Five Reasons Why Team USA Will Beat Team Canada in Men's Hockey

It seems here on Bleacher Report that multiple writers feel the need to state five reasons why the favorite to win a match will indeed go onto win the match.

In fact, there were at least two articles that suggested five reasons why Team Canada will beat Team USA in Sunday's preliminary game.

But this isn't like saying "five reasons why the Colts will win the Super Bowl" because neither team was a true underdog in the contest.

However, in this case, even those pulling for the Americans realize that the overwhelming favorites in this matchup are the Canadians.

When you look at every position (other than goalie) the Canadian team has an NHL superstar significantly better and more seasoned than their American counterpart.

Each Canadian forward holds a leg up on the forward playing the same role for the Americans, and each Canadian defenseman holds two arms and a leg over the defenseman playing the same role for the Americans.

That said, there are always a few advantages an underdog can benefit from and if utilized correctly can lead to an upset victory.

Of course, most of the advantages lie on the side of Team Canada, but there are five things the US can benefit from going into Sunday's game.

Team Speed

With players like Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, and David Backes among others, the United States can really bring the speed against Canada and use it to their veteran opponents' disadvantage.

Considering that Canada counts on players like Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, Jarome Iginla, and Ryan Getzlaf who like to set up plays and slow the game down and make pretty plays with the puck, the American team should focus on skating their "royal naynays" off. (I had to borrow a line from the greatest Winter Olympics movie ever: Cool Runnings)

If you can't catch my drift, the US squad should make a statement by skating fast and hard all game long and beat Canada to as many loose pucks as they can.

If they can do this for 60 minutes, it will definitely help their cause to come out victorious.

Brooks Orpik

While the US will need to use team speed to their advantage, they are also going to have to win the physical battle in their own zone.

Players like Thornton, Heatley, Nash, and Getzlaf are huge, intimidating forces for the Canadian squad and in order for them to be shut down, the USA defense has to make sure they finish their checks throughout the game.

Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik can lead that charge with his 6'2", 228-pound frame.

His physical play down the stretch of last year's playoffs helped the Penguins win the Stanley Cup, and that experience shall definitely help in these Olympic games.

If he isn't afraid to hit NHL poster boy and Pittsburgh teammate Sidney Crosby, then Team USA should be in good shape with the physicality in their own zone.

Head coach Ron Wilson needs to make it crystal clear in the locker room before the game that it is a necessity his team wins the physical battle.

If Orpik and the rest of the defense corps can see to it that every Canadian forward gets hit and gets hit hard, then the US should have a good chance of coming out of Sunday's game on the winning side.

Malone, Pavelski, Kessel vs. Marleau, Thornton, Heatley

Strength vs. strength is how Ron Wilson should attack his former players Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. Along with first-year Shark Dany Heatley, this line for Team Canada has been solid throughout the games so far.

However, the same can be said for the Team USA line of Ryan Malone, Joe Pavelski and Phil Kessel.

The perfect combination of a power forward in Malone, set up man and sniper in Pavelski, and a scorer in Kessel makes up quite the dynamic line.

But defensively is where this line can match up well against Canada's "Shark line."

Pavelski knows his Shark teammates inside and out, and his former Shark coach and current team USA coach Ron Wilson should recognize this.

Not only does Pavelski know how to defend the likes of Thornton but Malone is just as big and physical as Heatley, and Kessel can keep up with Marleau in a scenario where USA needs to back check hard on the Canadians.

These two lines going up against each other clearly benefits the US, especially with the lackluster performance of Thornton so far in the Olympics.

Pavelski will play his best hockey going up against a line full of NHL teammates, because he will be trying to prove that he and his country mates can give a stronger performance than the Canadians in this tournament.

Switzerland Games and Momentum

The United States opened these Olympic games beating Team Switzerland by a 3-1 score despite looking sloppy and inconsistent throughout the game.

Team Canada meanwhile nearly lost to Switzerland a couple days ago but barely prevailed to win 3-2 in a shootout.

In fact, Switzerland seemed to be even carrying the play in stretches of the third period against the Canadians and had numerous quality scoring chances to take the lead in the third period.

After their performance against the Swiss, the Canadians can't feel very enthusiastic about their play.

However, the Americans on the other hand played better in their second match, dispatching Norway by a 6-1 final.

Granted the Canadians beat Norway 8-0, but the fact that the American team improved in their second match while the Canadian team struggled, gives some momentum to the US (to start Sunday's game at least).

Now did the Swiss play better against Canada than they did against the US? Of course they did, but the fact that the US beat them by two goals in regulation and that the Canadians nearly lost against them has to mean something.

And that something is a little extra sliver of confidence in the American locker room to help them realize that beating the Canadian team isn't as crazy as one may think.

After gaining some momentum with the 6-1 win over Norway, Sunday's game against Team Canada should be a dog fight.

Ryan Miller

At this point in the NHL season, Ryan Miller is the clear favorite to win the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender.

Miller is second in the league with a .930 save percentage, second in the league with a 2.16 GAA, and fifth in the league with five shutouts.

But even more than that, he means more to his team than anyone in hockey. Which is why along with winning the Vezina, he also has a good chance of winning the Hart Trophy as MVP.

The Buffalo Sabres netminder is without a doubt one of the top five goalies in the world right now, and so far in the Olympics he has continued to shine.

In two games, he has allowed just two goals on 26 shots, most of which coming on quality scoring changes for the opposition.

At 6'2", Miller eats up a lot of the net and leaves opponents with very little to shoot at.

Barring a large drop off in performance by the defense in front of him, there is a major possibility that Miller can steal this game for the Americans.

And if the US does win, you can bank on Miller being a huge reason why.