Frankly, none of the pre-tournament 'superstars' really impressed - Parise gets the nod for producing in the round robin portion of the tourney - lighting up some pretty piss-poor teams, but was barely noticeable in the gold medal game. I would hesitate to crown him the best and pave the way for his ascention to glory in the NHL (see Richard Park, Todd Harvey, etc....). Crosby showed a few flashes but was, like Parise, unnoticable in the gold medal game. Way too much hype for the kid. Montoya looked good - but that can happen in this tourney. Fluery looked bored, and that cost him - but for my money, he was still the best player in the tourney and the guy I'd take first if they were all up for grabs, because he's shown it in the NHL - anyone who take Montoya over him is a fool and should email Mike Milbury to discuss scouting goalies. Ovechkin - wow, huge disappointment like the rest of the Russians. They owned this thing for so long. Congrats to the Americans who came out in that third with guns blazin'. Fluke goal or not, a win is a win.
That final goal reminded me of the time Grant Fuhr banked the puck off of Steve Smith to knock the Oilers out of the playoffs in '86. If the Oilers won that game, they probably would have gone all the way and that would mean they would have won five in a row from 84-88. Yes, I'm still bitter.
In all fairness, Crosby is still 16 and he wasn't really expected to be a factor. He will be eligible to play in this tourney THREE more times. I didn't catch any Russian games, but Ovechkin was -- from what I heard -- disappointing. Especially considering that he played last year. But then again, his team wasn't very good. I was impressed by the Finn goalie, though. As well as some of their defense; though they didn't seem particularly potent on the offensive end of things.
Grant Fuhr banked the puck off of Steve Smith Other way around. But it sounds like you knew that already. Poor Smith, he's still primarily known for that ill-fated bankshot, not for the rest of his laudable career.
That was one of my favorite childhood memories, and one of the biggest games I remember watching.
MKN, the Finn goalie is Hannu Toivonen, also a Bruins prospect playing in Providence tight now. He's supposedly the future of goaltending in Boston, along with Raycroft. He's being mentored by Tim Thomas, who played in Finland for a while.
Kinda neat, but one of my next door neighbors from childhood, Stephen Werner, was on that team. Good to see him get closer to his dreams of playing in the NHL. -s
