The best of Canada-USA Round 1 in PyeongChang

There was the United States. There was Canada. There were rings along the boards, along with all the rest of the familiar Olympic trappings.

Hockey’s greatest rivalry was renewed on the sport’s grandest stage once again Thursday at Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung, South Korea.

And although it was really nothing more than a preamble to the predestined rematch to come with gold on the line, it sure did thrill.

It always does.

Here’s the best of Round 1:

Gigi lays the boom

For a game that featured two disallowed goals, a penalty shot, countless goal-mouth flurries and 68 total shots, it did start a tad slow. So forgive Swedish referee Katarina Timglas for being lulled into a momentarily mental lapse and drifting into the crossfire near the midway mark of the opening period.

What’s less forgiving, is the ruthlessness with which Gigi Marvin pancaked the defenseless official.

Was the two-hand extension follow-through really unavoidable after contact?

Kendall Coyne’s simple dissection

It’s not uncommon to see multiple-goal leads go up in smoke when these two teams meet (see: Sochi final) but with the Americans down 2-0 at the second intermission, a quick strike seemed somewhat imperative if the United States were to see themselves back in the deciding game in Group A.

Enter American burner Kendall Coyne. Less than a minute into the final period, she collected the puck from a Canadian checked in the neutral zone, sliced through four more with a burst of speed into the offensive zone and popped a quick snap shot through the legs of Canadian goalkeeper Genevieve Lacasse.

A moment of brilliance, and one that brought out the best out of the next 19 minutes.

That Sarah Nurse snipe

What Coyne’s moment also did was provide a deserved underscore to the first goal of Sarah Nurse’s Olympic career.

Check out the release point on this heavy shot. She fires it from way out in front of her body. No wonder it tied up U.S. netminder Maddie Rooney.

Cheeky, cheeky, Lamoureux

Both the courage and execution shown from Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson deserve applause here. But let’s be real, choosing to the pull the puck between your legs All-Star Skills Competition-style on a penalty shot in the Olympics is a silly thing to do.

Why? For starters, it’s not fooling any decent netminder, despite how smoothly executed it was. And second, it was always going to affect the attack point, further diminishing the odds of scoring after having already risked losing the puck altogether.

That said it was incredibly fun and more hockey players should do it.

The wink

It was the reaction of Lacasse, however, that elevated this moment. After calmly extending her blocker to deny Lamoureux’s backhand try, the Canadian goaltender looked back at the American forward with a mystifying stare as if to say, “What you doin’?”

Then after hearing the celebration from her bench, all of whom were certainly questioning Lamoureux’s decision as well, Lacasse turned and absolutely ruled with this subtle gesture.

There’s more to come

There’s no promise that any other matchup in PyeongChang, women or men, will provide a better show than this one, but there’s every reason to suggest that the second meeting between these two powers will easily exceed Thursday’s Group A clash.

There’s the obvious: it will be infinitely more meaningful with gold on the line. But keep in mind that superstars from each team — Hilary Knight for the United States and Marie-Philip Poulin for Canada — were, for the most part, quiet.

That can’t last.

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