USA - Finland

[lockedge]

A terrible joke of a game. I caught the second and third periods of this, and while the 2nd period was pretty good, the third period was awful.

USA up 2-0, Koistinen shoots the puck through the side of the net and in. They call it a goal. They go to video review. TSN shows the replay about a half million times. They STILL declare it a goal.

And suddenly Finland gets momentum, and ends up winning 3-2.

At the end of the game there was a bit of a scuffle, after Brown absolutely demolished Jussi Jokinen as time expired, and Backes fought some poor Finnish kid who looked like he crapped his pants twice during the endeavor.
The refs couldn\'t control the 4 or so players that were being aggressive after the buzzer, and...ugh. Terrible officiating. Some dudes had better get relieved of their positions tonight.

[repenttokyo]

there\'s no fighting in international hockey.

[lockedge]

repenttokyo wrote:

there\'s no fighting in international hockey.

Which is why Backes got a match penalty, as with the other dude got also received a generous fractured nose.

[Zorro]

I just saw that shot, it clearly went through the side of the net. I thought it went through the side even before the slow-motion replay

Are the US players going to wreck their rooms now?? Oh never mind, Roenick and Chelios aren\'t there. Are any of the US players old enough to even drink in Quebec?

[lockedge]

Zorro wrote:

I just saw that shot, it clearly went through the side of the net. I thought it went through the side even before the slow-motion replay

Are the US players going to wreck their rooms now?? Oh never mind, Roenick and Chelios aren\'t there. Are any of the US players old enough to even drink in Quebec?

I think they have almost 20 players on the roster 25 years old or younger. This\'ll be good experience for them.

But yeah, I don\'t blame them for being livid about the game. Finland was let back in that game by the officiating, and the following unraveling by team USA through the sheer frustration.

A good lesson of adversity for them. Next time something like this happens to them, if it happens, they\'ll know how not to react, at least.

[The Comish]

No kidding, the officiating was brutal. Something didn\'t look right when the \"goal\" went in. From the angle the puck was shot, the netting moved, but for the puck to go in, it couldn\'t have hit the netting where it did.

The Olli Jokinen hitting from behind match penalty seemed a little weak, but is consistent with international refereeing. When a player gets hurt, a penalty will be called, no matter what.

Kudos to the TSN camera crew for showing the start of the \"fight\" between Backes and Salami (Saloma?). It looked to me like Saloma popped Backes in the face with his glove on. Backes popped him back and they kept doing that until the gloves came off. The guy (Saloma) got what he deserved. If he didn\'t want to fight, he shouldn\'t have punched Backes in the face.

If Torterella was watching the reply and it was so obvious (it was), why didn\'t he call a time out in order to delay the dropping of the puck?

Edit: Forgot to mention Robert Esche! He was outstanding and made a couple of highlight reel saves. Someone will take a flyer with him as their back up next year.

[repenttokyo]

lockedge wrote:

repenttokyo wrote:

there\'s no fighting in international hockey.

Which is why Backes got a match penalty, as with the other dude got also received a generous fractured nose.

makes me wonder if the IIHF refs get any training specifically to deal with breaking up fights.

[repenttokyo]

Zorro wrote:

I just saw that shot, it clearly went through the side of the net. I thought it went through the side even before the slow-motion replay

Are the US players going to wreck their rooms now?? Oh never mind, Roenick and Chelios aren\'t there. Are any of the US players old enough to even drink in Quebec?

our drinking age is 18

[lockedge]

The Comish wrote:

No kidding, the officiating was brutal. Something didn\'t look right when the \"goal\" went in. From the angle the puck was shot, the netting moved, but for the puck to go in, it couldn\'t have hit the netting where it did.

The Olli Jokinen hitting from behind match penalty seemed a little weak, but is consistent with international refereeing. When a player gets hurt, a penalty will be called, no matter what.

Kudos to the TSN camera crew for showing the start of the \"fight\" between Backes and Salami (Saloma?). It looked to me like Saloma popped Backes in the face with his glove on. Backes popped him back and they kept doing that until the gloves came off. The guy (Saloma) got what he deserved. If he didn\'t want to fight, he shouldn\'t have punched Backes in the face.

If Torterella was watching the reply and it was so obvious (it was), why didn\'t he call a time out in order to delay the dropping of the puck?

Edit: Forgot to mention Robert Esche! He was outstanding and made a couple of highlight reel saves. Someone will take a flyer with him as their back up next year.

Esche indeed was outstanding. He was given a raw deal after the season in Philly. That team was in a bad way, an he was the fall-man for them.

And you could tell what Torts was so angry about with the goal. He was yelling at the ref, looking up at the jumbo-tron, and back down the refs, repeatedly. I don\'t know if he SHOULD have used a time out. I can\'t remember how many they get, but he was probably thinking if they actually thought that P.O.S was a goal after a video replay, there was no hope to fixing it.

And yeah, the Salmela kid...he got a deserved match penalty. If you\'ve got someone wanting to fight you, on international tourney ice, and you don\'t WANT to fight, don\'t. No one else was really doing anything. All he\'d have to do is avoid Backes and skate the heck away to avoid anything. He looked like he\'d never fought in hockey before, so he probably hadn\'t, and had no business fighting at all. He popped Backes with his glove, and the whole thing started. I don\'t know WHO started the ordeal, as TSN was a bit late on that, but whatever.

[fzusher]

Zorro wrote:

Are any of the US players old enough to even drink in Quebec?

the 2010 draft class is old enough to drink in Quebec :laugh:

[fzusher]

lockedge wrote:

He looked like he\'d never fought in hockey before, so he probably hadn\'t, and had no business fighting at all

In 3 of his 5 seasons in the FNL, Salmela finished with over 1 PIM per game, though just slightly over so we can\'t assume he\'s a fighter. His best PIM finish was 04-05, 69th in the league. His tea has no real fighter - no one there accumulated more than 100 PIM on the season. This season\'s PIM king, with 198, is - here\'s a blast from the past for Flames and Stars fans - is former Flames pick and mostly Stars player Sami Helenius (Riku\'s brother, I wonder?).