Heroes are made, and goats are defined in shootouts.
T.J. Oshie — who remarkably wears the No. 74, as in July 4 — won’t have to buy a drink in St. Louis for a while. Jonathan Quick is Captain America right now, and American sports fans are currently holding a party in their honour in celebration of Team USA’s 3-2 shootout win over the hated Russians.
But it is little plays — ones that get forgotten in the grand scheme — yet they are equally important in getting teams to victory.
Little plays like faceoff wins, blocked shots, drawn penalties or inadvertently — perhaps cagily — knocking a net off its moorings. On a minute-by-minute basis, they don’t mean much, but in the Americans’ win over the Russians, each came into play in a big way.
How did the United States hold the Russian power play — which boasts an arsenal of Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, Andrei Markov, Alexander Radulov and Pavel Datsyuk — to just one power-play goal in five chances? Two Ryans, McDonagh and Kesler, blocked shots, with McDonagh standing in the way of two Ovechkin scorchers — John Tortorella would be proud.
“[The penalty kill] was great. They were blocking shots,” Quick told NBC’s Pierre McGuire after the game. “They were playing great.”
In a game in which the Americans looked outclassed offensively, they needed their power play to pay off. With the score tied midway through the third, and after Radulov took his second silly penalty of the game, Kesler won a faceoff and Patrick Kane found Joe Pavelski for a tiebreaking goal that put the US up 2-1.
Datsyuk — who was the best skater on the ice all game — tied the score minutes later, and Fedor Tyutin appeared to break the tie with 4:40 in regulation when his point shot sailed past Quick. Still, Quick had knocked the net off the pegs seconds earlier, and a video review deemed the net was off the moorings.
Quick paused when McGuire asked him about the play, as if he was trying to conceal that he knew the net was off before Tyutin’s shot beat him. His response, ultimately: “I didn’t know if they had called it a goal or not. Luckily that happened before they scored.”
That set the stage for Oshie, whose four shootout goals are tied for second in the NHL this year, to become a household name from Maine to Mississippi and all parts west. Oshie was 4-for-6 — he actually beat Bobrovsky a fifth time but duffed the shot high and wide.
“I just tried to keep the ‘tender guessing, which I think I did a pretty good job of,” Oshie told McGuire.
Quick also shined, stopping a flurry of shots early and keeping the U.S. in the game. In all, he made 32 saves — and five more in the shootout, shutting down Malkin, Datsyuk twice and Kovalchuk two times as well — all but assuring the US a bye to Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Sure, Quick and Oshie are the stars. But don’t forget the little plays.
I’m sure Russia won’t.