The Canadians will win if: They find a way to keep the crowd loud and the atmosphere wild at Canada Hockey Place. They were able to do that against the Russians with a strong start and an early goal. That was not the case against the United States. They want to pressure the U.S. and really make it a challenge for them. They want to take the U.S. out of their comfort zone and you do that to a team by scoring first and expanding on that lead.

Canada has to find a way to score on U.S. goalie Ryan Miller. Enough of the comments about the "Miller standing on his head." Good teams, championship teams, gold-medal winning teams find a way to score and solve a goalie. Teams that fall short talk about "getting lots of shots" and facing a hot goalie. Find a solution or go home with a silver medal, or in other words empty handed. There is no in-between here.

Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo also can't give up any easy goals. The semifinal game against Slovakia was in the bag the other night. Then he gives up that softy. He can't give up any bad goals and give the U.S. life.

The Canadians will lose if: They don't manage their aggression. If they're in the penalty box too much, it puts pressure on the certain players and disrupts the flow of playing time for others.

Canada also has to do a good job checking the U.S. line of Zach Parise, Paul Stastny and Jamie Langenbrunner. Those players can be difference makers. So Jonathan Toews, Mike Richards and Rick Nash need to continue their strong play.

I have been so impressed with Toews and young defenceman Drew Doughty. They have stepped up and played significant roles for Canada. When Canada won in 2002, it was young players like Simon Gagne and Jarome Iginla who stepped up. Now it's Toews and Doughty.