In the hours leading up to last night's Canada-Norway game, it was mistakenly reported that Flyers captain Mike Richards would be a healthy scratch. He didn't get much ice time (10:11) but he made an impact on the game, especially when he scored the goal that made it 3-0 just after Canada killed off a 5-on-3 disadvantage midway through regulation.
Chris Pronger didn't see too much action in his own end of the ice (Norway managed just 15 shots for the game). He had the primary assist on Dany Heatley's goal that made it 2-0 in the second period. Pronger played 19:08 overall.
Meanwhile, Oskars Bartulis was out for Ilya Kovalchuk's goal that came at the end of Russia's three-goal onslaught in the span of 2:05 in the third period (right after former NHLer Herbert Vasiljevs got the Latvians on the board in the opening half minute of the period). Overall, Bartulis played fairly well on the second Latvian defense pairing. He played a total of 16:14.
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Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at how the favored nations that played yesterday -- Canada, Russia and USA -- were able to avoid the "upset trap" that seems to get sprung at least once in just about every major international tournament. Sooner or later, though, there's likely to be at least one medal contender who rues coming in unprepared for an underdog opponent.
Today's
Team Sweden Olympic blog at Versus.com looks at the Swedes' preparations for today's game against Germany.
At practice yesterday, these are the five-man units that the Swedes featured:
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Mattias Weinhandl
Mattias Öhlund - Tobias Enström
Peter Forsberg – Henrik Zetterberg - Patric Hörnqvist
Nicklas Lidström – Niklas Kronwall
Loui Eriksson - Nicklas Bäckström - Daniel Alfredsson
Henrik Tallinder - Magnus Johansson
Johan Franzén - Samuel Påhlsson - Fredrik Modin
Douglas Murray - Johnny Oduya
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Today's
Across the Pond at NHL.com will look at the Norwegian national team's journey to reach the Olympics and it's short-term prospects after the Games. There is also a sidebar feature on the most dominant club in Norwegian hockey, Vålerenga IF Oslo.
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