every team in Major League Baseball has kicked off spring training! About a month and a half out from Opening Day, pitchers and catchers reporting is the first sign of hope that winter is coming to an end. It’s time to get your fantasy preview publication of choice and crafting your squad.

To me, the Canadians are the favorites in the tournament. They just have too much talent throughout the entire lineup.  The Russians might have the most firepower and the scariest top players, but their depth will hurt them and they cannot match Canada in the goaltending department. 

The US will do well to get bronze, but as we’ve seen before they can provide a surprise (good or bad).  Kane’s line with Paul Statsny and Zach Parise should provide plenty of scoring that will scare teams in the quarterfinal round and Ryan Miller can steal a game at any time in goal.  It all starts today, so hopefully those crazy Canadians have actual ice in the arena.  Check out the Hawks videos for the popsicle eating contest and the speed skating.

Good for them.  The Saints and Colts continued the trend of playing exciting, close Super Bowl games when they squared off in front of the largest television audience ever.  Take that, American Idol.  Obviously the game has been fawned over a ton, but obviously I have to mention the two most memorable plays in the brilliant onside kick and the pick-six by Porter.  People were arguing which play was bigger, but I don’t see how anyone can win that argument; I’m not sure the Saints would have won without both plays.  It was an awesome run for New Orleans.  The Saints beat three Hall of Fame quarterbacks on their way to their rings and Porter picked off two of them in dramatic situations.  But now what?

The Olympics.  I love the Olympics, but it seems like an event a lot of people like to complain about.  How do you complain about this? It’s three weeks of bonus sports programming!  Don’t like the Olympics? Keep watching the same crap you have been watching, since it isn’t affected unless you like hockey; and if you like hockey and don’t like Olympic hockey you can eat a cactus, because you are an awful person.  Get into the Olympics! Watch some luge until it occurs to you that you would certainly poo yourself around the second turn, watch that James Bond stuff where they ski and shoot rifles, and for the love of all that is holy watch curling.  By the time the Olympics are done, you’ll be very close to conference tournaments and it will feel like the Super Bowl hangover didn’t even happen.

College Basketball.  I’ve never really jumped into college basketball season with both feet before March, but it isn’t a bad idea at all.  Watch some teams you think have a shot at the final four and get some scouting done for that bracket you’ll fill out.  See how they play on the road against quality opponents.  Can they shoot free throws?  Do they have good enough guards who know when to attack and when to settle things down?  Are they Pittsburgh? If so, forget about it.  Syracuse and Villanova play, Kentucky plays Tennessee twice, and the Big Ten race looks like it will come down to the last week.

NBA.  This definitely won’t be my choice, but if you’re an NBA fan you’ll obviously hope LeBron and Kobe get you through this troubling time for sports fans.  If you once liked the NBA, but cooled during this era of games that should just start with eight minutes to go, maybe it’s time to come back.  If nothing else, the TNT studio show is awesome. 

NASCAR.  Just kidding, don’t watch NASCAR under any circumstances.  Read up on NFL mock drafts instead.  The big day is only a couple of months off!

Funny note: Christian Laettner was a member of the original Dream Team in 1992 that won the gold medal.

h/t: Docksquad