Canada 8, Norway 0 and Olympic Hockey Thoughts

What I liked: The second and third periods; Mike Babcock's decision to finally put Jerome Iginla with Crosby and Nash for these second and third periods; Dan Boyle's play on defence (great in both ends); The Shark Attack line; The PK; The power-play after the first period; Jenn Heil showing up and cheering on her compatriots; The Schwartz's Smoked Meat Sandwich I had last night; The obvious chemistry between Getzlaf and Perry; The play of Norwegian goaltender Pal Grontes. Yes, he let in eight goals but he still turned away 32 shots and was perfect in the first period; Eight goals. The notion that this team should take its foot off the gas is ridiculous. Goals matter in this tournament. Scoring margins matter. Keep up the offense. I'd love to see them score 10 next time against Switzerland (though I doubt they will since Jonas Hiller is real NHL goaltender).

What I didn't like: The Crosby-Nash-Bergeron line in the first period, which was thankfully jettisoned after twenty minutes; The power-play in the first period. Way too cute. Too many passes in the offensive zone and passing up perfectly good scoring opportunities. Shoot the fucking puck! (which they did after the first period); Pierre McGuire.

Let's not forget that we played Norway: I'm glad Roberto Luongo now has an Olympic Win (a shutout to boot) but he only faced 15 shots. None of which were particularly challenging. Martin Brodeur will go tomorrow night and unless he lays a total egg, will get the call against the United States; On a similar token, I'm glad that they peppered Pal Grontes with 40 shots (and scored five times in the third period). It's a very nice warmup win and hopefully the first period was just early tournament jitters.

I can't write a hockey post and not talk about the reigning Gold Medalists: 18-0 over Slovakia and 10-1 over Switzerland. The Canadian Women's team (and yes, I'm calling it women's and not ladies' hockey) has been wonderful for its first two games. Hat tricks for Meghan Agosta and Jayna Hefford. A goal and five assists for Hayley the Great. Caroline Ouellette has a tournament leading six assists. The defence has only allowed 21 shots. And the goaltenders have stopped 20 of them. Of course, we expected all of this. We expect the blowout wins over the Slovakias and Switzerlands of the world. Even tonight's game against the defending silver medalists from Sweden is expected to be another lopsided affair (5:30 start in Ontario and Quebec). As a Canadian fan, I of course want another big win (especially when total goals/differentials matter). But as a fan of women's hockey I'd love to see at least a competitive period or two. I know Canada will win but is it too much to ask for a tied, close game through 20 or 40 minutes? I want the game to grow and the only way to do so is show that the rest of the world can at least compete with Canada and the USA.