Olympic women's hockey

[Chaffron]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

Great leadership from the Lamoureuxs!

haley irwin looked totally DEVASTATED. Still wish she had worn the 'C'

[shelfit]

Congrats to Team USA! They finally got the monkey off their back after 20 years largely due to a 20-year-old goalie. Hmm, do you believe in numerology?! "20-year-old breaks 20-year-old curse!"

I have to give credit and recognize the twins for being so instrumental in the win, so here it is: Do you believe in Lamour-cles?! Yes!

I thought Canada did a much better job of getting stick-on-stick, putting their sticks in lanes, and eliminating USA's time and space throughout the game than USA did. That allowed them to dictate and control the style of play for large portions of the game and it seemed to frustrate the US players as the game wore on. However, Canada then made their biggest mistake on the very poorly executed two-on-one that ultimately led to the tying goal by Team USA. Standard execution if you're not going to pass the puck is to purposely shoot low to the far side leg pad of the goalie to try to give your teammate a rebound with an almost open net. Going for the hero shot and missing high and wide resulted in the puck rimming around the corner, giving the US a quick and easy breakout while the other 3 Canadian players went for a line change. I'm pretty sure those 3 players never expected the puck to be coming back up ice so quickly. I'm sure they were expecting a shot on goal and possibly even a whistle off of a save or something like that. If that shot had been on net then the quick breakout and stretch pass would never have happened. That was "the TSN Turning Point" of the game. Who knows what might have happened if not for that mistake.

I'm just glad that the game was not decided on a power play for either team because the reffing in this game was so bad that even the broadcasters were making comments about some of the obvious and simple mistakes made by these refs.

The game could obviously have gone either way. The players determined the outcome and that's the way it should be. While I don't care for either head coach, they each put their teams in a position to win and that's all they can do. I mean it went to the final shooter of the shootout. You can't ask for much more than that other than the sudden-death shootout. Even though I'm not a fan of the shootout to decide a championship I have to admit this one was pretty freaking exciting with great action at both ends of the ice. Both teams did a great job in this game, and this is going to do nothing but inject more life and growth into girls' & women's hockey especially here in the good old US of Gold! Looks like everybody wins!

[Still Eeyore]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

Stauber? I've been critical of him in the past and will never understand why he cut Bozek and Carpenter. But, playing Rooney in goal tonight and switching Marvin from defense to forward seemed to work out at least okay, don't you think?

Stauber obviously made some good moves during the tournament, but the selections remain baffling even with hindsight. I have a hard time believing that Bozek wouldn't have added significantly more than at least two of the defensemen on the team, and there were times tonight when the Americans desperately needed the net front presence Carpenter would have added.

I'll reiterate that you should feel exactly the same about Stauber now as you would have if they had lost the shootout.

[shelfit]

Stauber obviously made some good moves during the tournament, but the selections remain baffling even with hindsight. I have a hard time believing that Bozek wouldn't have added significantly more than at least two of the defensemen on the team, and there were times tonight when the Americans desperately needed the net front presence Carpenter would have added.

I'll reiterate that you should feel exactly the same about Stauber now as you would have if they had lost the shootout.

Unfortunately for Stauber he's always going to be known for that ridiculous "east-west continuous regroup inside your own blueline until everyone in the building and watching on TV is laughing at you" routine that even the Harlem Globetrotters would think was too comical. We all saw how quickly that stupidity and nonsense disappeared once they played a real hockey team like Canada. In fact that's the best thing that could have happened because they made no attempt to repeat that foolishness during the Gold medal game. Abandoning that complete waste of time and energy forced them to play real hockey, and playing real hockey won them the Gold. Could you call it accidental good coaching at best?! And I guess the blowout he was foreshadowing in one of his interviews must have been the 5-0 semi-final win, although I'm pretty sure he intended that prediction for the Gold medal game against Canada. What a genius!

[dave1381]

Lawler is brutal. She is clearly extremely uncomfortable and nervous to speak. Plus she's got very scary eyes! 👾

She was great until today. Today I don't think she could keep her emotions in check. Her eyes are gorgeous, to each their own.

[dave1381]

I will maintain that the team won in spite of Stauber, not because of him. Starting Rooney was a good call. Most of everything else he did was bordering on sabotage.

Exactly. The former goalie and goalie coach succeeded in picking the goalie. Everything else? Not so much. I'm sure I'm not alone in spending most of the 2-1 deficit wondering what this team would be with Bozek and Carpenter. Thankfully the Lams were enough. But the US had enough talent it shouldn't have come down to the skills competition.

As for Canada, the narrow win in Sochi masked how much better the US has been overall since Vancouver. The US was surely capable of blowing this again, but surely the program with the better talent came out on top.

[ne7minder]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

All of these payers deserve all our respect for their sacrifices and dedication while they put their lives on hold for years...what they can do out there with their skill level and their speed for an hour at a time under crushing pressure like this is hard to believe.

Absolutely, they play the game better than anyone and that is the take away.

Liked how Rooney was laughing or smiling during the shoot out. Nervous reaction to the enormous pressure or just having fun and enjoying the moment? Looked like the latter to me.

I mentioned the other day how MN has a history of players who are smiling the whole time they are on the ice as if they were having the time of their life. Hard to tell with a goalie though as the helmet hides that. Happy for her, particularly if she can enjoy that pressure cooker while in it. She was the star for USA every time in net. Do not care to play against her next season

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

The NBCSN Broadcast had it right: Party Like It's 1998!

Confidential to JLam: All Is Forgiven.

[dd17]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

Poulin needs to be gone.

It was brutal. I was just enjoying the game up until that nasty hit. International rules deems she should have been tossed. After that I only cheered for the US. Not a fan of cheap shots.

[FireKnight]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

A day that should be a showcase for North Dakota women's hockey and they don't even have a program anymore.

Congratulations to Team USA and Team Canada for an exciting tournament. Special congratulations to the Clarkson connections of Coach Duggan and Renata Fast.

[bluffrinkrat]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

The NBCSN Broadcast had it right: Party Like It's 1998!

Confidential to JLam: All Is Forgiven.

Couldn't have said it better myself (although I'd also add M Lam to that). I'm even thinking of campaigning for picture of just the 2 of them (they're in the Gopher team photo of 2009) on a wall at Ridder. In their USA uniforms, of course.

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

#29 did have the 2 best hits of the game so she's got that and a silver medal going for herself...

How those weren't penalties...

[thirdtime's . . .]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

Along with Rooney they'd be my 3 stars of the game.

Couldn’t see straight after the game last night (still can't), but wanted to post: Is everybody ready to give the Lams some luv? I guess so.

(Btw, that silver medal removal thing was ugly)

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

I am so PLEASED.

I also wholeheartedly regret saying I didn't think the Lams should be on the roster; that was an idiotic take and it was bad and I should go to the box and feel shame. They're hacks but they are AMERICAN HERO HACKS.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: Olympic women's hockey

Also did you guys see that Maddie Rooney's wikipedia article was updated this morning with her position listed as "United States Secretary of Defense" haha

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php...ldid=827013209

It's since been fixed but apparently that made it onto NBC too.