Post Mortems

So... I've spent the better part of my time over the last several hours reading AARs from last night's Big Game (and we're NOT talking about that US - Spain futbol game), especially in the Canadian press.  And yeah, I gotta admit there's a certain amount of schadenfreude here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  But let me draw your attention to something I said a week ago today:

Have you ever seen an entire nation go through the grieving process?  You're about to, and the anger phase will be ug-lee.  There will be goats aplenty but expect Mike Babcock to take most of the heat.

This has already come to pass and we're not even to the medal round yet.  Here's William Houston, writing at Truth and Rumours:

How can you like what Mike Babcock has done? His team starts the game as if it’s in a daze. It seems unprepared. It plays soft in its own end. When it’s defending, it doesn’t block off the shooting lanes very well. He fails to call a time-out late in the game. He doesn’t know what to do with Canada’s best player, Sidney Crosby. Doesn’t give him enough ice time, keeps changing his linemates.

And you know there's more... much more.  What's worse... and this bodes some serious ill for Team Canada... is it appears the Canadians are going to have to go through the Russians to get to the medal round.  Reading a lil bit further into the plot this also means that either the Russians or the Canadians will go home with nothing.  Nothing!  If that happens to Canada then Babcock runs the risk of having his citizenship revoked.

But what of the Americans?  Well, they are now the number one seed in the tournament and will get to face the Swiss again in their first game of the elimination round.  Don't forget what Jonas Hiller and Co did to the Canadians... losing in a shoot-out, which was a near-run thing.  The Young Americans should, by all rights, win this game but the Swiss are dangerous, to say the VERY least.  And then there's the psychological pressure of being the new Number One, which is considerable, regardless of what Mr. Burke or the  members of his team say.  The road only gets tougher from there... but not as hard as that faced by the Canadians.

Lastly... I'll state the obvious: my prognostication skilz suck, except perhaps for my prediction that Russia will take the gold.  That's still a possibility.  But Sweden's stock has risen considerably as has the USA's.  This remains anybody's tournament.  And WHAT a tournament it is!

―:☺:―

Here's a lil sumthin for blog-bud Kris: More People In Buffalo Watch Hockey Than Ice Dancing.

Locally, the coverage of Team USA's 5-3 victory over Team Canada Sunday night carried on cable's MSNBC out-drew NBC's coverage of the Vancouver Olympics coverage that was on Channel 2.

MSNBC never out-rates its bigger brother NBC, which makes this "victory" almost as astonishing as the 42-save performance by Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller for Team USA.

The U.S. victory, which gave Team USA a bye into the quarterfinals and an extra day of rest, attracted a 14.6 rating locally on MSNBC, representing 14.6 percent of area households. Meanwhile, NBC's coverage of skiing and figure skating averaged a 13.4 rating during the game on Channel 2.

Buffalo is a hockey town, admittedly, and the Sabres goalie played in last night's game.  But still and even...  Heh.  Posted with tongue firmly in cheek.

h/t: Kukla's Korner.