Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter Pre-game notes and thoughts: Canada came into their match against the Germans as heavy favorites. That said, make no mistake about it, given the importance of this game, Canada would not take this German squad lightly, especially when it’s do or die form here on into the tournament. In light of Martin Brodeur’s sub-par performance against the United States on Sunday night, Canada decided to go with Roberto Luongo between the pipes. On the surface, it would appear as if the Canadian coaching staff was making the right decision, but only time would tell. A win against the Germans would all but solidify Luongo as Canada’s number one goalie from this point forward. Not known for strong efforts in big games, Luongo now has the chance he has desired all his life—to be

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter Heading into Tuesday night’s there are several surprises amongst the Olympic Hockey scoring leaders. Belarus forward Sergei Kostitsyn has five points, good enough for a tie for fourth overall with Canada’s Sidney Crosby, Czech Republic defenseman Marek Zidlicky leads the tournament in assists with five and American defenseman Brian Rafalski leads the tournament in goals (tied with Canada’s Dany Heatley) with four. While Kostitsyn, Rafalski and Zidlicky all represent big surprises at the Olympic Games for all the right reasons, there are several players in Vancouver that have been a surprise for the wrong reasons. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the ten most disappointing players at the Olympics thus far. Chris Pronger (Canada) – expected to be Canada’s top shut down defenseman, Pronger has struggled to find his game

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 If you asked any American citizen if they thought Team USA was going to beat Canada on Sunday night this Monday morning, you’d likely get 100% of them saying “yes”. It’s easy to boast when your Country just defeated a hockey power like Canada on their home turf, but the reality is, there were more than a few American fans and experts alike that were looking for Canada to beat Team USA. Coming into the game the Internet was cluttered with hundreds of blogs talking about why Canada would win—many of which pointed to Canada’s superior size, experience, goaltending and the fact that Canada would have the benefit of playing on their own soil. As it turns out, the biggest factor in the match between Team USA and Canada was the goaltending of

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter Every four years hockey fans from coast-to-coast tune into the Olympics to watch what many experts term as the greatest hockey ever played. This year, Russia has assembled arguably the best set of top six forwards in the history of the game. Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavol Datsyuk, Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Semin and Maxim Afinogenov are six of the games most intimidating snipers on the planet, the fact they have been assembled on one team is just incredible. Comparatively, Team Canada is made up of one of the most impressive group of players we have ever witnessed. Sidney Crosby, Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, Martin Brodeur, Ryan Getzlaf, Drew Doughty, Roberto Luongo and Joe Thornton‑ to name a few, help make up a virtual all-star caliber roster for Canada, one that, despite it’s struggle