by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–When you look at Friday’s win by the men’s U.S. Hockey team in a 3-2 shootout over Russia and compare it to the 1980 win by the U.S. over the Soviets there was a lot more hype for the 1980 team because clearly they were an underdog, this year they weren’t an underdog, these were two really good teams. Watching the game these two teams challenged each other and the first team to make a lot of mistakes would have problems.

They both as it turned out played very evenly, Russia seemed to have a lot more zone time, the bigger ice was an advantage it really allowed the players to showcase their skating skills and the puck handling skills. It was a very exciting game and very fun for the fans to watch. What was disappointing is the shootout had to pick the winner. You wanted to see them work for the win by skating not in a shootout.

The penalites did make a big difference in the game, the USA penalty kill truly laid it out on the line blocking shots right and left, hoepfully that won’t impact the games going on in the future, you don’t want to see anybody get hurt in the Olympics. It shows that their in it all the way, the two teams played were so evenly matched that you wanted it to keep going on.

The interesting thing about the shootout after the first three skaters shot is that they used the same skaters over and over again. This is Olympic hockey and not NHL season play and wow it was intresting hockey. It worked out for the USA and it might not be a good thing for Olympic competiton. It only shows the Russian goalie had only few moves to try and block the shots for a shootout.

Before the shootout started the commentary by the television analysts was that T.J.Oshie was used heavily in overtime shootouts because of his shootout skills. He has a very good record of going in the shootout and he was amazing in the shootout, he did a great job, he did miss a few, it shows the talent of the individual player that his skill level to find the back of the net on a five hole shot and a crossbar goal was a perfect display for the Sochi Olympics.

This shows the invidual talent of this team sport, it’s a little disheartening to me that the game went to a shootout when it’s a team sport. However that’s the way the rules in the Olympics are now. It was fun to watch that match and it could have been a different game if Oshie hesitated a second longer but he had the goaltender beaten. It was a very exciting game and the USA team is proud to have it end the way it did with a one goal shootout win.

When it come to the Russians Pavel Datsyuk there can’t be anybody who can argue that he’s not the best hockey player all around in the world. He show cased his talents and they say he has some injuries and if that’s Datsyuk playing at that level with those injuries the Russian team is proud to have someone who can withstand the pain and play Olympic hockey at that high level.

Larry Leavitt does Pro Hockey commentary for Sportstalk radio each week