2010 Memories, Day 10: Team USA tops Crosby and crew at Canada Hockey Place
Credit to Author: Scott Brown| Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 15:00:08 +0000
Follow along as we look back at the moments that made headlines each day during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics:
Feb. 21, 2010: Canadian fans, desperate for men’s hockey gold on home ice to erase the bitter memory of the team’s 2006 failure in Turin, Italy were reaching for the panic button after Team Canada’s 5-3 loss to Team USA.
Buffalo Sabres’ goaltender Ryan Miller backstopped the Americans to the preliminary-round win with a solid 42-save performance, while his counterpart Martin Brodeur, a future Hockey Hall of Famer who won gold for Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, was ventilated for four goals on just 22 shots.
“He made some big saves, we threw a lot at him,” Canadian star centre Sidney Crosby said of Miller.
With the win, the Americans earned a bye into the tournament’s quarter-finals, while the host Canadians would now have to beat Germany to earn a spot in the medal round.
“We’ve just chosen a longer route to where we want to go, and a more difficult one,” Team Canada coach Mike Babcock said. “Just like every team in the tournament now, we’re just trying to survive.”
The loss by Canada’s vaunted hockey team, combined with disappointing results on the ski hills and in the skating venues, had Canadian fans — and media — doubting the host team’s chances of owning the podium.
“It’s hard to get too wound up about the troubles of speedskater Christine Nesbitt and the hockey team’s struggle, and bobsleighs turning over and ski cross racers crashing — all insignificant next to the inexpressible sadness of figure skater Joannie Rochette losing her mother Sunday, two days before she is to compete,” wrote Postmedia News columnist Cam Cole, another future Hockey Hall of Famer.
“But for Canada, the Games go on, and they were crying out for a sliver, any sliver, of good news, on the weekend when we’ve unequivocally Blown The Podium. The hockey team couldn’t produce it.”
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