feelings abt hockey

General vibe: Old guard vs. young guns.

Penguins — They have Sidney Crosby. Their core three guys (including Crosby) have been playing on the Penguins together since 07, are all 38 years old, and won the Stanley Cup in 2009 and 2016 and 2017. So lots of playoff experience and playoff success, but they’re very old and past their prime. They actually weren’t expected to make playoffs, they haven’t been in 3 years, but all three oldies just went off at the same time and had a great season.

Flyers — Much younger, they’re playing something like 4 rookies in significant roles, lots of exciting younger players but they haven’t made playoffs in 6 years and this group has very little playoff experience. The true underdogs, literally no one thought they would make it, totally written off mid-season but they had an insane March and April to scrape into the playoffs.

So old guys past their prime vs young kids that are inexperienced but on a hot streak, both kind of underdogs. Neither are considered serious Cup contenders.

For Binn haters, sorry but Binner made some HUGE saves, gwg was a 3v1 and honestly I’m not that mad

CRAZY to hate on our forwards (I saw McDavid slander fight me irl) bc look at shots on goal??? There are gonna be ugly shots but against Helly the brick wall, you just have to keep peppering

We had great possession, including the whole OT like we got pucks back and broke plays up left and right

I also hate everything rn and it sucks SO BAD that the most people will only remember the US gold medal, but we played really fucking well. No one fucking choked, shitty coin-flip OT losses happen! What did you expect, 3v3 is the most volatile shit ever, are we supposed to NOT rush just to keep some defense??

The storyline I’ll remember is that, in spite of losing Crosby (and MacKinnon might still be sick if you allow me a bit of cope), we played a killer game with superior offense and defense EXCEPT in goal (and to me that was more Helly ascension to the skies rather than a Binner choke) and lost the most important coin flip ever

Mother Canada at his third Olympics, the love the team has for him (seriously McD yelling “TO BE CLEAR NOT MY C” 🥹)

Baby Canada carrying a team of his childhood idols including Mother because Mother will be there, leading in goals!!

McMacMackMak (sorry this will never fail to tickle me)

Separately, McDavid making plays out of thin air with Mack is my crack cocaine. Already 13 points this Olympics run??

Rooting for a Panther for once (I’m a March fan always but Sam Bennett?? This is a unifying experience)

Nathaniel doing the wave

These gorgeous red jerseys (I really hope they play those in the final)

Either outcome, we will get some stupid amazing hockey by our stupidly stacked super team!!! (Unless someone gets injured, please no one get injured!! PROTECT THE BABY they’re going to target him!)

In 15 hours it’ll all be over and someone’s going to make another star meme and we’re all going to laugh about how wired we all were over some silly boys and their silly game hahahahaha

(Come inject cope with me)

Ok I know I know that we

Lost Mother

Could not win a faceoff against CZE or in the first period against FIN

Possibly have a sick Nathaniel

Scraped by the last two games, I mean truly SCRAPED

Were leading the score for 6 of the last 123 minutes played

and the US just gave SLO a quick-hit roasting

BUT

allow yourself to join me on a little inhale of the copium:

The team has shown grit and poise under pressure. If anything bad happens in the final, do you think Team Canada blinks? They won after losing Sid to injury, they won after being down with 4 minutes to go in an elim QF, they won after giving up a shorthanded goal to go 0-2 in the second. They’ve proven to themselves that no matter how dire the situation, they will pull it off, they have pulled it off. The mental is unbreakable atm

(Seriously, that third period vs. Czechia was so much worse than any position they’ll be in during the gold medal game. Like, losing to Czechia in the QF, not even getting to battle for a medal? For a Canadian team?? You get through that, you’re not getting rattled at the gold game)

Slovakia has 4 NHL players, Finland has all NHL players except 1. Slovakia has had a stellar run but let’s not compare the SF scores as if they played equivalent teams (update: see also: bronze medal)

Canada operates so well from the underdog position. OBVIOUSLY we were never underdogs but at least now, after the rough QF and SF, the storyline isn’t “Canada’s gold to lose”, it’s more even odds. Also tbh I think general sentiment has swung too far against Canada—we were wayyy stronger against Finland than the scoresheet shows

We have momentum. Our main bad game was QF against Czechia, which I will pin on losing Mother and the resulting confusion in lines and structure, also some questionable reffing (how can you not). It’s the first elim, maybe we relaxed too much in rounds. In the SF we gave two unlucky freebies, but we were dialed by second period and the Finns got what like 7 shots in the whole last two periods? The nerves are settled, the lines are settled, we are on the upswing and will peak in the USA match. I know USA had good games too but did they experience the same FEAR?? Test their GRIT? Naw gurl I ain’t buy

Binny is only gonna get better at the gold match. He is capable of losing a prelim (he didn’t) but Big Game Binnington is not capable of losing a Big Game

McMacMack is looking nuclear— I do worry abt Nate getting sick (update: he looks ok in the presser?? idk) and the over-reliance on one line BUT Connor is fking DIALED and this line won’t stop making shit happen despite ridic ice time. Mack wants it so bad it’s giving 2010 Vancouver Crosby yelling for the puck all game, the narratives write themselves!!

The US does have a disgusting PK and great faceoff percentages, but our PP is as stacked as it could be. With Mother this is literally one of the best PPs ever assembled, and Mack is barely a downgrade if Mother is not sufficiently healthy. Plus, Nathaniel has been winning faceoffs again (thank you)

Quinn “the missing piece at 4Nations” Hughes, I’ll raise you Cale Makar. Close to tops on ice time, got several nasty shots off, central to the PP structure. In even strength, Makar Toews pair looked particularly strong against Finland, so like I said before, everyone is peaking in the final

We have killer roster depth. Don’t forget that this is a grossly stacked roster and don’t sleep on the second to fourth lines — USA is gonna be so laser focused on shutting McMacMack down that a Tom Wilson or Mitch Marner is gonna have an easier time doing some crazy shit for us. We’ve seen it already, the production from up and down the roster

Heart and soul, Sidney Crosby. If he’s on the ice it’s a new brand new hockey team. Do NOT doubt the power of the childhood idol of every other man on that team. Think Canada woho— rounds vs. US without MPP = slaughter. Everyone said gold match would be a wash, then MPP returns and we give them a FIGHT (I know it’s a diff situation bc Canada woho was built around MPP so it’s much more obvious of an absence but still) Seriously, we NEVER count Sidney mfing Crosby out

If Crosby is not on the ice, he will still be there being the Mother and Captain (I vote we dress him as the extra forward with the C, imagine the aura) and we win it for the Mother and the Captain (please)

The US is overdue for a bad game and we are overdue for a good game. Just looking at raw talent, I think it’s an even match, so something something regression to the mean do not question me rn

Thank you for coming to my TED talk I’m gonna go back to pretending I don’t care deeply about the outcome of this game

Everyone say thank you mcmack

RIP baby Canada’s goal streak. Not for lack of trying bc that boy had a whopping 8 shots on goal (more than double anyone else on either team). He’s still at a point every game and goal per game ratio!!

FIN pp goal is ok, but shorthand goal for 2-0 and really sent us back to the trenches

Binny will win the 1v1 if and only if he NEEDS to win it

Cale Makar has a killer shot — Makar been doing so much work this game

What were there like 5 McDavid to Mack shots? Thank you

We are grateful to the Panthers and VGK line

We had our PP line McMacMackMak on ice 50% of the game… look I will not be mad abt that but it can’t all be on them

Saros a brick wall, Binny is here I guess

ONSIDE

Ok I’m honestly not so shook, first period was a dump with us winning like -2 faceoffs but afterwards the fins barely had an opportunity and we were ROLLING, just took a while to translate to the scoresheet. Saros being a wall an all. I honestly think we had a very good chance in OT with the momentum and how we were playing