Great game. Congrats to Canada on keeping their sovereignty. A win by USA would make them the offical 51st state.

It's amazing how this tourny has changed my mind on a quite a few players on Team USA.

• Zach Parise - As good as anyone in the NHL.  Period.
  
  
• Ryan Miller - The best tender in the league.  I wish he woulda punched the interviewer in the face after the game. 
  
  
• David Backes - Love him now.  What a nickname.  (This of course is pending the Wings playing against him in the playoffs, am sure I will hate him sometime in the future.)
  
  
• Tim Gleason - Before the tourney, I wouldn't have been able to tell you a single thing about him.  I can tell you that he's a defenseman from Michigan now.  And he's not bad.
  
  
• Jack MF Johnson - Threw a bodycheck at least five seconds after the whistle today.  Awesome.  MF'ing awesome.
  
  
• Dustin Brown - Skates hard as hell towards the net, solid solid player. I'm scared of the Kings, it is offical.
  
  
• Raffy - Dude, awesome Olympics.  Keep doing what you're doing for the Wings now.  Please.
  
  
• Patrick Kane - Still don't like him, at all.  Back to hating him. 
  
  
• Jamie Langenbrunner - Always thought he was a blend in second liner in the show.  Well he might be, but he's an awesome captain.
  
• Bobby Ryan - Finally, a Duck that I won't hate with everything in my soul.

Finally....

• Ryan Kesler - The Livonia native will now always be close to my heart.  He said he hates Canada and plays in Canada.  How awesome is that.

Great tourney - USA has a bright future ahead of it, no question. And a great day for hockey.  I don't know how many status updates I've seen of people who have never watched a hockey game before, but loved the entire game other than the final score.  Take note Gary, you bitch.

Wings vs. Avs tomorrow!

Just for today, none of this is ignorant, this is all fact.

http://www.teamcanadasucks.com/

The only time Michael Moore hasn't lied to you.

(Only Canadians don't know this.)

Even Mr. America himself thinks so.

Americans know better than to support Corey Perry (which is why the Ducks have no fans...oh burn).

USA! USA! (pretend the S is white!)

Hey gang,

Exactly one month from now, our buddy Herm and a few of us Red Wing fanatics will be taking over Hockeytown Cafe and a healthy portion of Joe Louis Arena.

This is from the official "Herm to Hockeytown" website.  Most of you I'm sure have visited it already, but it's worth repeating...

March 26th. It's a day when dreams come true at Joe Louis Arena. This year, join Wings fans from across the globe in uniting to bring one man, Herm, on the journey of a lifetime: from his native land of Brazil to his spiritual home in Detroit, in Hockeytown, where he'll watch the game with 100 of his closest Wingnut friends. But that's not the end of it. No. Now it's time to turn the dream of one man, Herm, into the dreams of the children and their families at the Children's Hospital of Michigan.

For 123 years, parents have traveled from throughout the state of Michigan and beyond to seek care for their sick children from the pediatric specialists at the Children's Hospital of Michigan.

Your contributions can make dreams a reality for kids at the Children's Hospital of Michigan. That's because every penny of new money we raise will go directly to the Children's Hospital of Michigan's Child Life Program Fund.

I just wanted to get a quick headcount of how many of NOHS readers will be joining myself, The Future Mrs. Nightmare On Helm Street, Chris, and his lovely girlfriend, Stacy at the game and festivities.

Hell, maybe there's something (small) I can do for our little following.  I've got a month to put it together, so don't expect anything extravagant...but maybe I can whip something up.

So if you're headed to H2H, and you read this site, leave a comment saying so.  If you're going to miss out on all the fun, feel free to tell us 'why'.

You all remember Kevin Hodson...right?

This guy?

Maybe this will help jog your memory...

He was with us when we won the cup in '97 and '98.  Look, I even found this tiny picture of him holding Lord Stanley's Cup.  The point is that he played for a while in Detroit.  At the turn of the century, he left us to play for Tampa Bay and really hasn't been seen since.  I think Chris actually found a picture of him from his more recent European days, but it was hardly flattering so I'm just not going to show it.

The point of this post is because Hodson was recently inducted into the Sault St. Marie Hockey Hall of Fame.

"It's a special feeling"--Kevin Hodson

More details can be found at the Sault Star, but they couldn't even find a picture of him to post. 

Anybody have any Kevin Hodson stories or memories?

Prepare for extreme overbite...

Canadian forward Haley Irwin offers up a Molson from the penalty box after the Gold Medal Women's Game.

Sports Illustrated covered the on-ice after party as a "cool" and "authentic" celebration.  Others were not so gracious.  One AP report went so far as to inform the IOC about the event, which is now being investigated.  Some of those girls drinking out on the ice were not 19 years old, apparently.

Whoops.  In a public place ladies with the press around?

If smoking pot can get a medal taken away from a snowboarder, who's to say a beer can't strip a hockey player of gold?

Absurd?  Yes. 

Should it happen?  No. 

Will it?  We'll see.

Click the SI link for more pictures...

Heading into today's semi-final games, let's hear from some of our Detroit Red Wings that come from the amber waves of grain, from the purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain, from sea to shining sea...

From Khan(!) ...

"When they beat Canada in Canada, after all the hype, it was a huge win.  After that game, (Ryan) said he’s never sweat like that before.  To move on to the final four is a huge step for the U.S. hockey program.”--Drew Miller

He said he hasn't spoken much to "big brother" since the tournament began.  We all know how fragile goalies can be (especially in the head) so Drew leaving Ryan alone to do his job is just one small part to help his country...it's a stretch, but come on.

“I think they got the best goalie playing in the NHL right now.  You knew they were going to be there at the end. They got a very hard-working group, guys that are having some fun. It’s exciting to see the nation get behind the team. Hopefully, they can get the job done, at least get a medal.”--Jimmy Howard

Even though Jimmy wouldn't have even sniffed the ice during play, I still think he deserves to be there.  Maybe I'm just sad that he didn't get to have a new patriotic helmet to display.  Maybe I'm just happy that we have a goalie who actually wears a normal helmet...

“You watch the Canada-U.S. game, how people can say they don’t want pros to play in the Olympics, it speaks for itself. People are excited about it. Everywhere you go people are talking about it, even if they’re not hockey fans. That’s good for the sport.”--Brett Lebda

Um...yeah.

Thinking about taking a half day today so I can drive across the frigid snow filled state of Michigan and make it to GR before the start of the USA/Finland game.

There are two Red Wings left in the tournament...after today, there will be only one playing for the Gold.

As I said yesterday, I left work a mite early in order to catch the entire USA vs Switzerland game (in HD...yay).  I saw most of the Canada/Russia game and I fast forwarded through Finland/Czech Republic and Sweden/Slovakia on my DVR this morning.  So, I have seen at least a portion of all the games.  I'll catch up on the rest tonight since my Men's League this evening (yes, I'm playing back to back nights) doesn't even start until 10:45 PM.

The Good...

It wasn't pretty, but Team USA took care of business.  Hiller was as solid in this game as he has been all tournament long...even though he's a cheater and has huge leg pads that allow him to drop on every single shot...in most cases, before the shot.  Parise finally registers a goal (two of them).  The first one is pretty much credited to Raff and a ridiculously lucky bounce that the hockey gods owed America after that end of the 2nd debacle.

The Bad...

Not the way Nick Lidstrom wanted to end his Olympic career.  Sweden should have handled the Slovaks easily.  Lundquist should have spread the 4 goals he let in all tournament long around a little more evenly throughout the games.  Zetterberg finally popped one in, but to no avail.  At least Franzen got to skate and more importantly, left the games no worse for wear.  Now all of the Red Wings Swedes can use their anger of going medal-less to push Detroit into the play-offs...or so we all hope.

The Ugly...

This game was a disgrace (if you're Russian).  Not one time did the Ruskies appear to be in this game after Canada scored early in the 1st.  Malkin was invisible, Datsyuk looked disinterested (as he tends to do) and Ovechkin broke like 1,000 sticks.  Canada looked completely unstoppable in this contest.  Even Brendan Morrow contributed.  Hopefully they don't overlook Slovakia as they overlooked Switzerland in the preliminaries.  They were pretty happy to see Sweden fall.  It should be a cake walk to the Gold Medal Game for the host team.

...and The Boring.

Neither team looked very impressive in this game.  I suppose both Halak Vokoun and Kiprusoff looked stellar in net, but this game didn't have much excitement (the little part that I watched, anyway).  Jagr did end up playing in this one, but like the rest of his teammates, couldn't put a single goal past the Finnish netminder. Once again, the Finns stand between the US and a possible Gold Medal.  So, sorry Val, but get out of the way.

Well...we have our answer.  This version is via Khan(!):

The Red Wings will have defenseman Andreas Lilja back on their roster and presumably in the lineup Monday at Colorado, their first game after the Olympic break. But they will not have forward Kirk Maltby for at least the remainder of the regular season because he has opted to have surgery early next week on his chronically sore right shoulder.

So there you have it.  Looks like Jason Williams is staying (for now).  Malts, as expected, is disappointed, but is handling it with class...

"It kind of stinks, not how you want to finish a year, but when you can't do certain things and play the way you want to play on a consistent basis, it's something that had to be addressed, whether it was sooner or later.  I ended up playing with it all year. Now that the club's getting a lot healthier, it's an easier decision to do it now. 

Hopefully, there's no surprises when they (operate), which I don't expect there will be, and just take care of business, get it rehabbed as quick as possible, get back into game shape and hopefully be ready to help the team make a run in the playoffs."

Now the question becomes; which Lilja will be returning to action?  The one that started to win us over in 2009, or the guy who pretty much cost us the Cup in 2007?

Interesting day of hockey yesterday, no?

Only one of these teams will not be receiving a medal.

I have a really busy day today, but I promise that we'll discuss what happened yesterday in the quarterfinal games...eventually.

Maltby got his third cortisone shot into his shoulder (the maximum that you can receive in one year) and is hoping that this one will get him through the rest of the season, according to the Free Press:

“We’ll see how it feels over the next few days and how it reacts to getting back on the ice, but I would love to play the rest of the season and into the playoffs.”--Kirk Maltby

Those players not in Vancouver today for the Olympics will be taking the ice for practice at 2:00 PM EST.  Maltby, who has earned the right to at least be heard, had this to offer in terms of going on LTIR in order to free up Gary's Cap space for Lilja...

“That’s not my department, to worry about the salary cap and who may have to be moved,” he said. “I know we’re right there and if Lils comes off, something has to be done. Basically right now, though, it’s a lot of what-ifs. 

I’m a realist in that I know I’m on the tail end of my career, but I really want to play. I felt like this year, as far as my legs and my body, it’s held up pretty good. With the way the league is now, as long as you can skate, you’re able to play. I feel I can still contribute and help this organization win, not just this year, but maybe one more year. I do feel like I can fit that role of being a leader and still contributing in a limited role, especially as a penalty killer.”

Well...I'm sure Kirk and Kenny Holland are going to have a nice long chat once Tick Tock gets back from Vancouver.  What to do...what to do?