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Hartley Miller's Slap -Shots March 3rd Edition

By Hartley Miller

At times, match ups between teams in sports are like puzzles. Some clubs prefer certain opponents while others strive to avoid selected foes. This is evidenced by the PG Cougars who enjoy playing the Vancouver Giants and the Swedish Olympic Men's hockey team who went to all extremes in order not to face Canada.

First, the Western Hockey League, and Prince George-Vancouver. The Giants are the top team in the B.C. Division, and have just 16 regulation time losses in 65 games, yet six of them have come against the 4th place Cougars. If the post season started tomorrow, these two teams would meet in the first round, and although there's 21 points difference in the standings, it's hard to say who should be favored. After all, the Cougars have won five straight games against the Giants, and are 6-2 in the season series following those 3-2 and 5-1 victories last weekend at the CN Centre.

It's hard to understand why Vancouver can dominate the rest of the league and struggle against PG. Cats Head Coach Mike Vandekamp suggests his club does well against the Giants because “both teams play a similar hard working, physical style”. He also notes that the Cougars have had consistent goaltending against Vancouver. It is obvious that the Giants would prefer a playoff match up with the Kamloops Blazers. After all, other than a couple of gimmick shootouts (which thankfully don't happen in the playoffs) Vancouver hasn’t lost to Kamloops this season.

The Olympic Men’s Hockey triumph for Sweden raised a few eyebrows on this issue as well. It is interesting that Swedish Head Coach Bengt Ake Gustafsson wanted to avoid Canada at all costs, in the quarter-finals, and although he was criticized at the time, the smartly laid out plan led directly to a gold medal. In fact, Ake Gustafsson caused a media stir when he suggested it might be in Sweden's best interest not win its last round robin game against Slovakia in order to secure a more favorable quarter-final match up with Switzerland. A victory could have meant a date with Canada, or the Czech Republic, rather than the Swiss, who everyone knew overachieved during the round robin.

Well, the Swedes did indeed “tank” that game to Slovakia, losing 3-0. So it was on to the quarter-finals where Sweden did the expected and blasted Switzerland 6-2. In the semi-final game, the Swedes up-ended the Czech Republic 7-3, taking advantage of a huge coaching error by the Czechs in not starting Tomas Vokoun in goal. In the final, Sweden edged a Finland team (3-2) that obviously wanted to win, but had been thrilled just to make it that far.
Sweden wanted no part of Canada and really did not want to face the Russians again after losing to them 5-0 in the round robin. As it turned out, the path to the victory was laid out perfectly, and Ake Gustafsson and the rest of the Swedes have the gold medal to prove it.

Yes, whether it is Junior Hockey or the Olympics, some match ups are ideal. Funny how that works, isn't it?

From the quote rack:

• "I didn't have anytime to react before I got sucker punched in the eye. It was like one of the players from the Bruins”.
Hockey hall of Famer, Guy Lafleur, who suffered a black eye after being on the receiving end of a fist from a robber while being on vacation in Argentina. 

• "Honey, I Shrunk the Bank Account."
Joe Biddle of the Nashville Tennessean, on the next movie featuring Janet Jones. 

• "Players wore their flak jackets just in case VP Dick Cheney was there and mistook anybody for quail.''
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, after the World Series champion Chicago White Sox visited the White House. 

• "American biathlon competitor Jay Hakkinen managed to miss all five targets in the event. On the brighter side, he at least got a congratulatory call from the vice-president."
Comedian Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California 

• "A hundred syringes confiscated in a raid on the Austrian team's cross-country digs? Talk about finding a needle in a ski shack.
Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times 

• "It wasn't pretty, but I thought there was parity in women's curling at the Olympics. In fact, veteran Norwegian skip Dordi Nordby says it was the best field she has faced since the 1924 Games".
Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix

--And how was your week ?

--Hartley Miller is the sports director for radio stations 94x and the Wolf@97fm. He also writes for the PG Free Press.

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