Unbelievable game this afternoon! USA scores 6 goals in the first 13 minutes against Finland! The first goal was a gift, a bad clearance by the goalie goes right to the USA attacker for an easy empty net goal, but the next five were from relentless pressure that either A) forced the defense into split second decisions where they simply guessed wrong or B) the US picked a corner of the net and sniped a shot or C) both.
One of the reasons I like Olympic hockey is that it's not superficially physical. I've heard the saying before that "tough hockey" is not being a better fighter or harder hitting team than your opponent, it's pushing your way to the net and getting big bodies in front and getting shots to the net. The US has done that. They've scored goals in many different ways, by forcing the D into mistakes and getting them easy, picking a corner and nailing a shot, getting traffic in front of the goalie and screening shots, rebounds, lucky bounces, you name it. It's not like they've just found one thing that works and went to the well over and over again. They've got confidence, they've beaten the best team in the tournament in their own backyard, and beaten one of the steadiest most persistent and aggressive teams in Finland. The USA can actually win this gold medal. On Sportscenter, they compared this team to the 2002 team that went to the gold medal game and said that team had cocky veterans, ones that had won their championships and were playing on their last big stage. This team is young and hungry, when you combine young and hungry with talent and confidence, I likes my chances!
