“Ugh.” That’s about the best way to sum up the World Cup of Hockey for American hockey fans. Team USA (which plays Czech Republic tonight) is already eliminated after two poor showings against Canada and Team Europe. The darlings of the tournament, Team North America, were just eliminated on a tiebreaker with Russia. It’s a pretty night and day comparison between the two teams with American ties.

Team USA is easily the biggest disappointment of the tournament in my opinion. Depending on the outcome of tonight’s game, they will either finish in 3^rd or 4^th in Group A. Regardless this is a team that has made strides in previous international competition and just never got anything going in its first two games. I do believe that part of the problem was the lack of speed on the roster with some of the younger Americans like Johnny Gaudreau and J.T. Miller playing for the North American team. I also still wonder how USA Hockey decided that John Tortorella would coach this team, but that’s another subject entirely. In a game based on speed there were a few too many “grinders” on this roster to have legitimate chance to win.

On the flip side, Team North America stole the spotlight in its brief time in the World Cup of Hockey. I talked about it in my “Weekend Recap” but I was in awe at the speed and relentless effort this entire team showed in the tournament. This collection of future NHL All-Stars was a sight to see and provided some of the most entertaining hockey you will see until March in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was certainly a sight to see if you were able to watch this team play. I’m just disappointed we won’t get the “D3: Mighty Ducks” storyline from a potential Canada vs. Team North America semi-final game.

I’ll leave you all with the overtime of the Team North America vs. Sweden game. If you want, skip ahead to about halfway through the video, it’s pure adrenaline in the form of overtime hockey.

“Good night, sweet prince.”

I’ll be back Saturday with a “No Huddle” to preview Week 3 of the NFL. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.

It’s a Thursday edition of “No Huddle” and like always I’ll be previewing Thursday Night Football, and I’m going to throw a quick note about the college football action tonight as well.

First thing’s first though, and that is tonight’s matchup between the Texans and Patriots. I’m very intrigued by this matchup right off the bat. New England is now down to its third quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, after news broke today that Jimmy Garoppolo would not dress tonight after suffering a sprain AC joint in his throwing shoulder against Miami.

That’s great news for Houston because Garoppolo looked great on Sunday and if he was healthy, I didn’t see how the Texans would win. Now, we are back to square one with the Patriots having to go with a relative unknown at quarterback. Houston sports one of the top defenses in the NFL and could control the game if they can hold the New England running game in check. Rob Gronkowski may finally make his season debut tonight, which would be great news for New England here. That could mean the first look at Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett together in the two-tight sets that the Patriots dominated opposing defenses with a few years ago. A short passing attack from New England is to be expected in combination with the power running game with Legarrette Blount leading the backfield.

My key matchup for this game though will be the Houston offense against the New England defense. Don’t be fooled by the comeback that the Patriots allowed last week against Miami, this defense is not to be taken lightly. Houston may be extremely talented on offense but has yet to really get rolling, averaging just 21 points per game through the first two weeks. I’m very interested to see what New England will try to take away in this game. My guess is that you might see a lot of deep zone defenses in an attempt to take away the over-the-top passing plays to DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller. The Texans will be without left tackle Duane Brown, which is a huge loss for this offensive line as he is one of their top pass blockers.

Overall, I think this will be a tightly contested game and both kickers should factor into the conclusion of the game. It will be an interesting chess match between Bill Belichick and his former assistant Bill O’Brien. I like Houston to squeak one out on the road tonight.

Shifting over to college football for quickly, tonight’s game on ESPN features #5 Clemson on the road against Georgia Tech. The Tigers have been far from impressive this season but still managed to stay undefeated through the opening three weeks. This has the makings to be a trap game for Clemson though as a monumental matchup with Louisville is only a week away. Defensively, they’ll have to replicate its performance against the Yellow Jackets last season when they held this triple-option offense to 71 yards on the ground. That being said, I think there is just too much firepower for Clemson and I expect them to take care of business tonight.

Check back to Shooting the Moon later today for an update on the World Cup of Hockey following the Russia-Finland game going on right now. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.