Switzerland 2, Canada 0

Forget the Leafs, Team Canada stinks. Excuses: 1. In a meaningless game, the underdog always has the advantage. 2. The Swiss have played together as a team for a while, while Canada still needs to gel. 3. Canada got stoned by a hot goaltender. 4. Canada got robbed of at least one goal, perhaps two by poorly place cameras and/or bad officiating. 5. The international ice is too big. 6. Too many penalties meant we couldn’t play our game. 7. Our players aren’t used to afternoon games. 8. Pros don’t take international games seriously. Most of them would rather not be over there playing. Etc. As if. They went in cocky and stayed cocky right up until it was too late to get it together. After the first period, Joe Thornton was interviewed briefly by Elliotte Friedman of the CBC. With 90 seconds left in the period, Thornton made a terrible play, got stripped of the puck, which led straight to the winning goal. Did Friedman mention it? Say anything like, hey Joe, some no-name just stripped you of the puck and made you look like an idiot? No… he just threw some softballs at Thornton, then said, “anything to be concerned about?” Thornton shrugged and basically said no, we’re going to cream these guys. That’s when I was pretty sure we were going to lose. Thornton’s interview was an exact replay of the CBC interview with Eric Lindros in Nagano against the Czechs in 1998. Canada was down 1-0, Lindros walked off the ice after the first (second?) period and was asked if he was worried. Lindros, the captain, shrugged, smiled, and said, “naw, we’re going to win.” When a team is beating you, and someone asks if you are worried, the answer is: YES. If you answer anything else, you should be benched because your head isn’t in the game. Things to take away from the game: 1. Team Canada is always shaky in the opening rounds. Check back to past Canada Cups, Olympics and World Cups. Rarely do we walk over everyone. 2. Canada needs to lose a game or two before they wake up. Ummm… that’s it. Otherwise, it was a total waste of time. They should get some of the women’s team into the dressing room to give them a speech about getting the job done.