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Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site houem.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houem!agd
From: agd@houem.UUCP (A.DEACON)
Newsgroups: net.sport.hockey
Subject: Olympic Hockey
Message-ID: <222@houem.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Feb-84 15:26:24 EST
Article-I.D.: houem.222
Posted: Wed Feb  8 15:26:24 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 02:23:17 EST
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 69



I thought this new group would liven up
with the Olympics starting.
I'll listing the scores of the games and
then some of my observations about the 
US-Canada game.

Results of first round game:

Canada	4	USA	2
Czech	10	Norway	4
Finns	4	Austria	3
Swedes	11	Italy	3
USSR	12	Poles	1

 

About the US game:

1.  This team doesn't have the spark or the desire
    to win that the 80 team had.  The 80 edition
    refused to lose while the 84 guys looked as
    though they were all waiting for someone else
    on the team to come through.

2.  The Canadians made the US play the Canadian
    game instead of the US game.  The bigger,
    stronger Canadians outmuscled the US team
    and took away the skating game of the US.

3.  Perhaps after thrashing the Canadians in their
    last two meetings and noticing that the Canadians
    had won only 2 of their last 19 or so games, the US
    thought it couldn't lose.

4.  The US power play, after having looked strong
    in the pre-Olympic games, was anemic.  The
    shadowing of LaFontaine had a lot to do with that.

5.  The US didn't play well it its own zone and had
    a considerable amount of trouble getting the puck
    out of their own zone.

6.  The conditioning that let the 80 team wear down the 
    competition in the third period did not seem to be
    there last night.
 
7.  The goal at 27 seconds of the first period by Canada
    deflated the US and they were never able to recover.

8.  With another loss to the Czechs on Thursday, the US
    is essentially eliminated from the medal round.
 

Other items for some thought include:  
- the way ABC showed only about 40% of the game
  was very frustrating, 
- seeing John Denver at all is ridiculous,
- there was very little insight provided by
  the commentators, instead they relied on
  cutesy stuff,
- the coverage given to the hockey eligibility
  controversy was microscopic.

Anyone else care to join in?

Art Deacon
AT&T Bell Labs