2010 Olympic Men's Hockey: USA Downs Switzerland, Canada To Face Norway

VANCOUVER — It certainly did not come easy, but the United States opened up the 2010 Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament this afternoon with a 3-1 victory over Switzerland at Canada Place.

Like I said in the pregame, the Swiss are not just a pushover of a team but rather a squad that will do its best to outskate you and outwork you. At times in this game they did just that, but at other times the U.S. had clear control of the tempo, especially in the second period.

At the end of the day, no one asks how, but they ask who, and on the opening day of men’s hockey it was Team USA capturing three points in the standings.

Forward Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks, who had a marvelous rookie season in the National Hockey League last year, opened the scoring for America with a slick wrister that beat Switzerland netminder Jonas Hiller.

That goal came in the first period and was the only one in the first 20. Rangers representatives Ryan Callahan and Chris Drury also hooked up for some great scoring chances, but Hiller shut the door.

The second stanza was when Team USA began to dominate, outshooting Switzerland by a 16-6 margin in the period. Two goals came out of those 16 shots, one by David Backes on a strong move to the net and the other off a rebound by the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Ryan Malone. U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller had a fairly easy period in net, as you would imagine.

Speaking of Miller, he did allow one goal, but other than that he was fairly solid in net for the United States. Granted he did not face all that many shots (15, to be exact), he played well enough to allow the U.S. to focus on the offensive end, where the big scorers did not seem totally ready to play this afternoon.

Drury only played 9:55 in this game, but when he was put out on the ice he skated well and created chances. The same could be said of Callahan, who had 10:02 of ice time and one shot on goal in that span. Obviously Drury and Callahan are not the main guys on this club like they may be on the Blueshirts, so do not expect them to be seeing the ice a whole lot.

Lastly, Rangers prospect Andres Ambuhl, who plays with the Hartford Wolf Pack, was probably the best Swiss player in today’s tilt. He had 15:13 of ice time.

For me, it is now off to Canada Place to see the Canadians take on the Norwegians in what promises to be a lopsided outing. Sidney Crosby and his hometown boys have the clear advantage over Norway just by looking at the two teams on paper. While I expect Norway to play hard, Team Canada should put a tally in the win column rather easily.

Roberto Luongo will get the start in goal for the Canadians, meaning Marc-Andre Fleury and Martin Brodeur will sit this one out.

I will hopefully be calling into Blueshirt Banter Radio in between periods of that game, so check in there if you want to hear about my experience here in Vancouver so far. Otherwise, I will have another post up later tonight/tomorrow after the Canada game and possibly the Russia-Latvia game, which I also plan on attending.

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In-game updates of Canada vs. Norway are available at www.twitter.com/RangersTribune.