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MabusIncarnate

Official 2014 Olympic Hockey Thread (Admin warning #316)

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The failure of the KHL and NHL players on the roster to blend into a cohesive team was clear and apparent. There were rumors in the past few days of tension in the Russian camp, and at the heart of it was the KHL-NHL issue. Why in the world was Alexander Popov playing on the top line with Ovechkin and Malkin the past two games? Why was KHL defenseman Evgeni Medvedev among the leaders in ice time on the team, playing more than NHLers such as Fedor Tyutin and Alexei Emelin?

Why? Because the KHL and Russian hockey hoped to use the world's biggest hockey games as a propaganda tool for the Russian professional league that vies to rival the NHL. Well, that was a complete and utter disaster.

Does anyone believe that the KHL is on a similar level of play than the NHL?

Seems as though those in charge of the Russian Olympic squad have their heads in the sand.

Absolutely but they're not alone. I would say so do the Czechs and Slovaks. Laco over Halak...Nedved and others over Hudler, Hejda, Vrbata...

Russia just seems to be so focused on some grand big scheme and forgot to complete step #1.

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From the link above...

The failure of the KHL and NHL players on the roster to blend into a cohesive team was clear and apparent. There were rumors in the past few days of tension in the Russian camp, and at the heart of it was the KHL-NHL issue. Why in the world was Alexander Popov playing on the top line with Ovechkin and Malkin the past two games? Why was KHL defenseman Evgeni Medvedev among the leaders in ice time on the team, playing more than NHLers such as Fedor Tyutin and Alexei Emelin?

Why? Because the KHL and Russian hockey hoped to use the world's biggest hockey games as a propaganda tool for the Russian professional league that vies to rival the NHL. Well, that was a complete and utter disaster.

Does anyone believe that the KHL is on a similar level of play than the NHL?

Seems as though those in charge of the Russian Olympic squad have their heads in the sand.

Ovechkin plays in the KHL?

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From the link above...

The failure of the KHL and NHL players on the roster to blend into a cohesive team was clear and apparent. There were rumors in the past few days of tension in the Russian camp, and at the heart of it was the KHL-NHL issue. Why in the world was Alexander Popov playing on the top line with Ovechkin and Malkin the past two games? Why was KHL defenseman Evgeni Medvedev among the leaders in ice time on the team, playing more than NHLers such as Fedor Tyutin and Alexei Emelin?

Why? Because the KHL and Russian hockey hoped to use the world's biggest hockey games as a propaganda tool for the Russian professional league that vies to rival the NHL. Well, that was a complete and utter disaster.

Does anyone believe that the KHL is on a similar level of play than the NHL?

Seems as though those in charge of the Russian Olympic squad have their heads in the sand.

Sorry, but that analysis is utter BS. Medvedev played over Nikulin (KHL), Nikitin (NHL), and Belov (AHL mostly). He was one of the better D-men for Russia. Not great, but then noone on our blue line was even above average. On the 3 Finnish goals today: 1st, Nikitin, NHL Dman got beat like a schoolchild; 2nd, Voynov had a puck bounce over his stick, and didn't have enough speed to recover, so he lost the puck to Garnlund, but his D-partner, the most titled of the Russian D, Markov fell down and left Selanne wide open; what happened to play the pass, not the man on the 2-1???;

3rd PP goal for Finland - Tyutin, our supposedly 2-3rd best D, got blocked out by Granlund and had a best seat watching him score. This was not KHL-NHL problem. Our only effective forward line was Kovy-Datsyuk-Radulov, KHL(sorta)-NHL-KHL. OV-Malkin-Semin didn't work at all, in spite of Malkin's efforts, so coach broke them up, putting Popov on that line so at least somebody would chase the puck and backcheck. As a result, 3rd line of Semin-Anisimov-Kulemin got at least some shots. Perhaps Tarasenko, Nichushkin, Tikhonov with Tereshchenko centering might have gotten some more time, but they weren't standout either.

IMO, the major problems were Ovechkin never finding a place, being unable to change his game from stand-wait-shoot approach. Use your GD speed Alex...

The constant attempts of our D to find forward with a long stretch pass at other blue line drove me bats***. That never works.

Our PP wasn.t working. If they scored on just 15% of the PP opportunities, they'd be in the semis now.

Other than that, they did just about what i expected. The players we had were the best of a short list, so all the KHL-NHL talk is uniformed. Who was left at home that was better than the ones on the ice for Russia?

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From the link above...

The failure of the KHL and NHL players on the roster to blend into a cohesive team was clear and apparent. There were rumors in the past few days of tension in the Russian camp, and at the heart of it was the KHL-NHL issue. Why in the world was Alexander Popov playing on the top line with Ovechkin and Malkin the past two games? Why was KHL defenseman Evgeni Medvedev among the leaders in ice time on the team, playing more than NHLers such as Fedor Tyutin and Alexei Emelin?

Why? Because the KHL and Russian hockey hoped to use the world's biggest hockey games as a propaganda tool for the Russian professional league that vies to rival the NHL. Well, that was a complete and utter disaster.

Does anyone believe that the KHL is on a similar level of play than the NHL?

Seems as though those in charge of the Russian Olympic squad have their heads in the sand.

It makes me so sad for players like Pav who so desperately wanted to win gold for their country in front of a hometown crowd, when the powers that be couldn't set aside their pride and KHL pushing agenda long enough to give the coaching staff control of the team in order to make a run. So shortsighted.

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