Women's Hockey Gold - Canada vs. USA

Note: Join me on Twitter @HockeyLegends for the game at 3:30 PST.

Canada looks to defend their gold medal title from 2002 and 2006 today against the Americans, in a gold medal showdown that everyone expected.

Before the tournament began I predicted USA would win gold in 2010, giving them the edge due to some intangibles. But I did so with no great confidence. Canada has steamrolled the competition, although I thought they looked a little disinterested or disjointed for periods of time against Norway. In beating the competition so badly do bad habits creep into your game? Will that show against the US? The same can be said about the American team.

If there is anything we should now know about Olympic hockey it is that anything can happen on any given day. That, and the hockey will be great!

Women's Hockey Come Along Way - Women's hockey has a history nearly as long as men's, and while it has a ways to go still, it sure has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years.

Today's game will be watched by millions. There was a time when nobody would watch. Especially famed hockey writer Scott Young, father of rock star Neil Young. Here's an excerpt of an incredibly sexist article by Scott Young in the early 1960s that shows just how far women's hockey has come:

If anyone would care to see me in a wide variety of attitudes of sheer horror, trick me into attending a girl's ice hockey game. I wouldn't go willingly, any more than I would go willingly to watch lions eat Christians. In fact, wild horses couldn't drag me. The last time wild horses tried to drag me to a girls' hockey game I dragged them in the opposite direction with such violence that their braced forelegs became badly worn down, and they had to give up wild-horsing and take jobs as kangaroos.

Here's the full article.