The Denver Post's Mark Kiszla has always offered a...unique...perspective on sporting events, and his criticism of the U.S. women's performance in dropping a 3-2 decision to Team Canada at the Olymipcs on Thursday is...blunt:

The losers choked, and then these strong American women choked back tears that went splat on the ice of a hockey rink. Their pain was as impossible to stop as the cruel fate conspiring against the U.S. team as the Olympic gold medal slipped away during a 3-2 overtime loss to Canada.

After her players blew four years of hard work and a two-goal lead in the final four agonizing minutes of the third period, U.S. coach Katey Stone looked me directly in the eye and said: "I do not think the moment was too big for us."

Stone loves her team too much to say what was painfully obvious: America choked. There's no shame in choking when the reason is you care too much.

In the Olympics, the one place where we want sports to be pure and noble, it is hard to admit something as raw and ugly and human as cracking under pressure can happen. But it did.

Kiszla continues...