With the Olympics in Sochi coming to an end Feb. 23, we will take this as a great Olympics. And not just from a hockey perspective because we were one of the top countries as we finished with the third-most gold medals.
But, of course, we will be focusing on hockey. Before we talk about the Canadian team that I may have taken lightly, we will talk about my top-3 players and my three most disappointing players.
Let’s start with the good side. At No. 3, I will go with Canadian Drew Doughty. He was huge this Olympiad, scoring four goals and two assists. He reminded me most of all-star Canadian Scott Niedermayer, as he not only played great on offence but also defense. He looked as if he had the experience of a 15-year NHL veteran in a six-year veteran’s body.
At No. 2 we have another defenceman, Erik Karlsson of Sweden. He was amazing and, remember, he is a defenceman and is not supposed to score as many points as one of the National Hockey League’s best scorers in Phil Kessel. But Karlsson did, as he finished tied for first in points with 8. He also helped Sweden reach the gold-medal game.
No. 1 was a tough decision, but I decided to go with Kessel. He was a huge part of Team USA’s fourth-place finish. He finished the Olympic tournament tied for first in points with eight, and tied for first in goals with five. An honorable mention would have to go to Team Canada goalie Carey Price. He could have been No. 1 because his numbers were insane – a 0.59 goals-against average, or less than a goal a game.
Now for the bottom three. These may not be the worst players at the Olympics, but players that should have done way better than they did.
At No. 3 we have a group of Canadians: Patrick Sharp, Rick Nash, Corey Perry, and Chris Kunitz. I think these guys must have had jet lag the whole tournament. Like, come on! I know Canada won gold, but these guys all had one point to their name each. I don’t know what else to say other than we are lucky we had defencemen Doughty and Shea Weber play out of this world. At No. 2 we have USA’s Zach Parise. He got a single point. He had a good 2010 Olympics and is playing good right now coming off an injury. But a goal scorer like him had to be expected to crack the five-point mark.
The most disappointing player has to be Team Canada’s Sidney Crosby. Everybody knows he’s the best player in the world now, and it hurts me to say that as I am a Alex Ovechkin fan. Crosby has had back-to-back poor Olympic performances. This year he got three points, with one goal coming in the gold-medal game. I don’t see how that happens.
Now the Canada’s women had, in my mind, one of the greatest comebacks in women’s hockey history – coming back from two goals down with 2:30 left in the third period. We need to watch out for USA in the coming years as they are young and will only get better.
Canada’s men caught a bit of a break when Sweden’s Nicklas Backstrom did not play in the gold-medal game. But that does not matter as the Canadians beat, in my mind, the best roster in the tournament. And a large part of that was due to Price.
