Bad Bounces Hurt Team USA, Fall to Canada 4-2
- Updated: September 21, 2016
I love my country of Canada and like any proud citizen of their country, I hate to see my country lose in these international competitions, especially when it’s “best on best.” But in all honestly, as much as I hate to see Canada lose, I HATE to see Jonathan Quick lose even more. I don’t like cheering against the goalie that helped my beloved Los Angeles Kings win 2 Stanley Cups, so this game was definitely a conflict of interest for me. Even if it’s coming from Canada, I don’t like to see 4 goals be scored on him, especially when three of them, he had no chance on because they were all due to bad bounces of the puck. I always hated when somebody talked about “puck luck,” but now I understand what they meant.
Jonathan Quick didn’t lose this tournament for the USA. If it wasn’t for him, the Americans may have lost 7-2 or 8-2 instead of 4-2. The three bad bounces that created USA’s bad “puck luck” started from Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s slap shot that totally missed the net, but then unpredictably bounced wildly back into play and right on the stick of the tiny Canadian Matt Duchene. There was no way Quick could have predicted in half a second of where that puck was going? Plus U.S. defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, all 6’5, 260 pounds of him, failed in preventing the 5’11, 195 pound Duchene from getting near the net and scoring. Like, Duchene out muscled the giant Byfuglien for that puck. I wonder if that goal would’ve happened if Kevin Shattenkirk was there at that moment instead of sitting at home and watching this tournament because he wasn’t selected to be on the team.
The Corey Perry goal, (I hate saying that, including when he’s wearing the Canadian armor), should have been disallowed after he scored the goal with his chest. It was the exact same way and type of goal that James Van Riemsdyk had scored against Team Europe, but for some reason that goal was disallowed? Why wasn’t this one too?
Plus, there was some goalie interference on Quick, which is typical coming from Perry. This one had me scratching my head.
(This picture is nothing but a conflict of interest)
The second goal by Duchene was a beauty and he beat Quick fair and square, but the 4th goal by Team Canada, defenseman Ryan McDonagh accidentally scored into his own net, when the puck bounced off of his skate. The Hockey Gods were not with Jonathan Quick and Team USA in this game, or in this tournament.
Team Canada also played very well and they deserve their due. They were definitely the better team with a much stronger sense of unity and chemistry than the American’s did. Canada out hustled them, (as the Europeans did), had better scoring opportunities and played solid defense. Our very own Drew Doughty was the second star of the game, right behind Duchene. This is a stacked Canadian team and they took it to heart when they heard that this Team USA was “built to beat Canada” and T.J. Oshie said that Canada had more “skill”, but Team USA had more “grit.”It probably wasn’t a good idea to let that out of the bag because besides the first exhibition game between these two, the Americans weren’t even close to beating this Canadian team. So if that was the only mission that they had, even over winning the actual World Cup than this was an even worst disaster than I first thought.
(Drew Doughty knows a thing or two about skill and grit)
Even then, the American’s did hit 3 posts during the game that could have resulted in 3 more goals for Team USA. Like I said, the Hockey Gods were frowning on Team USA, and my heart goes out to Jonathan Quick and all of my American LA Kings’ brothers and sisters. I’m happy my country of Canada won, but I didn’t enjoy or celebrate this victory. Watching Quick there on the ice and knowing how disappointed he must have felt after this loss and elimination from the tournament, twists my stomach in knots. I would feel the same way when playing against Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik (which happened Wednesday night), or any other LA King that isn’t on the Canadian team. Yes I’m Canadian, but in the end, it’s Go Kings Go 4 Life!
So if Quick isn’t to blame over Team USA’s horrific performance in this tournament, than who is? Well I’ll put it this way. Quick isn’t the King you’re looking for. The King you are looking for is …. and it hurts me to say it but …. it’s Dean Lombardi and this worries me to death. My good friend Augie Loya of LA Kings Road Talk Radio once told me and I’m paraphrasing here, that Lombardi has not been the same since the Mike Richard‘s fiasco and drama. When Dean lost his “Derek Jeter,” it was like he lost his mind and a bit of his soul, got overly emotional, paranoid and desperate and has been making some strange and erratic decisions as the general manager of the LA Kings, (think the punishing first round draft pick losing Andrej Sekera and Milan Lucic rental trades for example). Do not get me wrong, I’m a Dean Lombardi supporter, but I was even shocked and scratching my head in confusion when I saw who Lombardi and friends selected, or more like didn’t select to be on his Team USA roster. Where is Phil Kessel and Nick Bonino? Two thirds of the Stanley Cup winning “HBK” Line? Where is Shattenkirk or Kyle Okposo? Where is Cam Fowler? How about Tyler Johnson? And why in the name of the Hockey Gods (Richard, Howe, Orr and Gretzky) would you pick John Tortorella to be your head coach? That could only have ended badly and well, it did! Maybe Lombardi has lost his mind and that’s not good news for us Kings’ fans.
The forming of Team North America also hurt the U.S. National team. And it hurt more so than it did Team Canada, (though I’m quite positive that Canada would have loved to have had Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon play for them too), but the Americans had some depth issues that could have also been solved by having young Americans like Jack Eichel and Auston Matthews play for them. With their fearless speed and skill, it only would have benefited the veterans on Team USA and have helped get some much-needed goals because you were not getting them from Patrick Kane, Max Pacioretty, Joe Pavelski and Zach Parise. Where were those guys? Kane still hasn’t scored in this tournament, (and I mean the actual tournament, not the exhibition games), and he also didn’t get a goal at the Sochi Olympics either. In fact, Dustin Brown had double the goals that Kane had in that tournament and he played a lot less minutes than the current reigning Hart Trophy winner did. You can’t win when your top guys aren’t scoring. I wonder if they would have had that problem if Phil Kessel was there, you know, instead of him being at home and watching the game on his recliner because he wasn’t selected!
Just sitting around the house tonight w my dog. Felt like I should be doing something important, but couldn’t put my finger on it.
— Phil Kessel (@PKessel81) September 21, 2016
So with all the bad ‘puck luck” and bounces, poor team selection, disallowed goals and disappointing showing in this tournament, my heart goes out to all of you, my beloved American LA Kings’ family. If it is any consolation, Drew Doughty is still in the tournament, as is Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik, (so is Jake Muzzin, but he’s been tagged as the healthy scratch). You can still cheer for Team North America as well. And let’s not hate on Quick. It really wasn’t his fault and you know right now this is bothering him BIG TIME! Let’s not even hate on Lombardi …. well at least not yet. He messed up this Team USA team but we should still give him the benefit of the doubt because he did turn the Kings’ franchise into a powerful one. He assembled two Kings’ teams that won the Stanley Cup twice and we will forever be grateful to him for that. No one else in Kings’ history had done that, so despite what happened to Team USA, let’s still have some Kings’ faith and not hate on him … but let’s definitely keep a close eye on him though because I’m worried. I am very worried.
*Special thanks to Johnny Bairos, Dee Bairos, Theresa Walsh Duarte and Mario Hicks for their help with this article.
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