Some say the USA is a contender for the men's hockey gold in Vancouver this Winter Games. American forward Bobby Ryan is one of them. Today, the Anaheim Duck score the first goal in the tournament for the Americans en route to a 3-1 victory over what looked like a strong Swiss team early on.
The goal was a bitter-sweet moment for the New Jersey native. In this game, Swiss goalie, Jonas Hiller was foe, rather than a fellow Duck. Ryan's commanding goal with 61 seconds left in the first period, broke a silence, perhaps an awkward one, between the two NHL teammates.
After Ryan out-muscled Thierry Paterlini, a loose puck drizzled to the high slot where Ryan snapped it home before Hiller could regroup from the action in front of the net. The feat became the shot heard throughout Vancouver and can legitimately be logged as monumental. Hiller boasted a .919 NHL save percentage coming into the Olympic tournament.
Chants of U.S.A.! U.S.A.! tore through Swiss crowd efforts to fire-up their sqaud, which also rosters three other players with NHL experience. Mark Streit of the New York Islanders, Yannick Weber, who's skated with Montreal and Luca Sbisa, who started the season in Anaheim, represent Switzerland.
Most Swiss players play in domestic pro leagues or in Europe. Americans know how such a match-up feels. Even those not alive when Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig, a couple of college kids, took on a NHL-caliber Soviet team know how the tourney unfolded in 1980.
There isn't an amateur on the 2010 American roster, just as 30 years ago, there were no pros among Herb Brooks' rag-tag bunch of scrappers.
Ryan, like several others on hand, was unsure how the Canadian fans would react. Some figured the Americans would get booed out of the building. While the U.S. isn't a folk hero, it is not the proverbial bad guy--yet. Ryan said an eventual match-up with Canada could change all that.
"I thought for sure we were getting booed today,'' Ryan said. "I came out expecting that. But I think the fans were just excited to get things under way. When we play Canada I'm sure it will be a different story.''
Some fans were cheering for American Ryan Kesler, who plays for the Vancouver Canucks.
The U.S. plays Norway Thursday, Feb. 18., which some predict to be a warm-up game for an anticipated match-up with Canada.