Oh Canada, it's on.

A mad rush of pressure and a Bryan Rafalski slapper that defelected off Crosby's stick and we're underway.

I'd like to wish a very happy "Hate Canada" day to the rest of my American Breatheren today. Today is a pretty sepcial day. Most holidays come only once a year, and on the same day every year.

But today is different, today is the second "Hate Canada Day" we Americans have gotten to celebrate all year. The first being the outstanding the US World Junior championships, where the US did the world a favor and shut those damn Canucks up with a 5-4 win.

If you don't remember, here's the memories from that great day

Read More after the Jump

vs.

Preliminary Game 17: Canada vs. USA - February 21, 2010 4:30pm PST - Canada Hockey Place

Super Sunday begins in Vancouver with three games each featuring match-ups which have all been a gold medal match-up at recent Olympics. It's going to be a great day for hockey. In the second game of the day, Team Canada will take on Team USA for a game that will decide which team gets to a bye to the quarterfinals and which team will have to play a qualifying playoff spot. For both teams, after this game, it's win or go home.

Last night in Vancouver, the police requested liquor stores to shut down early at 7pm in order to curb public drunkenness. The bad may go into effect again tonight. With the Canadian fans expected to flood downtown Vancouver, elation and partying in the streets will erupt if the home team wins and I can only imagine what could happen if the home team loses.

Full game preview and team analysis after the jump...

Switzerland 5, Norway 4 (OT). Lemm Romano's OT winner gives Swiss the win in a see saw game.

Slovakia 6, Latvia 0. Six different players score for Slovakia in a rout of Latvia.

Belarus 5, Germany 3. Belarusians get first win of the tournament, Germans still searching.

Very interesting read from the Star-Ledger in New Jersey today about Team USA's Bobby Ryan, his family's relatively secret past, and how the events of October 30th, 1997 altered his life (and identity) forever.

"Bobby Shane Stevenson awoke to a nightmare on Oct. 30, 1997.

The 10-year-old had fallen asleep shortly after returning from attending a Philadelphia Flyers game. He went to bed upstairs not knowing his life would change forever in the next few hours.

He didn’t hear his dad — insurance company owner Robert Stevenson — storm into the family home in Cherry Hill, drunk, looking for his mother, Melody. Stevenson was sure his wife was taking drugs.

Their only child didn’t hear the screams and the panic. He didn’t see the bizarre chase down the street into a neighbor’s house. His father, an amateur boxer, ripped the door off the hinges and whaled away at the love of his life, causing her to bleed from her mouth and sending her to Cooper University Hospital in Camden for four days with four broken ribs, a fracture to her skull and a punctured lung.

Robert Stevenson was charged with attempted murder and five other felony counts. He tried to obtain a passport using the name of a dead baby before jumping bail. He fled to Canada and his wife, who had forgiven him, and his son later joined him.

Robert Stevenson and his son changed their names and lived under assumed identities and the family lived on the lam.

Today, the boy who protected his family’s dark and complicated secret for much of his life is a pivotal part of the U.S. Olympic hockey team that faces Canada.

The name on the back of his hockey jersey is different from the one he was born with, but Bobby Ryan realized he needed to tell the truth and no longer hides from it."

You can read the rest of the article on the Star-Ledger's website by clicking right here. I'd recommend you do just that.

Cole Jones covers the Dallas Stars at The Other 6 Seconds in addition to his work on Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.

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With Team Canada having a two day break before facing Team USA on Sunday, the athletes had a day off yesterday. Babcock gave the players the Friday off to relax and enjoy the Olympic experience before getting back to hockey mode today. With Sunday's game being able to decide who will take the top spot in the Group A standings, Brodeur spent the day promoting GE's Healthyimagination skate event and spent time with his family pin trading.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Starting off the day infront of hundreds of screaming fans, Olympic medalist, Martin Brodeur along with Michelle Kwan, Scott Hamilton and Angela Ruggiero helped kick off GE's Year of Better Health by honoring the better health heroes of the Vancouver Olympics. MC'd by Team 1040's Barry Macdonald the Olympians did a panel discussion about how they lead a healthy lifestyle before the panel broke up for media interviews. Brodeur called himself a "happy go-lucky" guy and that part of his training requires him "taking time to enjoy my life".

After the discussion the panel broke up for the media portion of the event where all the focus shifted to Sunday's game against Team USA. Babcock has announced that Brodeur will get the start against the Americans but won't confirm that he be the starter for the rest of the tournament, though it is expected that he will.

The loser of the game tomorrow will not be eliminated but will play have to play an extra game in a qualifying quarterfinal to get to the quarterfinals. Other games on tomorrow's super Sunday of Olympic hockey include the Russians vs. the Czech Republic and Sweden vs. Finland.

More photos from the event after the jump

The German Men's Olympic hockey team suffered its second straight loss in Vancouver with a 5-0 defeat at the hands of team Finland. Finland, led by defenseman (and Philadelphia Flyer) Kimmo Timonen's two goals, outscored and outplayed the Germans from the drop of the puck until the final tick of the clock.

The game started at midnight EST (9:00pm PST) and those who stayed up to watch saw Finland goaltender Niklas Backstrom make 24 stops. Dimitri Patzold started for the Germans and made 30 stops on 35 shots.

Germany's biggest problem was their penalty kill as Finland scored four power play goals on six German penalties. If the German team was able to stop the power play, or at least not allow four goals, they may have had a fighting chance, but after a 3-0 deficit to start the third period, it was all but wrapped up.

The German team has not been playing well this Olympics and will continue their trek against Belarus on 2/20 at 9:00PST (midnight EST). Germany is 0-2 (2-0 loss to Sweden and 5-0 loss to Finland) and will not only look for their first win but their first GOAL against Belarus.

NOTES: Finland's Teemu Selanne notched an assist in the game vs. Germany and set an Olympic record with 37 points (20 goals, 17 assists). Germany is 0-2 and sitting in a tie for last with Belarus (0-2). Germany hasn't scored a goal yet in the 2010 Olympics.

I went to my first hockey game of the Olympics two nights ago, and if you caught it, it was a fantastic game of hockey. Halak put on a show making 36 saves and only let in one shooter out of a seven round shootout. The Slovaks were expected to be steamrolled by the offensive Russians that boasted a powerplay unit of Ovechkin, Malkin, Kovalchuk, Semin and Gonchar, scary thought huh? To makes things interesting, the Slovakians had just played the night before against the Czech Republic, losing 3-1. To the Russian fans disappointment, this powerplay of pure offense led to shorthanded attempts that cause the coach to break up the pp unit.

So, armed with some energy and beer from watching the Canada vs. Swiss game, I  headed towards Canada Hockey Place, ready to encounter Russians, Slovaks and fanny packs...

Sweden 4, Belarus 2. Daniel Alfredsson scores twice as Sweden holds off Belarus.

Czech Republic 5, Latvia 2. Czechs jumped on overmatched Latvia's with 3 quick goals in the first 5 minutes.

Finland 5, Germany 0. Fins use 4 PP goals to roll to an easy win.

Ah, Olympic hockey.  The world's most graceful sport displayed on an international stage.  Finally, the whole world will get to experience the majesty of a game that the people of Phoenix and Nashville have hoarded so secretively.  But these Winter Sports - so mysterious and whimsical - need a greater audience.  After all, how can you expect the world to care about skeleton, Nordic combined, and ice hockey if they've never even heard of them?

Enter the Vancouver 2010 website.

A resource for all things puck, our nice Canadian friends have given us a one-stop Interweb location for you, the casual Olympic fan, to learn about this obscure athletic contest.  If you do choose to go there, consider yourself warned.  The guy pictured above is omnipresent in every sidebar this website has to offer.  Look at him!  He's pure evil.  He has a knowing look that says, "Yes, I am going to put this puck top shelf over your shoulder, and yes, I will pillage your small Latvian village afterwards to celebrate."

More observations, after the jump.

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