Cameras caught her directing the ugliest of profanities at the U.S. bench after a particularly violent body check by the Americans' Angela Ruggiero. She also spent a lot of time glaring at U.S. coach Ben Smith, had a post-game chat with American captain Cammi Granato and later hinted that the Americans had played dirty. Both teams had won three preliminary games in the Olympics, clinching berths in the gold medal game and rendering meaningless the final game of the preliminary round. Until the opening faceoff, that is. One person gets elbowed or tripped, and it's goodbye.
People start retaliating and things can get out of control.
The Americans set the tone, pushing and shoving and knocking the Canadians off their feet around the net and along the boards. Even though checking is illegal in the women's game, the Americans rarely passed up an opportunity to send a message. I think that's obvious. Suddenly, the momentum had shifted. The shaken Canadians fell completely apart.