The Battle for North America

Hockey rivalries are distinctly different from those of other sports. While other games have tried to shy away from referencing wars since the conflict in the middle east has been reignited, the world of hockey refused to follow suit.

And I do not blame them one bit, for it is the play on the ice which almost certainly proves their deservedness of holding the title of battles.

Players on both teams give it their all, even during regular season NHL games, to ensure victory over their counterparts. They fight on, bloodied, bruised and battered, to gain that ever so desired win.

Sponsors will try to place a kinder tone to try and remove some of the everpresent hostility by slapping cute names on them. The prime example is the Rangers, Islanders and Devils rivalry being tagged “The Metro Ice Challenge.” The fans of these teams know their rivalry by other names, “The Battle for the Hudson” and “The Battle for New York.”

In 2007, the Buffalo Sabres took out the Islanders and Rangers successively in the playoffs, ultimately throwing their hat into the rivalry ring by claiming paramount over “The Battle for the Empire State” as fans plastered this distinction onto t-shirts throughout the greater Buffalo area.

Calgary and Edmonton consider their clashes to be the “Battle for Alberta.” Each of the 6 skirmishes are consistently sold out and ticket prices on the street going for similar price tags as Red Sox-Yankees.

On Sunday night, Canada and the US will engage in the Battle for North America for the 3rd installment already this winter.

The two squared off in the Under-17 World Championships, with the Americans coming out on top.

In January, the World Junior Championships were the stage for the 2nd encounter, with the Americans again prevailing over their northern counterparts.

What better stage than the Olympics for the next meeting of the minds between these two nations? While the winner won’t be winning tournament, at least not at the immediate end of the game, they will be in good position to contend for gold by earning an automatic place to the elimination round, thus avoiding what could be a very difficult pathway to the medal rounds.

This game carries so much weight for USA hockey fans, and while it is nowhere near the magnitude of the historic 1980 USA vs USSR semifinals game, it still would mean a lot to the new aged fans.

Canada created, mastered, expanded the sport of hockey, there is no doubting that. The debate nowadays, is whether or not they actually deserve the title of best in the game.

They have always held the higher rank over their kid brother in the United States, with an ever present superiority complex over their neighbors to the south.

What better way to not only earn worldwide respect, but to also silence some of the critics in the Great White North?

The US needs to play as solid of a game as they did versus Norway. Regardless of between the benches announcer Pierre McGuire thinks, they need to be aggressive and take chances when necessary.

McGuire chastised the US defenders numerous times for trying to join in the offensive attack, and even wrongly scolded the entire team for not backing up attacking defenders when Zach Parise was not only in perfect position for defensive support, but needed to head to the bench for a new stick thus allowing Ryan Suter to enter deep into the zone and create an scoring chance.

Canada, on the other hand, comes off a shootout victory against the Swiss which made them look very vulnerable and mortal. After 2 first period goals, the Canadians struggled and put an air of panic in the crowd at arena. And it wasn’t until coach Mike Babcock took full advantage of allowing a shooter to go more than once after the first 3 that the Canadians won.

Yes, Martin Brodeur did play phenomenally and if not for one bad bounce, would have won the game in regulation by a count of 2-1, but that is the sort of luck the Americans seem to have over them this hockey year.

That type of luck, plus the sleeping giant in the USA’s first line which has yet to make a significant scoring impact in these games, makes me think the edge should go to the Americans for Sunday night. Add into it that Ryan Miller is playing his best goaltending of the games, if not including the entire season, and the US has a legitimate chance.

A typical Chris Pronger dirty hit away from the play wouldn’t hurt to get the Americans power play goal or two.