I'm a little tipsy and I know I'll forget to post this after the game (plus it'll get drowned out by a swarm of posts) so here are my thoughts after 1:
- is it just me, or does Eakin get a lot of quality chances (partial/actual breaks, etc.) and never score?
(although I'll agree with Pierre that he got hooked a bit on that one)
- Russians had a few really good plays (geez, Tarasenko off the crossbar) but they looked like they didn't have enough hustle .. i.e. they weren't chasing the puck enough, they weren't putting as much effort in as they could have - no offense to any Russians, but there were at least a few times they looked lazy out there
- neutral zone turnovers are bad! (and both teams have had a few ugly ones)
- Kassian had a big hit near the end of the period which was clean - BUT it caused the Russian player to bang his head/helmet against the glass. I thought it was said earlier in the tournament that a hit which causes a player to hit their head against the ice/glass/boards could still be considered a "hit to the head"? can anyone who is more familiar with international rules clarify this? (does it only get looked at if the player seems to be injured?)
- Barrie just keeps getting better, I can't believe he managed to get the puck on that diving play and didn't take a penalty with international refs
- Ashton had a few nice stickhandling moves before he scored in th dying seconds - they might get overlooked because of the fact that he scored, but I liked them
- Ellis is really good at this level. I don't know what kind of NHL impact he'll have, but he makes some awesome plays here.
Pretty good game so far, I think Canada is pretty much playing the game they wanted to - except a few too many turnovers.
BTW - those stanchions (sp?) are still doing some weird bounces..