Well, looks like the train is back on its tracks. After a brief stumble vs. Denmark, we took that back and are now exactly where most expected us to be - pointwise, I mean.
Sure, some might say without the embarrassing loss to Denmark, we might now have 15 points and be at the top of the group. However, there's no guaranteeing this game would have gone the way it did w/o the Denmark loss exposing some of our weaknesses. And our boys most likely got a nice extra chip on their shoulder from that.
The absolute disaster scenario of missing the QF is now more or less averted. We're not mathematically in yet, but one of two things happening puts us over the top: Finland getting at least a point from Germany tomorrow, and should they fail at that, then Canada needs to beat Latvia in regulation on Monday. It'd be pretty rotten luck if both happened to not go this way. And here's another thing with which the DEN loss will serve us - our boys won't have trouble mentally preparing for tomorrow night. If Germany is to have an advantage here, it will be due to the very thing I was concerned about - the TOIs of our heavy hitters being off the charts. MiG clocked 21+ minutes, and Aho had whopping 24min(!). But I guess it couldn't be helped, because this was a penalty-heavy game.
As one last note... after what Säteri showed tonight, sure feels much less bummed about not getting a more established goalie. Funny how one night can pretty much flip the mood on all counts. Husso may get the game tomorrow, but from then onwards, the net is Säteri's, unless USA totally lights him up.