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Author: |
Dave Goldberg |
Created: |
2/22/2010 12:49 PM |
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Here in the states, the networks discover hockey once every four years.
Sort of.
Thus they produce broadcasters so totally ignorant of the sport that one idiot on MSNBC (which carried the U.S.-Canada game because NBC chose ice dancing as its "sport'' of choice Sunday night) compared the game to the 1980 "Miracle on Ice.'' Fortunately, Mike Eruzione set him straight. "These aren't college kids,'' Eruzione told the guy. "These are quite good NHL players. They can compete nicely at this level.''
Yeah, Canada has better players and more good players. So does Russia. The Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland are as good or better than the U.S. on any given day, although I was surprised at the Czechs' lack of offense against the Russians. Slovakia also has a decent team, a seventh with a chance at a medal. But the U.S. youngsters on this team have been holding their own for a while at the junior level _ Parise, the Johnsons, Ryan, etc. although the first four U.S. goals Sunday night were scored by the three hol |