I'll give 2,010,000 rubles to anyone who thought it would play out this way.
Did we think we'd face Russia at some point in the tournament? Sure.
But that's where it stops.
Did we think we'd square off against them as early as the quarters? Uhhh... nope.
Did we think that - if ten goals happened to be scored in the game - neither Ovechkin nor Sid would have a single point? No way.
Did we think we'd hand them their fur-covered hats and send them back with their tails between their legs on the next Aeroflot charter to Moscow after an absolute thrashing? Nyet.
We could spend countless lines of text recounting how the boys came out like gangbusters and made the country proud (and lord knows the crowd on Granville St. last night was more than showing its pride), but instead we must now look forward....
... to the Swedes.
Yes, the defending Olympic champs now are the only thing standing between us and a berth in the Finals. Old bear Forsberg looking for one last chance to be on a postage stamp, the Hank-and-Dan-tical twins working their telekinetic powers down low, the tower of strength Lidstrom manning the defensive end, and King Henrik flashing the leather in the blue ice.
If they don't give us a hell of a game, I'll wash down three pounds of meatballs with an entire jar of pickled herrings and ......
..... bzzzzzztttt .........
[Sorry, just getting a message through my headset. Hold on a sec.]
..... What? SERIOUSLY???? .......
Umm. Forget that comment about the herring.
*****************
Ok. We can all breathe a big sigh of relief.
When we learned that we'd have to steamroll Russia and Sweden to pave our way to the end, I don't think any one of the 33,000,000 of us felt great about it. Undoubtedly, we all would've preferred it had set up differently.
But now that the golden Kronas have been vanquished, we're all but assured to play on Sunday, no?
I mean, we'd much rather have Stephen Harper make a side-bet with Ivan Gasparovic than Fredrik Reinfeldt, right?
Wrong.
*****************
Certainly, no one's put much stock in the Slovaks' chances.
After they got worked by the Czechs, everyone gave a little head nod. After they took down the Russians in a shootout, everyone thought it was a fluke. After they made Latvia look like, well, Latvia, everyone felt the universe had righted itself.
Let me tell you, though. Having seen them in the flesh during our family outing on Saturday, I have but one thing to say:
These guys are for real.
In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to say that we'll have a tougher time with them than we would have had against Holmstrom et al.
You might now be saying, why Oduya think that, Skip?
Well, here's the scoop. The Top 3 reasons that we absolutely cannot start thinking ahead, and why we're going to need to play 60 minutes of real old-time hockey to stay alive in this tourney:
(1) Know thine enemy: From the moment that our roster was announced in Saskatoon - and, arguably, since our flame-out in Torino - Canada's hockey brass has had its eyes on one team and one team only. Our roster was compiled to do only one thing: beat the Russians. Now that we have, though, are we prepared for what's to come? Did the head honchos spend enough time scouting Slovakia, or did they (like you) assume they'd be playing Sweden?
(2) Check your fancy-pants at the door: Although the Russians had more than ample ability to dangle endlessly, we have a defense built to protect against that. The Slovaks, however, are a no-nonsense, nose-to-the-grindstone, duke-it-out sort of squad. We seem to have had problems with this sort of team (e.g. Switzerland).
(3) It all starts in net: I have watched nearly every Habs game this year. The one constant throughout their up-and-down season has been how underestimated and underappreciated Jaroslav Halak is. Trust me. He's more than capable of stealing a game. Not only that, but he seems to get better the more rubber he faces. I know that we're expecting Canada to get 30-45 shots tomorrow night, but that could be just what the Slovaks want.
Should be a show. Saddle up.
- the Skip
