Team Canada Wins Gold!!
An undefeated Team Canada won Gold in Moscow with a nerve-racking 4-2 victory over Team Finland.
Not much to say here except Congratulations to Team Canada, who went undefeated for the first time since 1937. That’s 70 years!
As a Pens fan, I’m glad to see every Penguins player receive a medal of some sort.
Gold medals for:
Jordan Staal (who drew two powerplays for Canada including the first one where Canada scored)
Colby Armstrong (who chipped in his first goal of the tournament, which turned out to be the Gold medal winning goal)
Silver medal for:
Jarkko Ruutu
Bronze medals for:
Sergei Gonchar (Filled in as Captain for the Bronze medal winning game)
Evgeni Malkin (Evgeni Malkin blocks a dump in with his eye with 20 seconds left to secure the Bronze Medal, leading to chants of Malkin! Malkin! Malkin! from the Russian faithful)
I’d also like to give a heads up to former Penguins scoring leader Dick Tarnstrom (on fourth place Sweden). Dick Tarnstrom (who led all defensemen in scoring) was chosen as Sweden’s Player of the Game for the Bronze Medal Game and finished with 1 goal and 8 assists to lead all defensemen in the tournament. Well done for the former Penguins team scoring leader.
Also Alexei Morozov, who was forced to sit out Team Russia’s final two games due to a knee injury, scored 8 goals and 13 points in 7 games, leading the tournament before his injury. Well done for the former Penguin and back-to-back Russian Super League scoring leader. If he comes back to the NHL, he could produce quite well for whatever team picks him up (the Pens no longer retain his rights).
Lastly, I’ve frequently done comparisons between Ovechkin and Malkin. Malkin was great in this tournament. Ovechkin was down right terrible. He was flying in the Bronze medal game, but couldn’t produce.
Once again Malkin has shown his superiority over Ovechkin in the international scene. Despite playing less minutes per game, Malkin managed to post 5 goals and 5 assists for 10 points and a +5 rating in 9 games, whereas Ovechkin managed just one goal and two assists and a +1 rating in 8 games (he was suspended a game for an overzealous illegal hit to the head of a Swiss player) in Moscow.
From http://live82.ihwc.net/english/article/recaps/index.ihwc?&artId=2687
“It was an all-too-familiar scenario for the Washington Capitals sniper, who did not impress his hometown fans with just one goal and two assists in Moscow 2007.”