US wins Canada Cup

In most cases, I won't waste time on women's sports, but for some reason, women's hockey is the exception. Maybe it's the potential to see a catfight or something, I'm not really sure. But I just seem to enjoy it. Maybe I have a problem.

Anyway, as I was saying, the Women's Canada Cup just recently wrapped up, with the United States' team defeating Canada in the championship game. This result was largely unexpected, as the Canadians were favored coming into the tournament, and the USA team not doing anything to improve expectations with an early loss to (eventual bronze medal) Team Finland.

A lot of pundits believe that Canada's anticlimactic loss may have been a result of playing in their own backyard, a situation frighteningly similar to the 2002 USA women's hockey team. In case you forgot (or didn't otherwise care), the 2002 winter olympics in Salt Lake City saw the USA women's hockey team enter the tournament as heavy favorites, but fall to Team Canada in the gold medal game.

This could prove to be problematic for Team Canada when the Winter Olympics roll around, should this trend continue in either the Men's or Women's hockey tournament. In fact it may not only be a problem, but could also prove to be tremendously embarassing.

However, it doesn't seem likely that either the men's or women's team will choke when the olympics come around, the Men having mostly pro experience, and the women having this recent trial run. While I'm not saying that they will win, they should perform better when the world's biggest winter competition commences in early 2010.

Check back soon for a Men's Team Canada preview!