Weber-Keith and Canada move on
r What a game last night between Canada and Russia. Here's a story from the Vancouver Sun about former Rockets defenceman Shea Weber and his part in Team Canada's victory over Russia at the Vancouver Olympics.
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r Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Hockey Canada
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r By Iain Macintyre – Vancouver Sun
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r Seen-but-not-heard would have been an improvement Wednesday night for Alex Ovechkin, who went unnoticed until the crowd started chanting his name -and not in a good way -in the third period and you had to look for him.
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r He was the one doing nothing.
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r Team Canada defencemen Shea Weber and Scott Niedermayer, a couple of British Columbia boys near the opposing ends of their careers, made Russia's best forwards disappear during a 7-3 victory that already seems a permanent part of the long and winding Canadian hockey narrative.
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r Canada's first Olympic victory in 50 years against Russian players puts the home nation into Friday's semifinals at the Vancouver Winter Games.
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r The Russians, for all their skill and vaunted high-end talent, trudge home without medals after failing spectacularly to end their 18-year gold shortage at the Olympic tournament.
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r Ovechkin, the greatest scorer and most dynamic player in the game, had no points, just three unmemorable shots and was minus-two.
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r He vanished about the time Weber crunched him into the boards as the Moscow dynamo tried to spin away from the Canadian nine minutes into the game.
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r "We all wanted to get the crowd involved early, and that's one way, being physical against their top guys," Weber said. "You dream of this as a kid growing up; you want to play against the best players in the game and he's definitely one of them."
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r Not Wednesday.
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r And neither were the Russian's formidable linemates, Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Semin. They combined for one assist and matched Ovechkin's minus rating.
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r "We knew we were going to have our hands full with those guys," winger Rick Nash said. "The one thing we tried to do was play in their end. All those guys like to play in the offensive end. If we could keep them in their end, then we'd be good."
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r Nash was another big-body (6-foot-4 and 220 pounds) opposing Ovechkin, joining linemates Johnathan Toews and Mike Richards as the forward portion of Canadian coach Mike Babcock's five-man shutdown unit.
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r "You know those top players, if they get hit hard, they get discouraged," Nash said. "We tried to key on that. We did a great job of discouraging those guys that are the best players in the tournament, the best players in the NHL."
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r So Weber's early demolition of Ovechkin had an effect?
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r "For sure," Nash said.
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r "You'd have to ask Ovechkin about that," Canadian winger Brenden Morrow said. "But anytime you get your bell rung, you're kind of looking for the next [big hit]. Maybe that was the case with him."
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r We'd ask Ovechkin, but he wasn't much for his second language this week. Famously effervescent, he refused throughout the tournament to speak to North American reporters -or, sometimes, at all. But he didn't have his game face on, you know, during the game.
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r For all the national anxiety over Canada's 5-3 loss Sunday against Team USA, Babcock really hasn't done much wrong this tournament.
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r He found line combinations that work, spreading grit across different units by boosting roles for Jarome Iginla, Morrow, Toews and Richards, and shrinking ice time for players who have looked vulnerable, such as Chris Pronger and Dan Boyle, who had easily his best game Wednesday.
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r But his pairing of Weber and Niedermayer, and their deployment against Russia's superstars, was brilliant.
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r The right-sided Weber, who is 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, had the power and pace to counter left-winger Ovechkin. On the left side of defence, Niedermayer had the skill and finesse to handle the shifty Semin.
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r Toews' line was excellent in support, suffocating the Russians on the backcheck when they weren't forcing Ovechkin's unit to play defence.
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r It also helped Canada that coach Vyacheslav Bykov was as proactive as an Inukshuk behind the Russian bench. He left in starting goalie Evgeni Nabokov until it was 6-1 and did nothing to move Ovechkin and Semin away from Weber and Niedermayer even though Russia had last change.
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r "That just sort of developed at the start of the game," Niedermayer said of the matchup.
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r "You just go out there and try to do your job the best that you can. I thought Webs played real well and the forward line we were with really played well.
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r "They controlled the puck in Russia's zone a lot of shifts, which is the easiest way to defend those guys."
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r The only time all night Niedermayer looked uncomfortable was in the interview area when he was told he was one of Weber's idols when his partner was growing up.
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r Weber, 24, is from Sicamous. The 36-year-old Niedermayer, who is from Cranbrook, helped Burnaby's Joe Sakic broaden horizons for B.C. players in the National Hockey League.
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r Niedermayer made the NHL as an 18-year-old and has been at the top of his profession for nearly two decades. Team Canada defencemen Duncan Keith, 26, and Brent Seabrook, 24, also are playing the Olympics in their home province.
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r "They've asked some questions," Niedermayer said. "Maybe I don't see myself [as old and wise] like they do, but it's fun and we're all here to help each other.
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r "We're happy to be from here and proud of it. It's a lot of fun meeting these young guys, and making new friends, making new teammates."
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r Making history, too.
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