The finals are set for Olympic men’s hockey gold. Both teams took very different paths to the final game. USA were major underdogs before the tournament started and did everything but lose a game. They beat Canada in a major upset last Sunday and quickly dismembered Finland in their semi-final game Friday. I left work early in hopes of catching a great hockey game. I got home at the end of the first period and by that time it was long gone. Canada makes the finals under a little more adversity. They were pre-tournament favourites and barely beat a competitive Swiss team before falling to the Americans in the preliminaries. They absolutely destroyed the Russians in the most shocking Olympic matchup since Belarus-Sweden in 2002 and then barely squeaked out a semi-final victory over Slovakia in a game that took 3 years off my life.

Sunday’s matchup will conclude what is one of the most entertaining hockey tournaments ever played. There were a ton of overtime games, a few shoot-outs, a couple of upsets, and the fastest hockey I have ever seen. Even the bottom teams played hard and when they played each other they provided fantastic games that kept me enthralled. Who knew Norway-Switzerland could be so exciting?

So, to prepare for the big game I think it’s appropriate to break it down, DX style (more like Bill Simmons style, but whatever).