And then there were two.
It’s been a wild and crazy 2 weeks. We’ve seen some weird things, including Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco being the only Slovakian players who are any good on a big stage, Slovenia pick up their first ever Olympic win, Russia fail to even get a chance to play for a medal, and the US not scoring an even strength goal against any team that wasn’t Slovakia, Slovenia or the Czech Republic.
But in the end, the two best teams are left standing, and they’ll face off this morning for the ultimate international prize: Olympic gold.
Sweden-Canada isn’t the sexiest of rivalries, but this matchup features the last 2 Olympic gold medalists (Sweden in 2006, Canada in 2002 and 2010). These two were the prohibitive favourites entering the tournament, and both have pretty much had their way with all of their opponents leading up to this game.
I could sit here and break this game down and look at the keys and give you some sort of objective view of the game, but screw that. I’m a proud Canadian and I’ll be up bright and early wearing my 1998 Steve Yzerman Team Canada jersey while drinking a Tim Horton’s coffee followed by a Caesar (superior to the Bloody Mary in every way) while I cheer the team on to Olympic glory. I understand that in taking this side I’m going against players I have voluntarily chosen to support the vast majority of the year, and I’ll admit that I won’t shed any tears seeing Niklas Kronwall, Gustav Nyquist, and Jonathan Ericsson (and I guess Daniel Alfredsson and Jonas Gustavsson too) have gold medals put around their necks. But Canadian victory is what I yearn and what I want more than anything else.
I predicted Canada would win gold before this tournament ever started, and nothing I’ve seen so far has caused me to change my mind. A fully healthy Swedish team would scare me more than this version, and I think Canada is deeper in all aspects of the game over the Swedes. Canada wins 3-1 and becomes the first back-to-back champion since the 1997-98 Red Wi……I mean the Soviets (sorry, force of habit).
GO CANADA GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
