Article Written By: Adam Wible
On the anniversary of one of the the biggest moments in American sports history, the United States came up short Saturday night in Sochi.
After falling 1-0 to Canada the night before, Saturday presented a fresh start, and still hopes for a medal. Those hopes were put to rest by Teemu Selanne and Finland.
The Finnish captain rallied his team after falling to Sweden the previous night. Knowing it was his final game in a Finnish sweater, emotions were high in the locker room before the game.
“He was saying for the younger guys this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win the medal because there are no guarantees who is going to be here in four years and you don’t want to throw these chances away,” forward Olli Jokinen said. “There are not many hockey players who are going to be able to say they have an Olympic medal in their office. It was a message for all of us.”
The team got the message, as they blanked the high powered Americans, 5-0, on their way to the bronze medal.
Finland broke open the scoring early in the second period, with who other than Teemu Selanne. Selanne backed up his pre-game talk scoring twice. Following up Selanne’s first goal 11 seconds later, Jussi Jokinen picked apart a broken play by the Americans. Up 2-0 the floodgates were open, and the Americans, though having chances, looked dejected.
Patrick Kane misfired on two penalty shots in the first 27 minutes of the game.
“I wasn’t good enough to help the team win a medal,” Kane said. “Obviously, I was expected to do a lot more. When you come over here and put up zero goals and four assists in six games, it’s not the numbers you want to see. Definitely disappointing.”
Jonathan Quick was not ready and most likely was drained, both physically and emotionally, from Friday nights 1-0 loss to Canada. Making 36 saves the night before, I’m not sure why Dan Bylsma decided to go with him.
Bylsma said it was difficult for his team to bounce back after the tough loss to Canada, less than 24 hours before the bronze-medal game.
The Finns, however, had no problem bouncing back from their 2-1 loss.
At the end of the day, you have to tip your cap to Finland and Teemu. They simply outplayed the U.S. in every facet of the game.
U.S. forward Max Pacioretty said it best. “We let our country down; that’s it.”
