Canada implodes, Russia wins Gold

The one thing about being involved in the service industry, particularly the bar scene, is that you're almost guaranteed to have to work the big ticket events. Last night was one of those nights. There I was along with five other cooks in downtown Edmonton preparing bar grub for a rabid group of Canadian hockey fans. Listening to guys from the FAN 590, Dan Dunleavy and Jack Miller who are by far two of the best hockey announcers going. We were all anticipating the best. Gold, and nothing less.

For the most part the night was great, the food was flying out and the crowd was drinking it up and having a great time watching Canada dominate the Russians through two periods.

Then that all changed.

The third period could not be described better than it was after the game by Canadian defenceman and captain Ryan Ellis.

"We just stopped skating, we stopped working hard and we stopped doing the things that got us there," said Ellis.

Perfectly said. Canada almost literally stopped skating in the defensive zone. Visentin can and will be blamed for the second goal. After surrendering an early goal in a game of this magnitude a team looks to their goaltender for stability and calm. Visentin could not deliver, it's doubtful that Roy would have either given his recent outings so lets not bring up that argument either. But on the third goal from Russian captain Vladimir Tarasenko, the Canadian defence were standing still! Not watching their man but rather following the puck like moths follow the light. You could see the play coming from a mile away.

Not taking anything away from the Russians, they came back against Finland and Sweden to get to the gold medal. They're obviously a good team and I refuse to play the what if game. The Russians are quite the story, an incredible group of resilient and competitive young athletes. The fact is is the Canadians got cocky, they thought they had it in the bag and that they didn't need to work in the final 20 minutes.

Unbelievable, disappointing but above all else deserved.

Hats off to the Russians, hope your hangovers go well. I know getting kicked off a plane and being drunk underage is a bit embarrassing but 21 is too damn old for a legal drinking age anyways. In Canada, you're men but that doesn't mean we like you.

Photo Credit: TSN