The Cobra
12-29-2010, 09:22 PM
Cobra...
Not much of a surprise here my friends...
Thirteen days of anxiety and expectation exploded in a coast-to-coast roar of joy as Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to give Canada the medal it wanted most at the 2010 Winter Olympics -- the men's hockey gold.
That moment in Vancouver and the victory in the sport on which so much Canadian pride rests has led the men's Olympic hockey squad to be named the team of the year in an annual survey of the country's newsrooms by The Canadian Press.
It came on the final day in Vancouver as a flood of medals went to the host country. The men's hockey medal was Canada's 14th gold of the Games, a record for a country at a single Winter Olympics.
"The pressure of the world and the entire country was on us to go out and not disappoint," Team Canada centre Jonathan Toews said in an interview. "To beat some pretty good teams on the way to the gold medal was amazing. Everyone's trying to knock you off and the pressure's all on you, so for us to find a way to win was amazing."
Peak television ratings had more than 80 per cent of Canadians watching as their team pulled out a 3-2 victory in the final against an opportunistic American squad that had chilled a country's heart with an upset 5-3 win in the preliminary round.
Team Canada easily took first place in a survey of sports editors and broadcasters with 279 points, including a majority of the first-place votes.
"The team fought through enormous pressure, the highest of expectations, early adversity and won -- with teamwork," said Phil Andrews of the Guelph Mercury. "It delivered a where-were-you-when Canadian moment as well."
The Grey Cup-champion Montreal Alouettes were a distant second with 75 points, followed by the Olympic women's hockey team at 63 points.
"Not even close when one considers the depth of talent in international hockey and the fine line between winning and losing," said Carl Fleming of the Truro Daily News. "Aside from an early loss to the USA, the Canadian men's hockey team was borderline brilliant."
On Sunday, the Olympics were voted The Canadian Press news story of the year.
Figure skater Joannie Rochette was chosen the female athlete of the year Tuesday while the male athlete of the year will be announced Thursday.
For the first time in 2010, The Canadian Press conducted a people's choice poll for its annual awards, along with Yahoo! Canada. Team Canada was also the public's first pick, with 54 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Olympic women's hockey team at 12 per cent.
With Canada leading 2-1 in the gold medal game, U.S. coach Ron Wilson pulled goaltender Ryan Miller for an extra attacker and Zach Parise scored to force overtime with 25 seconds left in regulation time.
After Canada survived a close call in the extra period, Crosby barrelled into the American zone and put the puck into the left corner, then shouted "Iggy!" as he broke toward Miller and fired Jarome Iginla's pass into the net.
Crosby threw his stick and gloves in the air in triumph before he was mobbed on the ice by his teammates, while red-and-white clad fans leapt and hugged each other after a goal that became a classic. The puck eventually made its way to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"To win at home was special," said Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson. "To win gold in Salt Lake (in 2002) for the first time in 50 years was special.
"To win at home with 27.5-million people watching the game (on television), that was special."
But much more than one goal and one game went into the gold medal from a team anointed as the favourite but which took a few games to find itself.
It was the first time the Olympic hockey tournament was played on the smaller NHL-size ice surface, which favoured Canada and the United States even though many European teams had mostly NHL players.
The league shut down for 16 days, and to comply with Olympic rules, GM Place was renamed Canada Hockey Place. The host team also had to replace its traditional Hockey Canada jersey, which was deemed a commercial product, for a new design.
For more than a year, pundits had been speculating on which 23 players would be picked by executive director Steve Yzerman, head coach Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings and a blue-chip staff of NHL GMs.
There were a few surprises as versatile Boston centre Patrice Bergeron, gritty Dallas winger Brenden Morrow and 19-year-old Los Angeles defenceman Drew Doughty made the team.
Canada opened the tournament with an easy 8-0 victory over Norway led by three goals from Iginla and two from Dany Heatley, whose line from the San Jose Sharks with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau was kept intact. The trio needed no time to jell and was Canada's line best early on.
Then came adversity: A 3-2 win over Switzerland that required Crosby's winner in a shootout, followed by the loss to the Americans in which Canada was overwhelmed early. Babcock pulled veteran goalie Martin Brodeur and local favourite Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks took over as the No. 1 netminder for the rest of the Games.
The loss forced Canada into a knockout game it won 8-2 over Germany while the Americans got the bye to the quarter-finals.
Toews, who led the team with eight points in seven games and was named best forward of the tournament, said in retrospect having to play Germany turned out to be key to the team-building process.
In the quarter-finals, Canada faced a formidably talented Russian side led by Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. But the Canadians came out slamming bodies into the boards and took a 4-1 first-period lead before skating away with a 7-3 victory and a large jolt of enthusiasm.
"It was probably a good thing for us to lose in the first round against the Americans and have to play that extra game," said Toews, the Chicago Blackhawks captain. "The quarter-final against Russia was a huge pressure game, but giving us that extra time as a team allowed us to improve.
"Coming out like we did against Russia was huge, too. It gave us a lot of confidence."
It looked like a cakewalk to the final. But after going up 3-0 on the surprise team of the Olympics, Slovakia, in the semifinal Canada surrendered two goals in the third period and survived some nervy moments after Michal Handzus made it 3-2 with 4:53 left in the game.
That's what made the wait for the final an anxious time for fans. Many worried that while Luongo had played well overall, he seemed to give up one weak goal a game. There were also concerns that while the Americans lacked the depth of proven talent Canada had, they were fast and had very timely scoring throughout the tournament.
They also had clearly the best goaltender in the world at the time in Miller.
It came down to one goal in overtime, and who else to score it but Canada's most watched, publicized and talented player -- Crosby.
"There wasn't a better way to end the tournament than to have him score the goal," said Toews.
There was little time to celebrate. The NHL resumed play two days after the final and players had to hurry back to their clubs. Toews and the stalwart defence pair of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook went back to Chicago and won a Stanley Cup only four months later.
But a Team Canada get-together was arranged in Edmonton during the summer and the players got to reunite and toast their accomplishment as a group.
That group also included defencemen Scott Niedermayer, who retired at the end of the season, Dan Boyle, Chris Pronger and Shea Weber and forwards Ryan Getzlaf, Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Mike Richards and Eric Staal.
Reserve goalie Marc-Andre Fleury did not get into a game.
"If we don't win that game, the Olympics don't end the way every Canadian wanted," said Nicholson. "But we were just a part of the Canadian Olympic team."
Not much of a surprise here my friends...
Thirteen days of anxiety and expectation exploded in a coast-to-coast roar of joy as Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to give Canada the medal it wanted most at the 2010 Winter Olympics -- the men's hockey gold.
That moment in Vancouver and the victory in the sport on which so much Canadian pride rests has led the men's Olympic hockey squad to be named the team of the year in an annual survey of the country's newsrooms by The Canadian Press.
It came on the final day in Vancouver as a flood of medals went to the host country. The men's hockey medal was Canada's 14th gold of the Games, a record for a country at a single Winter Olympics.
"The pressure of the world and the entire country was on us to go out and not disappoint," Team Canada centre Jonathan Toews said in an interview. "To beat some pretty good teams on the way to the gold medal was amazing. Everyone's trying to knock you off and the pressure's all on you, so for us to find a way to win was amazing."
Peak television ratings had more than 80 per cent of Canadians watching as their team pulled out a 3-2 victory in the final against an opportunistic American squad that had chilled a country's heart with an upset 5-3 win in the preliminary round.
Team Canada easily took first place in a survey of sports editors and broadcasters with 279 points, including a majority of the first-place votes.
"The team fought through enormous pressure, the highest of expectations, early adversity and won -- with teamwork," said Phil Andrews of the Guelph Mercury. "It delivered a where-were-you-when Canadian moment as well."
The Grey Cup-champion Montreal Alouettes were a distant second with 75 points, followed by the Olympic women's hockey team at 63 points.
"Not even close when one considers the depth of talent in international hockey and the fine line between winning and losing," said Carl Fleming of the Truro Daily News. "Aside from an early loss to the USA, the Canadian men's hockey team was borderline brilliant."
On Sunday, the Olympics were voted The Canadian Press news story of the year.
Figure skater Joannie Rochette was chosen the female athlete of the year Tuesday while the male athlete of the year will be announced Thursday.
For the first time in 2010, The Canadian Press conducted a people's choice poll for its annual awards, along with Yahoo! Canada. Team Canada was also the public's first pick, with 54 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Olympic women's hockey team at 12 per cent.
With Canada leading 2-1 in the gold medal game, U.S. coach Ron Wilson pulled goaltender Ryan Miller for an extra attacker and Zach Parise scored to force overtime with 25 seconds left in regulation time.
After Canada survived a close call in the extra period, Crosby barrelled into the American zone and put the puck into the left corner, then shouted "Iggy!" as he broke toward Miller and fired Jarome Iginla's pass into the net.
Crosby threw his stick and gloves in the air in triumph before he was mobbed on the ice by his teammates, while red-and-white clad fans leapt and hugged each other after a goal that became a classic. The puck eventually made its way to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"To win at home was special," said Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson. "To win gold in Salt Lake (in 2002) for the first time in 50 years was special.
"To win at home with 27.5-million people watching the game (on television), that was special."
But much more than one goal and one game went into the gold medal from a team anointed as the favourite but which took a few games to find itself.
It was the first time the Olympic hockey tournament was played on the smaller NHL-size ice surface, which favoured Canada and the United States even though many European teams had mostly NHL players.
The league shut down for 16 days, and to comply with Olympic rules, GM Place was renamed Canada Hockey Place. The host team also had to replace its traditional Hockey Canada jersey, which was deemed a commercial product, for a new design.
For more than a year, pundits had been speculating on which 23 players would be picked by executive director Steve Yzerman, head coach Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings and a blue-chip staff of NHL GMs.
There were a few surprises as versatile Boston centre Patrice Bergeron, gritty Dallas winger Brenden Morrow and 19-year-old Los Angeles defenceman Drew Doughty made the team.
Canada opened the tournament with an easy 8-0 victory over Norway led by three goals from Iginla and two from Dany Heatley, whose line from the San Jose Sharks with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau was kept intact. The trio needed no time to jell and was Canada's line best early on.
Then came adversity: A 3-2 win over Switzerland that required Crosby's winner in a shootout, followed by the loss to the Americans in which Canada was overwhelmed early. Babcock pulled veteran goalie Martin Brodeur and local favourite Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks took over as the No. 1 netminder for the rest of the Games.
The loss forced Canada into a knockout game it won 8-2 over Germany while the Americans got the bye to the quarter-finals.
Toews, who led the team with eight points in seven games and was named best forward of the tournament, said in retrospect having to play Germany turned out to be key to the team-building process.
In the quarter-finals, Canada faced a formidably talented Russian side led by Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. But the Canadians came out slamming bodies into the boards and took a 4-1 first-period lead before skating away with a 7-3 victory and a large jolt of enthusiasm.
"It was probably a good thing for us to lose in the first round against the Americans and have to play that extra game," said Toews, the Chicago Blackhawks captain. "The quarter-final against Russia was a huge pressure game, but giving us that extra time as a team allowed us to improve.
"Coming out like we did against Russia was huge, too. It gave us a lot of confidence."
It looked like a cakewalk to the final. But after going up 3-0 on the surprise team of the Olympics, Slovakia, in the semifinal Canada surrendered two goals in the third period and survived some nervy moments after Michal Handzus made it 3-2 with 4:53 left in the game.
That's what made the wait for the final an anxious time for fans. Many worried that while Luongo had played well overall, he seemed to give up one weak goal a game. There were also concerns that while the Americans lacked the depth of proven talent Canada had, they were fast and had very timely scoring throughout the tournament.
They also had clearly the best goaltender in the world at the time in Miller.
It came down to one goal in overtime, and who else to score it but Canada's most watched, publicized and talented player -- Crosby.
"There wasn't a better way to end the tournament than to have him score the goal," said Toews.
There was little time to celebrate. The NHL resumed play two days after the final and players had to hurry back to their clubs. Toews and the stalwart defence pair of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook went back to Chicago and won a Stanley Cup only four months later.
But a Team Canada get-together was arranged in Edmonton during the summer and the players got to reunite and toast their accomplishment as a group.
That group also included defencemen Scott Niedermayer, who retired at the end of the season, Dan Boyle, Chris Pronger and Shea Weber and forwards Ryan Getzlaf, Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Mike Richards and Eric Staal.
Reserve goalie Marc-Andre Fleury did not get into a game.
"If we don't win that game, the Olympics don't end the way every Canadian wanted," said Nicholson. "But we were just a part of the Canadian Olympic team."