s immediately after they've lost a game. Silver is still such a great result, and the audience was very supportive, with cries of USA in which Canadians joined, but they deserved a couple of hours to pull themselves together.
The Bronze Medallists Finland were in much better shape a day after than Team USA. A couple of the women pulled it together and were cheerful, but it's so damn hard after a close loss like that. They did brilliantly, played an incredibly tough game.
Rob
Since I wasn't born here, liking hockey doesn't come naturally, or even very much at all to me, but I have watched Olympic Hockey before including the amazing Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid, and this game is a tough, tough game. Before the game there was a lot of trash talk from, sorry folks, the American team, one of them saying how she loved to be cheered against, and to score goals against Canada in a Canadian arena and hear the crowd go silent. There were others, but I can't remember their names, only that I was a little uncomfortable with what they said. On the Canadian side there was just acknowledgement that it was a strong rivalry, and you have to "play smart", "The US is always a tough team, you really have to be at the top of your game."
Heart rate monitors on the US players indicate that the US has to play 20% harder against Canada than any other team, or so the US coach has indicated.
Definitely not seeing some of the outrageously fancy play that I saw in a previous game between Canada and Switzerland.
Compared to the NHL games I've been forced to watch here, this is so much faster a game, and so dependent on precise passing.
Rob
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