Canada's coverage is usually first rate, but I did wonder about the between-periods description of this goal. To me, it looked like Keller was handling at the blue line, and fumbled the puck while skating away from it. The commentator said it was a great stick by Rattray to cause the turnover; all she had to do was skate onto a stationary/unguarded puck that Keller had abandoned. IMO, these games are the equivalent of international play for the men; a D in such a game would be called out if they turned the puck over in similar circumstances with everything but a bow on it. Knight's goal was similar. Yes, great finish by Rattray/Knight, but in international play, one needs Keller/Bell to be better to prevent the breakaway in the first place.
Yep. Keller lost the puck. My commentary was definitely not complete, although I know you don't expect it to be, it's TSN you are commenting on. Certain players looked bad last night or made dumb plays. Why not call it out. What I liked about the Rattray goal is that she took a dumb retaliation penalty in the first, and given she has that 13th forward role, I thought oh god hope she doesn't get benched. Love that she didn't get benched....and also made up for the dumb penalty. It's fair to say she was pressuring Keller. Kudos to Abbey Murphy, I believe she drew 2 penalties last night. Giguere had a rough night, hope we don't have to wait several years to see her again. On the Knight goal, I thought the Canadian D had a bouncing puck to deal with thanks to whoever made the smart play to flip it like that. I guess they should bend down and handle the puck with the hand or something, but you are right, some more color and fair criticism could be added and that's the whole point.
The winning goal wasn't the type that will attract new fans to the sport. Rooney was likely screened, as it was a shot through about 3 bodies with no angle hoping that a favorable bounce occurs. It was kind of like the goals tOSU was scoring in the NCAA Championship game.
Turnbull's goal was the nicest of the game, in that all 5 Canadians made nice plays in the offensive zone for that to happen. Winning goal also came so late in the eastern time zone, many of us may have been sleeping in front of the tv....or maybe just me lol.
I was watching the NCAA Volleyball semifinals at the same time as this game. My takeaway was that the VB was a better showcase of its sport than the hockey was. It is hard to really showcase the sport with teams that are thrown together for a few days with nothing of any real consequence to play for.
I believe you and it is so hard to hear this. it is impossible to ignore how popular volleyball is at the youth and higher levels. Hockey is an amazing sport but the most powerful people in it need to be intentional about taking it to higher and higher heights. It's not going to happen organically outside of certain pockets in the US, and even there it needs nurturing and investment. I'm a fan of the rivalry series, but it's also very apparent we are not watching Team Canada vs Team USA so much as we are watching Players from the 50 Person Pool vs Players from the 50 Person Pool. Being immersed in following college hockey, I enjoy watching the rivalry series, but I get what you are saying. On some level I prefer the thrown together rosters over Canada vs USA again and again and again and again. Canada's pp looks awful though and you know the thrown together rosters are part of it.
Your comment about Stecklein/Pannek is really interesting that they said the saddest day of their career is when they graduate college because the support ends. I really feel for them. I was nowhere near their caliber so my clock had run out at the end of college and that's fine. The saddest day of my hockey career was when 30 years after I started hockey I wanted to get my daughter into it and there is no programming that suits her. She doesn't have a stay at home mom like I did so she can't play in 4 day a week travel programming, and she's not as hardcore as I was, so jumping in with the boys is harder for her. She needs a girls house league. We are navigating it our own way...she plays once a week in a learn to play even though she's beyond that but not ready for what I described above. But it was a soul crushing experience for me when she asked to play on a girls team and I was like sorry there isn't one. Like what the fuck has hockey been doing for 30 years? Why is my kid facing the exact same crap scenario I did? So it resonates me what these national team players say… the failures are in numerous places. Anyway, We also signed her up for volleyball.
Tons to celebrate in women's hockey but always work to be done. I'm still excited for the game on the 19th!
