To help cheer you up and keep the positive vibes going, here are the top 5 reasons why we should be happy Team Canada lost to Team USA on Sunday:

5. One Extra Game

Let’s face it, as hockey fans, can you ever imagine a better viewing experience than what we’ve been subjected to this past week?  The best players in the world, period.  Playing for pure passion, rather than money. Playing for their entire nation, rather than someone else’s city.  Playing on the intense smaller ice surface, rather than the laid back large international one.  Playing in a tournament that lasts just a precious few games, rather than a full 2 months.  Playing for a chance that comes around only once every 4 years (and possibly never again), rather than every year.

Of course you can’t.  This is, hands down, the greatest hockey tournament we have ever witnessed.  Every game has been entertaining (even the blowouts).  As a Canadian, every Team Canada game has been downright exhilarating.  To top it off, the best is yet to come!  So forgive me if I’m not too upset that we get to watch a hole 25% EXTRA do-or-die greatest-hockey-ever action this afternoon.  Normally when a team gets eliminated from a tournament, fans are upset because that means less games to watch.  In this rare case, the loss meant more games to watch.   Far as I’m concerned, bring on the Germans!

Aside from the fans getting a whole extra game of entertainment, the players could likely use the extra game too.  This tournament is so short that a whole extra game of intense competition together could well give our guys the edge they need to gel better than their opponents, who are in the same boat of still trying to figure out many of their own teammates.  While it could be argued that this is offset by added fatigue, I’ll put my money on lack of chemistry being more of a potential issue than fatigue in such a short and intense tournament.

4. Brodeur Exposed

Marty F. Brodeur, as Mike Boone so eloquently refers to him, has been a thorn in the Habs side for the better part of 15 years.  He has been, very arguably, the greatest goalie of all time.  So it’s understandable when people say “he should be left in because when the going gets tough, Marty performs at his best” and “one bad game does not a bad tournament make” and “yada yada Marty rules and everyone else sucks yada yada”.  The cold hard truth is that Marty didn’t have just one bad game, he’s been playing badly for over a month now.

From The Hockey Writers:

In his last 16 NHL starts, the Quebec native has won just 5 times. He has been pulled three times, including last night’s 5-2 loss to Carolina, when he gave up four opening goals. His save percentage has dropped well below the .900 mark during that stretch as well.

Those figures do not include the game on January 8th, when he was torched for three goals on just seven shots, before the lights literally went out on him and the Tampa Bay Lightning at The Prudential Center. In that game, he was pulled after one period.

It’s time we give Roberto Luongo the chance to perform he so rightly deserves.  For starters, the guy put up nothing but a shutout in his only game.  Sure he hasn’t won the Memorial Cup, the Stanley Cup, or Olympic Gold – but he hasn’t exactly lost any of those either.  All he’s done is quietly become the best goalie in the country.  He spent most of his career on teams that had no chance whatsoever of even making it to the playoffs.

Let’s see what he can do with a powerhouse in front of him – playing in front of his everyday fans in Vancouver at that. If he chokes, we know to look elsewhere (Fleury? Price?) in 2014.  Either way, it’s time for Brodeur to step aside.

3. Pronger and Niedermayer Exposed.

I have to admit, I don’t know much about these two.  Here’s what I do know:

• They’re long-time warriors that played an integral part in helping Canada reach gold in 2002.
• They’re seasoned veterans that have won a Stanley Cup together.
• They’re both strong leaders in the dressing room.

All of the above are important qualities that are good to have on a team.   But, guess what?  Much the same can be said of guys like Crosby, Iginla, and Richards.

Here are a couple of other things I know about Pronger and Niedermayer:

• They’re OLD.
• They’re SLOW.
• They’re not as good as Bowmeester, Phaneuf, Green, etc.

Again, I thought that in 2006 we had already learned where clinging onto past glory gets you in an Olympic tourney.  This loss to the Americans helped remind the coaching staff, who I expect will use the aging duo more appropriately going forward (i.e., less).

2. Guaranteed to play the Russians.

Before this tournament started, I must have watched “Sid The Kid vs. Alexander The Great” on RDS and TSN 100 times.  It was ALWAYS on.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining.  If you haven’t seen it, here’s the first part:

The point is that this thing played over, and over, and over, for one reason and one reason only: these two are the best two players in the world.   Everyone knows it – this just makes it official.

Well, guess what?  With all due respect to the Swedes, the Fins, the Czechs, the Slovaks, and yes those damn Americans, the best two hockey teams in this tournament are Canada and Russia.  Seeing them face-off has been the dream of all hockey purists heading into this tournament.  The loss to the Americans all but guarantees we will witness that match-up for all it’s glory this Wednesday.   Make no mistake, the winner of Canada-Russia Wednesday will be the favorite to take the gold.  Every other game is secondary in importance.  If we lose that game, at least we lost to the best.  So we get our dream game, and if we win, it only gets bigger and better from there.

Granted it’s not in the final, but that brings me to my top reason why we should be happy Team Canada lost to Team USA:

1. It Sets Up A Potential Finals Rematch With … wait for it … USA!

Oh how sweet revenge will taste.  They may have beat us, but they were out-shot a gazillion to one and managed to squeak by because of an aging, fading goalie and top defense pairing that will not leave us vulnerable anymore.  There is no way they should have won that game – with the exception of Ryan Miller.  I know it, you know it, Team Canada knows it, and most importantly, Team USA damn well knows it.

Should they make it to the finals, you know they will be salivating at the possibility of taking gold on our home soil just like we did to them in 2002.  The truth is they’ve already been declared podium winners for these games, but heading in, most Canadians would gladly give up owning the podium for the Men’s Hockey Gold.  It means just as much as all the other medals combined.

This loss to the Americans means we will have to go through the toughest road to get the gold.  We will have to beat the Russians.  We will have to beat the Swedes or Fins (defending Olympic finalists).  And we will have to beat the Czechs (revenge for 1998 anyone) or the Americans in the finals.  Either way, I’m confident we will slap whoever we meet in the finals upside the head and re-take our rightful place as masters of this great game.

Would you really have it any other way?

You gotta believe… GO CANADA!