Henrik Lundqvist was in net for Sweden for an easy win over Switzerland. Though he made 27 saves, Henke allowed goals on shots we're used to seeing him stop as a Ranger. The result completes the cycle that started when Swedish coach Bengt Gustafsson suggested that his team might want to lose their last opening round game to Slovakia to draw an easier quarterfinal opponent than Canada and rested Lundqvist yesterday -- lots of stories in the press today about that , but our favorite is this one, shocked, shocked! at the Swedes' behavior. Tomorrow, we expect this reporter to demand that Pittsburgh return its Stanly Cups because they tanked their season in order to draft Mario Lemieux. That resulted from a problem with the system, and so did this one -- save your indignance for the system, not a team doing what it has to do to win.
Finland continued its Olympic winning streak with a 4-3 win over the USA in the other early quarterfinal match today. That sends the Americans home without even a sniff at a medal, with only one lone over Kazakhstan, after four straight one-goal losses to top seven nations. We normally root for our home country, but with so many Islanders, Devils, and Flyers anchoring the team (nine of them) and not a single Ranger, we just couldn't get behind them. The Czechs face Slovakia later today, and Canada takes on Russia -- John Dellapina of the Daily News reports that Jaromir Jagr denies having headaches and is feeling good in advance of the game.
Beyond that, on the day NHL teams are allowed to resume practicing, we have some lists to consider. At SI.com, the top ten American players of all-time are top heavy with New York connections -- topped by Pat Lafontaine, who finished his career as a Ranger, Brian Leetch, who did everything as a Ranger other than finish his career here (so far as we know to date), and Joey Mullen, a New York native. Mike Richter is also on the list. At TSN.ca, after naming Henrik Lundqvist top rookie goalie in a past list, Fedor Tyutin places high on a list of best rookie defensemen (a decent finish at #4), and Petr Prucha places high (#5), but not quite high enough, on a list of best rookie forwards -- how the heck does Boston's Brad Boyes rank ahead of him? Nice to see Dominic Moore make the list too (#30).
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