U.S.A upsets Canada and SLU's Stock Keeps Rising.

WOW. I'm still reacting to last night's riveting game between the United States and Canada. You know the line from Mighty Ducks 2, "Hey Goldberg, I bet if that puck was a cheeseburger you'd stop it?" Well, apparently Ron Wilson hypnotized Ryan Miller before the game under this pretense. And with NBC, err....MSNBC, broadcasting the game, hiring Keenan Thompson, currently of SNL,  to sit in the stands and heckle Miller with the famous line was rather easy to pull off. Even easier than beating Norway. Miller stopped an incredible 42 shots en route to preserving a 5-3 victory over Olympic host Canada. Ryan Kesler's empty netter to seal the deal was also magnificent. You can watch that goal, along with the rest of the game's goals right here.

I'm really enjoying cheering for guys like Kesler and Brian Rafalski who I can't stand during the NHL season during to their current rosters (Vancouver and Detroit respectively), have been money guys for the USA so far in this tournament. Rafalski, a defenseman, leads the team in goals with four. That's an example of your veterans getting it done. An example of the Canadians' veterans getting it done would be Patrick Marleau taking huge dive to draw a penalty against the Erik Johnson. Canada would score on the ensuing power play to cut the USA lead to one goal. I'm sorry, but when you have to take a dive in an Olympic game to get some momentum, your team does not deserve to win. Even Charlie Conway of the peewee Mighty Ducks has more integrity than that. That's right, Marleau has less integrity than a Hollywood scripted 12-year old. For shame Mr. Marleau, for shame. That said, the USA didn't entirely deserve to win this game either. When your club is out-shot nearly two to one, your goaltender has to be something quite magical just to be in the game, let alone win it. Luckily for the States, Miller was David Blaine and more (The sequel to the video is just as good, FYI).



The USA will need Miller's play to remain at a high level to win the gold, but thanks to winning the top seed in the single-elimination, they will get to avoid the tournament's three biggest threats, Canada, Russian, and Sweden until the gold-medal game. Another huge ramification of Canada losing to the US is that Russia and Canada will meet in the quarterfinals (assuming the Germans don't pull a huge upset of Canada). This means that either Russia or Canada is already assured to leave Vancouver without a medal. Many experts were picking these two teams along with the Swedes to medal in this event. I picked the USA, Canada, and Sweden (just not in this space), but I'm no expert. I would be rather surprised if Canada medals at this point. To win the gold, they would possibly have to beat Russia, Sweden, and the United States in a span of four days. They have the home crowd, but it might take that plus a bit of a miracle to get that done.  One thing is for sure though. If the rest of the tournament plays out like the USA-Canada game, hockey fans are in for a real treat.

The St. Louis University Billikens are continuing their charge towards the bubble. They have now won six consecutive games and own soul possession of fourth place in the Atlantic-10 conference, which is slated to get more NCAA bids than the SEC this year. They are becoming more and more difficult to ignore. If they can pull off the upset on Wednesday when they host Xavier, they will be impossible to ignore. I'm not saying that win will get them in, but it'll certainly keep the Bubble Watch interested. Three of SLU's last four games are at home, including the next three against Xavier, Duquesne, and Temple before finishing at Dayton. Winning three of those four plus a good showing in the A-10 tourney would make them a shoe-in for the NIT and keep their NCAA hopes alive until Selection Sunday as well.

Idiot of the week award: Ryan Franklin.

The Cardinals closer of last season may have deserved this last year when he was constantly blowing games down the stretch, but he truly earned it this week. He apparently has a big problem with Major League Baseball banning guns in the clubhouse. Franklin is from Arkansas and was brought up hunting and fishing, so it's understandable that he's attached to these hobbies. But he'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the Gilbert Arenas "guns in the locker-room" story. Wait, I did just say he's from Arkansas, so I guess that is possible. However, MLB is worried about it's image enough already due to the PEDs scandals, it doesn't need a gun headache as well. MLB didn't say it's players aren't allowed to hunt, it just said keep it out of the locker-room. Most places of employment ban firearms: schools, banks, the post office, etc. Most places of employment don't pay you millions of dollars to play a game. Count your blessings Mr. Franklin and please, quit whining over such a stupid issue. If he keeps this up, we're going to have to start frisking that beard of his to make sure he's not hiding a Noisy Cricket.