I have watched a lot of hockey recently, thanks to the WJC. and lots of games scheduled around New Year's.

I was really uncomfortable seeing that poor Czech kid on the ice after being hit by Phaneuf. Like, it was a clean hit, but it was still very dangerous and he got a concussion--could have been worse. I'm very conflicted. I really hate it when guys get injured, but that's the nature of the game. Is there any magical solution someone can come up with so that we can prevent people from getting hurt?

I was impressed by Marek Schwarz. Fleury looked shaky, but the moment the Czechs started turning it up, especially during the power play, you could see him improve visibly. He should be good against the US.

Finland/US was surprisingly well-matched. The last minute or so of that game was really exciting. Should be an excellent game on Monday. :)

Damn. I was just telling fetisha today that we have yet to beat a team that's higher than us in the standings and then we do it tonight, after playing the night before, after a loss that really should have been at least a tie (that disallowed goal was really BS--I mean, is that going to become the new goalie technique? Guy comes to you on a breakaway, just sprawl and kick the net when he shoots to invalidate the goal?), coming from behind, protecting a one-goal lead really well and even scoring the insurance goal.

At first I was thinking, well if the Blues hadn't shanked that 2-on-0, or if Boguniecki hadn't shanked on his open net shot, the game would have been tied. But we had our chances that we shanked, too. We killed all the penalties (even scoring a SHG) and even scored a SHG, and we scored on one of our PPs. Toskala was awesome, but so was Osgood. We were the better team tonight--that's kind of crazy to me. :)

Also watched Stars/Kings (wow, tied with 20 seconds left! Those Kings never give up :P), Ducks/Wings, which was a good game. JS was good and Ducklings really pressed towards the end (and kept missing the net, heh).