Finnish Wing

I've said numerous times that losing Conks was really a big loss. Bigger than Hudler, bigger than Sammy, maybe almost as big as losing Hossa. Having two solid goaltenders just makes the whole team more confident. I think the team doesn't have very high trust on Howard right now. When Conks was here, you could always pull either him or Ozzie to wake up the team. Now, if Howard doesn't start improving and gaining this teams trust it'll be a big problem. If the team doesn't trust the guy in net they won't be able to play normal game because they think too much about goalie and if he can me the saves.

At first I thought that was the thing here in Finland. But now, after 13 games, the same team that was 11th of 14 last season hasn't lose a single game in regulation and broke the new winning streak record. Weird year I would say.

If you're talking about the shootout Zetterberg chocked too. If you're talking about the game Leino had an assist on that Flip's goal. OMG CHOCKED!! I think Ozzie was the one who chocked. He even lost his stick in one of those SO goals.

At first that Leino's attempt looked like a poor one, but when you look at the replay you see it was actually so close. Was it Anderson's glove which it hit?

Williams does that "sick move" now.

Do you ever imagine what Dats would look like with long hair?

Finally that line gets what they deserve!

Same kinda goal Franzen sniped in the last playoffs.

Wings fans booing when Draped got taken away from the draw. Following the example of the fans in Sweden. btw. 2-2

Lazy defense on that goal.

Ouch! That hurt for sure.

Yeah, on the paper that defense will be good. But Russia in international tournaments has always struggled in defensive-minded things like PK, sticking to gameplan even the Norway scores the first goal and stuff. However, they've got so good offense that they don't have to play d that much because they always have the puck. Also, goaltending has many times been a weak spot for them - no matter how good the goalies do in the NHL.

Yeah. But they still have those same weaknesses in following the gameplan and defending. Even though they have guys like Dats there and Bykov coaching. Those problems will always be there for the Russians. I think these will be the best Olympics for a long time. Canada, Russia, Sweden and Finland all have coaches that are in the top 10 of the world and all of them trust in modern type puck possession play. Those are the top four teams (in no specific order). USA has a good team but Ron Wilson isn't nearly as good coach as the coaches in those teams. Pretty much the same thing with Czechs. And in Slovakia the whole national ice hockey is in some kinda crisis. Back to the game then.

Someone's gotta make a collection of Maltby faces when penalties are called. He's so hilarious. : D

Kinda depends on how much you get paid IMO.

I was thinking EXACTLY about the same thing. : D

RICHARD!

May used his elbow pad to make a brass knuckle. He sure knows the tricks!

We should sign Buck McNeely as an enforcer.

Stupid penalty by Bert.

Still, was he a winning goaltender back then? Because, I think he now kinda looks like one.

Or maybe he didn't always perform like this good before? Maybe he wasn't that good before? A late bloomer maybe? A change in the way of practice or some saving technique? Found that confidence which had been lost? Every year there are these older goalie breakouts. Small changes can make big difference in goalkeeping. Nicklas Backstrom is a perfect example. He wasn't always that good, you know.

LOL. Do you guys really boo Sergei? Man, that's just stupid. I've never liked Hossa that much, but still wouldn't boo him either.

True.

Part of it, yes. However, Zetterberg played two minutes less than Filppula. I would think many coaches would have played Zetterberg a lot more than Filppula.