Thin Ice (Corey Crawford)

MVP

Corey

It's gold medal day here in Sochi and the hockey faithful were filing into the arena. The mens teams were playing later on tonight but a lot of them were here to cheer on the women to the gold medal. When it comes to gender discrepancies in sports I really feel like hockey has the fewest. Not like basketball or softball/baseball at least. The rules are the same for both teams and they're both creative and fun and fast pace. I always thought women's hockey was one hell of a show, and my girlfriend was constantly stealing it.

I get settled into my seat as some of the guys and their families from the Blackhawks join us. Patrick was in full USA gear while the other guys wore neutral colors. They're mostly team Canada but they always wanted to cheer for Sam so they didn't wear on their bodies who they were rooting for since it was kind of both teams. Their girlfriends and wives didn't care as much as they wore the USA colors proudly as I did. They weren't the ones playing so they didn't really care. And I was more than proud of girlfriend so I wore my Miller jersey with pride. Who knows, maybe by the next Olympics hers will say Crawford just like mine.

Eventually the girls come out and when Sam hits the ice the cheers get extra loud. She's gained quite the following at these games, people from other sports were coming to cheer her on. There was famous actors and singers here to cheer for her too which was insane. She really was the most famous person here and she didn't even know it.

The puck drops and immediately it gets intense. There is nothing like a US-Canada hockey rivalry, doesn't get much bigger than that. And each hit was harder than the last and each shot was closer than the last too. I was cringing up in my seat and I wasn't even playing.

The US scored a power play goal in the first period and from there they kind of shut it down. They knew they only really needed one goal to win because Sam was a wall in net. And tonight she was on fire, the Canadian team was throwing everything they could at her. Trying different lines and special teams and all the traffic in the world in front of her. But they could have been glass sliding doors with how well she was tracking the puck.

Come the third period I was eating my nails like a piece of cake. This one goal lead wasn't enough to make me feel comfortable. When games get like this where it's one team just firing shots at a goalie trying to catch up something is bound to happen. There's only so much a goalie can do before they're standing on their heads trying to keep a team ahead. Canada was up to 49 shots with three minutes left and it didn't look like they were going to slow down any time soon.

I watch Sam as she does what she's supposed to do. She stays in the net and defends the paint like she's done so effectively this whole time. All of the sudden there's a scramble in front of the net and she covers the puck. Next thing you know a defensemen from Canada takes her elbow and rams it right into Sams head sending her helmet flying off barring the luck loose. She falls to the ice and the puck ends up across the goal line in the process. The horn sounds and the Canadian girls on the ice try to celebrate but are met with some very aggressive USA teammates who's goalie was still on the ice.

I jump up in my seat and the whole area was silent. Like you could hear the US girls screaming at the Canadian players and the officials for letting that happen. I know goalie interference is a sticky situation but that was blatant elbowing and a major penalty in a game like this. Let alone worth a goal for the other team. The play should have been blown dead and none of this should have happened.

Once they separate the girls who were fighting the trainer comes out to help Sam. She sits up and they take start to ask questions to see if a concussion was in play here. Luckily she had her helmet on but she had to be hit hard for it to end up across the ice like that. They get her to the bench and she takes a drink while the officials look over the play so she can reset for a little. That hit looked nasty and she was as defenseless as defenseless can be. I was trying my best to stay calm but I'm not sure I could right now.