kipwinger

Apparently Russia only has two forward lines, because I haven't seen anyone other than Datsyuk, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Semin, Redulov, and Malkin all game.

I have no idea what just happened, but thank fricken god!

Pierre and Edzo giving Radulov the business. I love it.

Damn.

Ryan Kesler laying down to block some shots! Atta boy kid.

Again I ask: Why would a guy who's been playing very well night in and night out in Detroit, take a "two week vacation" rather than captain his country's Olympic team? Just because he might re-aggravate an injury which hadn't seemed to be bothering him the last ten games he played before the break? Nobody was suggesting that Zetterberg was "walking wounded" for the last two weeks while his highlight reel play was making Nyquist look like a superstar. Now all of a sudden it's, "He's been playing injured for weeks and he should have known better". Fact is, he was feeling better and playing well in Detroit, so he came to the Olympics (like anyone would) and re-aggravated a pre-existing condition. Simple as that.

Atta girl. Fair weather fans be damned.

Two sides of the same coin.

Yeah, definitely wouldn't want to miss some crazy old man incoherently muttering quasi-xenophobic remarks in an increasingly desperate attempt to substitute shock value for relevance.

If I was Austria my game plan would be to pass the puck to Grabner ever time we got it, and let Canada try to catch him for three periods. After they were all near death from exhaustion, victory would be assured in the waning minutes of the third. Grabner + Big Ice = Huge pain in the ass for large Canadian team.

I understand your point, but he'd just been asked to captain his nation's Olympic team and he has been playing games in the NHL prior to the break. Why would he say no? Zetterberg and Datsyuk are totally different situations. Datsyuk is a guy who was clearly hurt and rushed back to play in the Olympics. Zetterberg was healthy and playing in Detroit, then came to Sochi and re-aggravated and existing injury. It's silly to think that a healthy Zetterberg should have sat out just because there was a chance his back could be aggravated. It's NOT silly to think that a clearly injured Datsyuk should have sat out of the Olympics rather than risk further injury. Trying to create general conclusions from two very different cases is problematic in this instance. In one case, the decision to play was the right one, and in the other it wasn't.

Look, I'm not here to be Mike Babcock's mouthpiece on the issue of Smith. But my guess, and it's only a guess, is that he hasn't shown out well on the PP in practice, and therefore doesn't get a shot in games. Again, I don't know. But one thing's for sure, both "Babcock is the best" and "Smith's not being given PP time that he deserves" can't both be true at the same time. Either Babs knows what he's doing and Smith isn't playing there because he's not good on the PP, OR Smith has earned a shot and Babs isn't giving it to him to the detriment of the team. While I don't think Babs is the best coach, I don't think he'd keep Smith off the second PP unit if it hurt the team. He's probably seen enough of Smith in practice to know that he doesn't want him there. That's my guess, and guess it is.

That he did, on a pretty nice wrister too. He was easily their best player all game long. Jurco looked good too though.

With the exception of me, everyone one this thread unanimously thinks that Mike Babcock is the best coach in the NHL. If the best coach in the league (pains me to say this) won't even give Smith a sniff on the PP, and would rather use Kindl, Sammy, Dekeyser, Eaves, on the PP point, then maybe...just maybe...there's a reason for that. And if I had to guess, I'd wage the reason why he isn't used is because he's pretty bad on the PP. Which is not hard to believe considering you need to make really good passes and have good decision making to be effective on the PP, and throughout his tenure as a Red Wing Brendan Smith seems utterly incapable of doing either of those things at anything above a Special Olympic level.

If there NHL players aren't allowed to play in the Olympics he wouldn't be getting a break. He'd be playing every other night in the NHL, which is even more physical than the Olympics is. So, it seems like what everyone really wants is for NHL players to participate in the Olympics, but not Red Wings players. That way every four years our guys get a vacation. Seems a little unrealistic to me.

I didn't say that playing hockey doesn't affect his back. My point was that playing OLYMPIC hockey didn't hurt his back any worse the the NHL already does. His back has been hurt all year. If there were no Olympics he's just be playing with a hurt back in the NHL. The Olympics had nothing to do with it, so those suggesting that he'd somehow be healthy if not for the Olympics are missing the mark. I thought that was pretty clear from my original post.

Wow, some of the responses in this thread...unbelievable. His back has been injured all year. It's not like he injured it MORE by playing in the Olympics. If he wasn't playing in Sochi he'd be playing in Detroit, and he'd still be getting injured because the NHL game is more physical. Are you people just dying or a reason to b*tch or what?

Wow, did someone just talk trash about the USA team? The team that beat Slovakia 7-1? That team? USA is a juggernaut suckas!!!!!!

So, is there any doubt that skating is going to play a HUGE part in these hockey games?

Wow, I really thought Slovakia would hang around a bit longer

Hmmmm, this is going to get out of hand at this pace.

Kane to Kesler. NBD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the only time I ever want Tatar to NOT score.

Good for Carlson. If I have to hear one more think about the "unproven" defense of Team USA I'm going to puke. Like Faulk, Carlson, and Shattenkirk aren't playing 25 minutes a night in the National Hockey League. Anyway, good for Team USA, right where they should be. And good for Slovakia too, they actually fielded a pretty good squad all things considered. This might be my favorite post...ever.

So, I work in Washington D.C., and apparently NOBODY can deal with snow down here. So pretty much every employer (including mine) cancelled work tomorrow because of the (slightly) above average snow storm we're currently receiving. Soooo, while you suckers are toiling away at work tomorrow I'll be watching USA hockey. And while you suckers are sleeping tonight, I'm getting loaded. Working for the gov't is AWESOME!