It's Getting Down to the Wire

Switzerland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Sweden all came up short yesterday.  Switzerland is understandable, mostly because they faced the United States and I certainly (and selfishly) wouldn’t have picked them to move on.  Though Jonas Hiller was fantastic in net, according to everything I read.  Obviously, so was Ryan Miller.  Now if only the schedule was more accommodating of all of us who work during the day, I could actually SEE the game and not just catch twitter updates and sneak a peek of the online feed every now and then.  Oh well…

The real story here is the fact that Russia, the Czech Republic and Sweden are out of the tournament.  With the rosters each of these teams had coming into Vancouver, this is a real shocker.  It’s that whole underdog scenario again.  The teams generally lesser known get their chance to shine.  I mean, seriously…SLOVAKIA?!  I don’t think one person would have picked them to advance to the semifinals.  But good for them.  You know that entire team has to be flying pretty high right now.  Good on them.

With the Czech Republic and Sweden both down for the count, that means there’s only two Predators left with their eyes set on a medal.  Of course, in my dream scenario Ryan Suter would bring back a little gold around his neck and Shea Weber would leave Vancouver with some silver in his pocket.  However, with the way some of these games have gone down, anything is possible. 

The men get a break tonight and the hockey stage is set for the women’s gold medal game between the United States and Canada.  I have to confess I’m not much for women’s hockey but go Team USA nonetheless!