The Canadian press should be ashamed of itself.
The Toronto Star ran the headline "Hockey final a tale of two players" with a big photo of Canadian goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The Globe and Mail's headline read, "Canada settles for hockey silver." Both stories blamed Fleury for the loss, the Globe actually referring to his stellar performance in last year's final and acquitting him of any blame, then adding, "But he could be blamed this time."
Fleury did not lose the gold medal final of the World Junior Hockey Championship yesterday in Finland. Team Canada met a less talented but better prepared and more defensively aware Team USA in the final. Fleury's play was not great, but the Canadian defense had more lapses than the goalie, and the American goalie played a great game. Sure, the fourth goal was a fluke; probably happens once a year in any form of hockey. But don't overlook a diving save Fleury made earlier in the game, deflecting a sure goal with his glove. That save was spectacular, and kept the lifeless Canadian team in the game.
The Canadian press should keep things in perspective: Canada lost the gold by one goal; and for the third consecutive year it lost the gold after leading in the gold medal game. Two of those three years Canada led by 2 goals in the final.
Individually, Canada has a better team than the US. But the US had far more preparation time, and in this game the US was better coached than Canada. But it's a team game, and blaming Fleury accomplishes nothing. It's also inaccurate.
2:23:53 PM 
|
