Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter With all the attention that has been thrown at the Men’s Olympic Hockey tournament it is easy to forget that the Women are also playing in Vancouver. Today, on the heals of Team USA’s upset win against Canada in the Men’s tournament Sunday evening, both Canada and The United States won their semi-final matches to earn the right to fight it out for the gold medal in the Woman’s tournament. First came Team USA’s 9-1 Victory over Sweden—a team that just four years ago upset the Americans in the semi-finals by a 3-2 margin. To be fair, Sweden’s victory over the States was their own version of a “Miracle On Ice”—nobody outside of a few delusional family members of the Swedish Team were looking for Sweden to repeat their 2006 performance. Despite being

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter Watching Martin Brodeur in between the pipes for Team Canada against Team USA Sunday night was akin to watching a train wreck. Brodeur—arguably the best goaltender to ever lace up the pads, was not himself against the Americans, as he was continually out of position, made mental errors, looked slow and struggled to play the puck (a skill he practically invented). As the saying goes, “every dog has it’s day”, Sunday, as it turns out, was not Marty’s day, nor Team Canada’s. Now, on the heals of Canada’s 5-3 loss to the States, Team Canada’s coaching staff has a tough decision to make—go back to the struggling Brodeur (who historically plays exceptionally well after having a bad game) or go with backup goaltender, Roberto Luongo. Funny that in light of Brodeur’s struggles that

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter Coming into tonight’s game against Switzerland, there was plenty of mention of the 2006 Winter Olympics—the year Switzerland beat Canada by a score of 2-0. For Switzerland, their victory was akin to the American’s Miracle On Ice of 1980—nobody thought the Swiss would beat the mighty Canadians, comparatively, for Canada, the loss was a wake up call and cause for embarrassment. Canada’s loss in 2006 stung not only the players, it penetrated an entire nation. Canada is widely regarded as hockey’s cream of the crop and a loss to Switzerland was both unacceptable and alarming. Canada’s roster has changed significantly since the 2006 Olympics. Of those that were on Canada’s roster in 2006, only eight players are returning—Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Rick Nash, Eric Staal

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter Four years after finishing an embarrassing seventh in Turin (2006), Canada’s Men’s Olympic Hockey Team started on it’s journey towards redemption in front of a capacity crowd—and the legend himself, Wayne Gretzky in attendance, in Vancouver. With the crowd decked out in a sea of red and white and the benefit of having Vancouver’s golden boy, Roberto Luongo, in between the pipes, Canada looked poised to demolish a virtually unknown Norwegian squad that primarily features players from the German, Swedish and Russian Leagues. Given Canada’s stacked lineup it is easy to understand why expectations are so high. That said, the Norwegian team has the benefit of familiarity—something Canada will have to try to develop as the Olympic Tournament goes on. It is this familiarity, combined with a defense first hockey system that much