Poland played an excellent game, especially goalie Kieca.  I couldn't help
but think of the contrast between the Polish players who were mostly coal
miners and had sparse equipment, and the Americans who were mostly developed
at prep schools and colleges and had the best equipment money could buy.  I
was happy to see Poland play such a wonderful game and but for a few mistakes,
they could have been in it right up until the end.  If you can play a solid
defensive style and get great goaltending, you can have a chance to win any
of the game, and this strategy paid off for Poland for much of the game.
 
Again, as with Germany and Italy, USA faced a supposed lesser opponent that
was clearly fired up to play them, but they got by a rough start and waited
patiently for the key goals to come.  A lot of people are probably going to
question the fact that USA only won 3-0, but the objective is winning, and
because of Finland tying Sweden, goal differential will never come into play
as far as USA is concerned.  It is simple: a win or tie vs Sweden gets them
the #1 spot, and a loss gets them 2nd.  They cannot finish lower because
they have 8 pts to Finland's 5.  The win over Finland was clearly huge.  In
fact, USA is tied with Sweden now for the best goal differential in Pool A.
 
No even strength goals allowed now in 201:15 - just over 10 periods.  Only
two even strength goals allowed in four games.
 
It is almost impossible for USA to meet Canada in the first round, even if
USA finishes 2nd, because Canada would have to lose big to the Unified Team
and Czechoslovakia blow out Switzerland.  The difference in goal differential
between Canada and Czechoslovakia is 12.  It looks like USA will meet either
France or Czechoslovakia, but they will take the ice Monday knowing who
their opponent will be should they win/tie or lose.  It is even possible
that USA will have a big showdown with the Unified Team as their quarterfinal
opponent.  Boy, would that be huge.  I can just hear people calling in sick
all over the US for that one. :-)
 
I am still iffy on how the matchups will be determined for the semifinals.
We know 1 plays 4 from the other pool, 2 plays 3, etc. but I am not sure
if the teams get re-seeded for the semis or if there will be a bracket.  My
guess is the highest remaining seeds from each pool will not be matched up.
If all four seeds from one pool should win, I suppose it would be 1-4 and 2-3.
If it's 2 and 2, I would suppose it would be (high A) vs (low B) and vice
versa.  If it's 3 and 1, then I have no idea.  If anyone knows, please post.
 
I am guessing (a lot of that tonight) that USA's q-final will be Wednesday
at 11 or 3 EST.  The first two q-finals are scheduled for Tuesday, the day
after Pool A finishes, and it would make sense to have the top two seeds from
Pool A get Tuesday off.  But who knows.  I should stop this guessing.
 
For all the abuse McEachern has been taking for not scoring thus far (he was
robbed of an assist on Hill's goal against Finland - scoring has been
atrocious), his goal today was very, very big.  Although USA had been clearly
getting the better of the play throughout the end of the first and into the
2nd, I was fearing that Poland was gaining in confidence as every scoreless
minute went by.  That goal seemed to break their resolve, and indeed, Sweeney's
goal followed less than three minutes later.
 
(On scoring, you may have noticed that the saves in the boxes I post don't
match the numbers in the papers.  That's because they are clearly wrong.  In
Canada's 5-1 win in which Canada had 31 shots, the TCH goalie was credited
with "26 shots-21 saves" when it should have been 31-26.  They are consistently
subtracting the number of goals scored from shots faced, and then giving THAT
as shots faced.  I'm correcting it before I send it out.  I'm also figuring
out the power plays and penalties from the boxes, those aren't given and so
my numbers are unofficial.)
 
I have to hand it to Peterson for sticking with LeBlanc.  There were
suggestions that maybe Gordon and/or Dunham would see some time, and I even
thought that it would be nice to get at least Gordon some game action in the
Games.  But it is essential to keep your hot goalie hot, and although Gordon
may have performed as well, the confidence is there with LeBlanc and you can't
do anything that might shake that confidence.  LeBlanc was the story early
on when Poland was able to muster some of its best scoring chances.
 
I heard it said that well, maybe it would be better to play another goalie
and rest LeBlanc because supposedly with the new format you'd end up playing
more games than before.  But whoever said that (media person) was wrong.
Jim Craig played 5 pool games and 2 medal round games in 1980.  LeBlanc would
play at most 3 medal round games this year - only one more game.
 
I also think that if this team should do something and only LeBlanc plays and
gets the accolades, that Gordon and Dunham deserve recognition just as Steve
Janaszak (who remembers him besides Minnesota fans? :-)) deserved it in 1980.
Gordon bore much of the load during the tour and would have been the man if
LeBlanc had not come in and played great.  And Dunham earned his way onto
the team with his great performance in the World Juniors and gave Peterson
the luxury of knowing that if LeBlanc and Gordon couldn't do the job for
some reason, he had in the wings a goalie who has proven his ability to step
up and play at a high level for several games in an international tourney.  I
look forward to Dunham getting his chance in 1994.
 
Here's another thought I had.  For a long time, USA Hockey wanted to only
use amateurs (collegians), partly because of the belief that they weren't
corrupted by being professional and that the Olympics would be the biggest
thing they had to play for.  1992 proves that the pros can play with this
feeling too.  In particular, I'm thinking of LeBlanc who looked at this as
his last chance to prove himself and to maybe earn a spot in the NHL.  Some
of the other players like Donatelli, CJ Young, Sweeney. etc. are also opening
eyes and will likely get serious second looks by NHL teams afterwards.
 
Remember, *CBS* will have USA-Sweden at 2:15 EST Monday, *NOT* TNT.  TNT has
no coverage on Monday, CBS scooped it up because of the holiday (which most
of us probably don't have off).
 
I also heard Emrick mention again that they couldn't score on their own empty
net during a delayed penalty.  My mistake several days ago.  I don't have
an IIHF rule book so I can't clear this up, but I doubt Emrick would be handing
out false information.
 
Finally, Merrimack assistant Stu Irving spotted my USA Hockey pin (which I've
been wearing since before the Games) on Friday and was very happy.  Stu has a
particularly strong affinity for the US Olympic hockey team.  He won a silver
medal with Team USA at the 1972 Sapporo (Japan) Games.
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Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com