As expected, Phoenix goalie Mike Smith was a healthy scratch for Team Canada. No surprises here, but I do hope he gets to dress as the back-up goalie at least once.
UPDATE: According to Pierre LeBrun, the scientifically proven best hockey writer/analyst around, Mike Smith will be the backup tomorrow. Hurray.
----
Coyotes forward Lauri Korpikoski plays for Team Finland who won 8-4 over Austria today. Korpikoski is a good checking forward with speed and an ability to score at least a little bit. He's a very underrated player and strong on the penalty kill. He was held scoreless but had two shots and two penalty minutes in today's game.
---
I wouldn't be writing right now except that the currently ongoing Canada/Norway game carries all the excitement of a Buffalo/Islanders pre-season game. Good on Norway for keeping it close.
I know goal differential can potentially matter, but I get the feeling that the score is so close out of a combination of Canada trying to ease their way into the tournament and also not wanting to embarrass their opponent. I am pretty sure that they could turn it up a few notches if they wanted to.
Maybe this is just me being a stereotypically apologetic Canadian, but I found myself cheering for Norway a little bit here.
I realize these games have to happen, but its basically a preseason game and I find it hard to get up for it, as Norway has literally zero chance of beating Canada unless its in a post-medal battle for fifth place that Canada doesn't even try to win. It is fortunate I think to have what is essentially two practice games before you have to play anyone meaningful. This could help later, obviously, it just doesn't make for exciting TV.
----
Pk Subban is not playing. It's not like I follow the Canadians as close as I follow the Coyotes, but it seems to me Subban, despite a Norris Trophy (Ok I know those are kind of a joke) and scoring tons of points, can't quite get the respect a player of his caliber deserves. The team fights with him on contracts, his coach benches him and people have suggested Therrien is eventually going to run him out of town. People act like he's Denis Rodman or Sean Avery, and yet every time I've heard him speak he seems smart, funny, likable, intelligent and well spoken.
I am not setting this up to be a race issue. Don't misunderstand me. I think it's an issue about the NHL Player Archetype. Players must be quiet, soft-spoken, cliche ridden automatons. NHL players are not opinionated, they don't celebrate enthusiastically after goals, they follow a highly hypocritical and antiquated "code of respect" and they are above all supposed to be modest, self effacing, and boring.
Whether its people calling out Thomas Hertl for his awesome between the legs goal, or people thinking Nazem Kadri is too conceited, or criticizing Kris Versteeg for rapping (admittedly the League's all-time low point) or Ilya Bryzgalov for talking, there just doesn't seem to any room in the NHL for people with any kind of personality. The mold is pretty hard to divert from and their seems to be a price extracted from anyone who does so.
Now, this could all be confirmation bias. Maybe I am just seeing what I want to see. I don't know. P.K Subban appears to my eyes to be one of the five or ten best defenseman in the world. I am certain too that they wouldn't select him for the team and then "punish" him for being an outspoken excitable guy. More likely his reputation and the conventions of the NHL have lead the coaches to put too much emphasis on his negatives in their assessment of his play. Ultimately, I don't know, but it's something to think about.
My prediction is that they play him on Friday and he plays so good that they can't ever take him back out.
----
My wife calls the mixtape I am currently listening to "something a sixty year old man would listen too, not a man in his thirties."
Unbelievably, she claims to not find Roy Orbison attractive.
----
So it was a 3-1 final. Please spare me from any sky is falling hyperbolic media analysis from people who think its a loss because it wasn't a 14-2 beat-down.
------
According to the coach of the Czech Republic Marin Hanzal was not injured yesterday and was a healthy scratch. This is good news for the Coyotes because a healthy Hanzal is essential to any chance the team has in making the playoffs.
That is all.
Please send misspelled angry diatribes to @Coyotes1234
Thanks for Reading