First, all the Hockey East stuff including Merrimack boxes will be out
sometime Sunday, as well as Olympic stuff I have backlogged a couple of
days.  I haven't been able to send this out in the past couple of days.
Wanted to give some thoughts on the past two Team USA games, though, and
then get to bed so I can get up for the gold medal game.  Merrimack coach
Ron Anderson, from Moncton, nonetheless doesn't think the Unified Team is
beatable right now.  His call: EUN 5-2.
 
As many have said, the USA simply got beat by a much better team in a game
that should not have been that close, so there should be no shame in losing
that game.  And like many have said, it was disappointing to see the comments
made by the USA players about the officiating.  They dug their own hole.  But
I saw it more as a result of the team being upset at losing.  Perhaps in a
week or so, they won't be saying that officiating cost them the game.  Yet
still, I knew that the media would jump all over them, and they did.  The
story wasn't the game, it was the team's comments, and that angered me.  We
all know that the press was just looking to jump on them for something and
the team didn't give them anything for it until now.  Let's give these guys a
break and consider what may have caused them to say these things.  It didn't
deserve to be as big a story as it was, yet I saw and heard those comments
plastered all over the papers, tv and radio, and the Boston papers absolutely
ripped Donatelli et al to pieces for it.
 
I do think they were way out of line to act that way, but I didn't put any
stock in it and I don't think most people did either.
 
The TCH game was a different story.  Team USA disappointed because they looked
like they just didn't want to be there.  LeBlanc was truly hung out to dry
in this game, which should have been 16-1 instead of 6-1.  I'm still happy
with the 4th-place finish, and I'm looking forward to Lillehammer in 1994.
 
I'd be interested to see Pat's Olympic rankings after the whole tourney.  The
losses by the Pool A teams in the medal round, both in the consolations
and in the medal games, shows to me that this pool was much weaker overall
than Pool B which will sweep the medals.  Looking back, it seems that Team USA
finished where it did due in a very large part to the play of LeBlanc and
I know I'm not saying anything new.  But there is still a lot of work to be
done.  Team USA has yet to reach a point where it doesn't *have* to rely on
a goaltender to get red hot for it to be a contender.
 
Yet, I'd love to see what some combination of the 1988 and 1992 teams would
have done.  Take some of the more talented offensive players from 1988 who
proved they could score (Janney, Stevens, MacDonald, Bourbeau, Leetch, Millen,
Granato) at that level and put them with this year's defense and goaltending,
and that might have been a team to contend with.  After all, the 1988 team
played only one good period against a better USSR team and only lost by a
goal (plus an empty-netter).  I hope USA Hockey has learned from the past two
experiences.  1988 saw a run-and-gun team with no defense, and here we had
a solid defensive team that couldn't score or control the puck.  Hopefully
they'll have enough players available to them in 1994 that they can put
together a well-rounded team, possibly our best ever.
 
For a while I was saying that this team was winning in spite of Peterson and
not because of him.  I still believe that.  I'd love to see what Shawn Walsh
can do in 1994 - or even Herb Brooks, if he wants it and USA Hockey would
give it to him.
 
Finally, I think the very best decision CBS made in its entire coverage of
the Olympics was having Eruzione as the man down by the bench.  USA Hockey
is very conscious of its image with the press, so I hear, and with Eruzione
being such a well-loved guy by the American people, it was clear that no one
else could have gotten close enough to get even a word out of Peterson and
the boys after the last two disappointing losses.  Eruzione could ask the
tough questions, to a certain extent, without having Peterson rip into him
although Peterson still wasn't too much of a cheery guy.
 
1992 Team USA suddenly became almost a non-entity after losing to the Unified
Team.  But they won the games they should have won and lost to better teams.
That's better than the last two teams did.  Let's remember the fun and
excitement this team brought us and be proud of their finish.  I know I am.
---
Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com