Just a Thought...

Okay, so... last night's USA-Canada game? One of the best of the tournament, I'm not going to lie. Brian Rafalski's hat trick and Ryan Miller's stone-wall performance in net factored heavily into it, but perhaps the most telling thing about this American team is that they work hard and they work as a team, which is something that perhaps Canada has to work on. Much as I lambasted Brian Burke for choosing some players, that formula seems to largely be working well.

However, let's refrain from calling this an "upset," shall we? True, the U.S perhaps doesn't have the same amount of talent or superstar quality as Team Canada. And yeah, we know many of our upstairs neighbors don't really respect us when we step onto the ice with them. But let's be real here- this is NHL vs. NHL. Not 1980- not NHL-quality professionals vs. a bunch of scrappy college kids. This was Zach Parise vs. Sidney Crosby, and Miller (save percentage leader in the NHL) vs. Martin Brodeur (a future Hall of Famer). We can't let the (otherwise) Canadian domination in the sport cloud our judgment whenever our country manages to beat them.

It's awesome that the U.S. came into this game and was able to get a win, of course- very morale-boosting. And they got some help from the other side, too- Brodeur was not very Brodeur-like last night. But we're far from the days of the Miracle on Ice, and we can't call this miraculous. At the most, it's simply well-deserved.