Falcons, Crowns, Maple Leafs and U-S-A

After last night's North American battle of the ice, the USA came out on top again over Canada. This makes the host's climb to the medal podium somewhat harder.

The Americans have gone with one goalie - RYAN MILLER.

Canada started strong with Vancouver netminder ROBERTO LUONGO, but changed to Martin Brodeur. The question begs, why ?

Sweden have Rangers' HENRIK LUNDQVIST wearing the blue and yellow crowns and look good for a repeat gold.

The Americans changed their jerseys from the "roller derby" logo to the classic 1960 / 1980 "U-S-A". It may have just been the inspiration ... 

... or HERB BROOKS looking down from hockey heaven.

The Russians hit the speed bump with Slovakia, but will still be in for a medal - this is ALEX OVECHKIN - spelled in Russian. It still means G-O-A-L-S.

The amazing fact that this Olympic hockey tournament is really the NHL on speed. A look at the 12 team rosters of goalies shows only 14 of 36 not in the NHL (3 that once were in the NHL). It includes at least half a dozen who could be Hall of Famers. And all but two teams had NHLs starting between the posts. 

SWEDEN

Henrik Lundqvist - Rangers

Jonas Gustavsson - Maple Leafs

Stefan Liv - Jonkoping

USA

Ryan Miller - Sabers

Tim Thomas - Bruins

Jonathan Quick - Kings

CANADA

Roberto Luongo -Canucks

Martin Brodeur - Devils

Marc-Andre Fleury - Penguins

RUSSIAN

Evgeni Nabkov - Sharks

Semyon Varlamov - Capitols

Ilya Brygalov - Coyotes

SLOVAKIA

Peter Budaj - Avalanche

Jaroslav Halak - Canadiens

Rastislav Stana - Severstal Cherepovets

CZECH REPUBLIC

Tomas Vukon - Panthers

Ondrej Pavelec - Thrashers

Jakub Stepanek - Vitkovice Ostava

SWITZERLAND

Jonas Hiller - Ducks

Ronnie Rueger - Kloten Flyers

Tobias Stephen - Geneva Servette

GERMANY

Thomas Geiss - Sharks

Dennis Endras - Augsberger

Dimitri Patzold - ERC Ingolstadt

BELARUS

Vitali Koval - Dynamo Minsk

Andrei Mezin - Dynamo Minsk

Maksim Maliutn - HK Vitebsk

FINLAND

Mikka Kiprusoff - Flames

Niklas Backstrom - Wild

Antero Nittimaki - Lightning  

LATVIA

3 goalies with Dinamo Riga