Olympic Hockey

CANADA MOPPED THE FRICKEN FLOOR WITH RUSSIA!!! I LOVED IT!

Not surprised Finland got by Czech Republic. VERY surprised but happy Slovakia upset Sweden. That was HUGE! They've looked great the whole tournament. I hope they get a medal.

What a great night of hockey! I couldn't have wished for more perfect results.

Canada dominates Russia. No room for excuses there. Canada is just better.

The Swiss put up a fight, but USA advances. What drama though! USA was all over Jonas Hiller, the Swiss goalie, but it seemed like he put the right spells to protect it - even that own goal at the end of the second didn't end in the back of the net before the buzzer.

Finns finish their Czechs and Kipper comes through with a shutout. Vokoun was great too, the only time he got beat was because of that questionable rule in international hockey where a player that loses his helmet must collect it immediately or head for a change or get called for a penalty. Kubina was killing a penalty in front of his net: couldn't take another penalty as it would make it 5-on-3 for the Finns, couldn't go for a change because that would leave the front of the net open for a long time. So he skates away a few feet to collect the helmet, Finns play the puck to the front, goal. Tough luck. But the Finns were slightly better, a deserved win.

Anyway, to top the night off, Slovakia shocks the Swedes and beats them in an exciting battle.

All six Blackhawks are still in the tournament! I don't know if that is good or bad, but I can't really make myself to feel bad about it. Go for gold! Even if the guys will be a bit more fatigued when the season resumes Tuesday.

I don't want to continue this argument, but I'll go back a LITTLE bit:

T-Roy wrote:

What I said is fact. The gold medal is the rarest of all sports achievements, period. Think about it.[/b] The NHL is my favorite sport period and the Stanley Cup is awesome. But it's given out every year to the winner. Gold medal is every 4 years and a countries athletes may get 3 shots or less at a chance to claim a gold medal.

I was not really arguing the rarity of it. It's the prestige. I mean, sometimes I go out and play with friends and we have these 'championship' games among buddies. And imagine this, there's only five or six guys that have ever won our title. That makes it much more rare than the Olympic gold medal. Doesn't make it a bigger achievement though.

Point is: Stanley Cup is where it's at. Not downplaying the Olympic gold one bit. It's great. But Lord Stanley's cup is possibly the most sought after trophy in all of sports. With the history and the tradition, it's at least got to be right up there.

The Olympic gold is at least somehow tainted by the change from amateur to pro, whichever way you want to look at it. It didn't go to the 'best' team in the sport before 1998. OR, if you like your Olympic tourneys pure amateur, it hasn't gone to the best AMATEUR national team since 1994. I guess the latter opinion is more rare especially since the amateur status of communist teams was always somewhat questionable.

Anyway,

Semis tomorrow:

USA - Finland
Canada - Slovakia

Everything seems set for the grand final of USA versus Canada, but both Finland and Slovakia have a more than reasonable chance to pull of an upset win.

I think Slovakians might get overrun easier - their two-way game is not excellent for this level, and Canada is lethal offensively. They totally made the Russian defense look bad. Also goaltending is not the strongest point of Slovakian hockey, if they end up getting outshot significantly. But they do create offense and finish their chances well and should be good for a couple of goals. I predict a 5-2 Canada victory.

Finland has a hard-working team with a good forecheck and they can score ugly goals, but really they don't have that much finesse up front. Nor as good shooters as the Americans have. US defense is slightly better and they certainly don't lack grit players either, so they should actually hold all the cards. Finns play a very simple game though. But that's how you win games - KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). I expect a low scoring game. 2-0 USA. If Finland scores first, tables are turned. USA will have a hard time scoring against Kiprusoff and that diehard Finnish mentality.

Lari wrote:

that diehard Finnish mentality.

"Sisu", as my relatives call it. I'm still pulling for the Suomi, but the good thing about the USA and Canadians continuing to advance is that it gets the media here interested. I have spotty coverage depending whether I'm at work, home, or at my mom's, but with the North Americans playing I'll get to tune in all the games from now on.
I expect a Canada-USA final, which would be huge!

I know it's not Hockey, but I didn't want to make a curling thread.

I'm flipping through the channels and see this Swiss babe curling. I was floored. For some reason that caught me off guard. Then, one of the Canadian curlers was hot as well!

I never knew!

im not for US vs Can. it as back in '02.
i go for Eu final game.

but im sure that referees will push or do everything agains Suomi and Slovakia.

iamrockerfun wrote:

im not for US vs Can. it as back in '02.
i go for Eu final game.

but im sure that referees will push or do everything agains Suomi and Slovakia.

You're joking right? Both US and Canada have beaten Slovakia so the likelihood of that happening again is good. Finland...very talented and executes the trap well which keeps them in every game. However there's no doubt they are not as deep as the Canadians or the Americans. Ref's aren't throwing games.

The Canadian celebration "controversy" is overblown in my opinion. They might have handled it better, but I say "big deal" and let them have their moment.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

The Canadian celebration "controversy" is overblown in my opinion. They might have handled it better, but I say "big deal" and let them have their moment.

Totally, stogies and beer???? Sounds awesome!

T-Roy wrote:

Both US and Canada have beaten Slovakia so the likelihood of that happening again is good. Finland...very talented and executes the trap well which keeps them in every game. However there's no doubt they are not as deep as the Canadians or the Americans.

USA nor Canada has played Slovakia. At least not this tournament. You must be thinking of some other team. Slovakia beat Russia in the round-robin, but lost to the Czechs. Don't count Slovakia out...

As for Finland, it's the Czechs with the well-executed trap. The Finns play a very up-tempo hard skating, forechecking game. I expect USA-Finland to be played at an insane pace as both teams rely on same strengths. However the Finns have very little scoring up front. They can generate chances, but only maybe Selanne can finish consistently. Then again... you only need one more than your opponent.

I predict USA beating Finland 2-1 and Canada Slovakia 6-3.

Woops, you're correct. I was thinking of the Swiss that the US and Canada both beat.

Never mind the refs. Finland is going to lose this one themselves with huge mistakes. LOL!

4-0 HALF WAY THROUGH THE FIRST!!! USA!!!

wow, just getting ugly now

T-Roy wrote:

wow, just getting ugly now

Did you call in to work today to watch hockey?

Slovaks and Suomis have nothin to loose. Cans and Us got everything.
Cans are under big pressure, so Us. everybody expect Cans vs Us in final game. i dont care who win or loose. im writing that we got the final as yall want, so its boring to see em playin again.
Us is unbeaten, once you have to fail.
Cans is unbeaten (overtime against Swiss), once you have to fail.
No team didnt win the gold medal, which organise Olypmic games.

Since we talked about the neutral zone trap, I guess the Finns SHOULD have trapped

Totally open doors in the first period. Once they finally got their game settled, it was already too late for the Finns. Great performance by USA to totally knock a team out like that. Too bad Pat Kane didn't get the hat trick. His linemates kept setting him up in the third, but no dice.

iamrockerfun wrote:

Us is unbeaten, once you have to fail.
Cans is unbeaten (overtime against Swiss), once you have to fail.

Canada is not unbeaten. They lost against USA in the round robin.

I can't believe some of the mistakes the Fin goalie made.

Yeah, but Kipper was hung out to dry for most of that opening 10 minutes. Only the first goal was clearly on him.

What really happened was Finland was not ready. The Finns play a sort of a North American type of game, and it works well against other European teams usually, but today USA came and showed how its really done. Getting beat in your own game (skating, hustle, forecheck, pressure, puck-control) leaves you stripped of any strengths. The coaching totally failed. At 3-0 they should have pulled Kipper, mixed all the lines and come back with a different look and attitude. Instead they insisted on using the exact same lines they saw didn't work, and only yanked Kipper for Backstrom after 4-0.

About Slovakia - Canada, Canada will want to come out very strong, too. Slovakia can only hope to survive the first five to ten minutes. After that they have a chance. They have shown they can beat anyone. They already beat Russia and Sweden. That's impressive. Not a great defensive team, but if all five guys play hard in their own zone and capitalize on counter-attacks... they must have at least a ten percent chance tonight, right?

As a Blackhawks fan I'm expecting to see a great match between a total of five Hawks. Especially Hossa vs Toews will be interesting. Slovakia also has Tomas Kopecky (who scored the game winner against Sweden), and Canada has the Hawks top defensive pairing of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

In the end I want USA to win gold though.

TheNazgul wrote:

I can't believe some of the mistakes the Fin goalie made.

he didnt have it, and for that matter neither did his team..

Canada vs USA in the gold medal game!

For 50 minutes it looked like Canada was going to have an easy game, but then out of nowhere Slovakia got some momentum and pulled within a goal. A great finish, and Luongo had to make a game saver against Demitra five seconds before the buzzer.

As for the final, I'll stick with this prediction:

Lari wrote:

...in the final USA beats Canada 9-8. Kane scores seven goals.

luck luck nothnig but luck with canada. lucky game for canada. holy crap. that was a game. poor canada at the end of period or better said after 1st goal.

1Us
2Cans
3Slovaks

Finland gets the bronze. Tough luck for the Slovaks. They really showed a lot of character in this tournament beating both Sweden and Russia and coming so close to pushing Canada to OT. I also would have loved to get all six Blackhawks back with medals. Hossa was visibly upset after the game, throwing his helmet away.

But in all honesty, Finland probably has the better team. They seem to medal very consistently in the Olympics. Four medals in the last five games.

Slovakia hasn't had that much success in the big tournaments. They are always 'among the contenders', but never quite make it. And now the core of the team is so old, they probably won't for awhile.

slovaks had old core but did you see ? they got hearts and team spirit.
first and possibly last chance to grab the luck of olympic tournament.

in Sochi 2014 it'll be fully different players in all teams.

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS CANADA!!

What a game. How fitting the winning goal scored by the best player in the world as well!

GOOD JOB USA, YOU FOUGHT HARD!

That was the most fun I've had for two weeks in a long time! At least my Finns got the bronze.
I need this Hockey kick every now and again, because it boosts my interest in the local team (Minnesota Wild). For some reason I've never gotten as attached to the Wild as I was to the North Stars.