Olympic Hockey, Day Nine: America Blown Out by Finland, Shut Up, Just Shut Up

February 22, 2014 1:18 pm

Photo: RIA Novosti

Defeated. Deflated. Enervated. Team USA went down in flames against a flashy Finnish team, losing the bronze medal in stunning fashion. 5-0.

Patrick Kane missed two penalty shots. The American penalty kill sucked. Jonathan Quick let five pucks past him. Tuukka Rask was exemplary with a light workload.

No medal for America. Everything sucks and so do you. Let’s talk about it.

It should have been evident early on, when the US barely withstood a blistering attack from the Finns. Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler took Quick’s spot in net to block a shot. The American defense, which includes Brooks Orpik and Cam Fowler but not Keith Yandle, didn’t ever look equal to the puck-moving skills of the Finnish crew. Finland’s power play was able to open up a lot of space by moving the puck behind the goal line. That led to Teemu Selanne‘s backbreaking third period goal.

Selanne, who is 43 years old, was fantastic. He scored the game winner against Russia; he scored the game winner against America. He’s great. I hate him right now. I’ll go back to loving him on Thursday. Forever.

Tuukka Rask earned his shutout. And a bronze medal.

I suspect we’ll see some dumb-dumbs putting blame for the loss squarely on Patrick Kane, who missed two penalty shots. I think Kane was pretty great– both today and in the loss to Canada. Instead, I’d file this game under “Team Loss.” That pair of goals on consecutive shots from Selanne and Jussi Jokinen was certainly a bigger factor than any one dude underperfroming. The glut of penalties in the third period– by which point the team had clearly given up– is on the players, their coaches, and management.