Editor's note: Adam Burish will fill you in on all the Team USA happenings during the 2008 tournament. Check back often for the latest installments of Burish on the Boards.
Hi fans,
Checking in again here from Halifax as our quest for gold continues tonight against Slovenia. The city of Halifax has been great so far. The weather the first couple days was a bit rainy but the past two days has been great. It is beautiful little city with lots to do and see.
All the guys have felt the city out and already found some favorite restaurants, and some not so favorite restaurants. Usually in the mornings, guys will ask one another where they ate and how it was. A steak place here in town has been a favorite of a lot of the guys earning "10's across the board" as Jeff Halpern put it. If you’re looking for Tom Gilbert or Pat Kane for dinner, every night they have been trying to get guys to eat simple at the local pizza by the slice restaurant. Not too many guys have bit on that one.
Our first game went well. It can be tough to play those types of games, where you are playing against a team you don’t know a whole lot about, or isn’t expected to be real strong.
Human nature tells you to relax. We addressed that before the game, to make sure we didn’t go down that path of playing sluggish, and as the game went on we did a pretty good job of dictating most of the play. Our power play was fantastic. After watching a few other games in this tournament it looks like your power play scoring goals is going to be a must if you want to be successful, and in return your penalty kill needs to be sharp.
In our first game we were pretty good in both those categories so that is a positive sign. I can’t go without mentioning the outstanding play of Tim Thomas in net against Latvia. I hope I don’t get Kaner too mad in saying this because he was pretty good out there too, but Tim was our best player that night. He made some big time saves at big times to keep Latvia from getting any momentum.
We are excited today to play Slovenia and continue play with great energy and passion. Talk to you all soon.
Adam Burish |