Arturs Irbe pleads his case

Team USA may have outplayed Latvia on Wednesday afternoon, but where it counted, they played to a 3-3 tie.

Early on, Arturs Irbe, the former Hurricanes netminder, showed that he wouldn't be easy to solve. Somehow, though, USA got out to a 2-0 lead midway through the first period before giving up one to make it uncomfortably close at the first intermission.

Before the tournament started, Irbe said that he wanted to play in the NHL again, and would use the Torino Games to showcase his skill. I know it's only one game, but I'd say he did a great job. The Americans threw 42 shots at him, including 19 in the third period, and he stopped 38 of those shots. Without such solid goaltending, USA would have easily won the game and earned the two points. Instead, USA will have to work a little harder throughout the remainder of the round-robin.

I didn't get to watch the whole game. I watched the first period from home, then I got to watch about half of the third period while I was at work. At work, the volume was off and the captioning on. I should mention that USA Network has the WORST. CAPTIONING. EVER. Throughout the game, the person typing in the captions was mistakenly typing Q for S and A for C. It was really distracting until I figured it out, and then it was just downright annoying.

Take for example, this little bit. There was an incident in which the door to the Latvian bench was broken. The refs stopped play and had a maintenance guy fix the door. What the announcer said was "They can't resume play until they get the door secured." What the caption-typer typed was "THEY CAN'T REQUME PLAY UNTIL THEY GET THE DOOR QEAURED" Maybe it's just me, but it was a major distraction.

Aside from that, I HATE the way the NBC Network, including the USA Network doesn't have the time/score constantly on display. It's annoying to have to wonder how much time is left in the power play, or how much time is remaining in the period. We need to have this stuff visible to us at all times. Incidentally, this is the same complaint I have about NBC's coverage of NASCAR. They don't keep us updated on the running order or the laps remaining or any of this. Not that I'm a huge NASCAR fan, but they have cruddy coverage.

Anyway, Team USA came out looking pretty good despite not having any time to practice together. They just came up against a goaltender having a fantastic game. I hope for Archie's sake that someone takes notice and gives him a job in the NHL.

I can't really say, since I didn't see the whole game, but Erik Cole looked really good. One sequence I saw, he stole the puck at the USA blue line, carried it all the way into the Latvian end, and put a good shot on net, but Irbe answered the bell. Aside from that, it looked like he was playing a really balanced game. If he continues to play well, he should find the net many times in the remainder of the tournament.

On Thursday, USA will take on Kazakhstan at 3:00. I have the day off, so I'll spend it watching hockey.