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MabusIncarnate

Official 2014 Olympic Hockey Thread (Admin warning #316)

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The topic title says it all, this is the area to actively discuss the 2014 Olympic hockey games, teams, players, and ongoing developments.

Keep the discussion strictly about Olympic Hockey, not the politics surrounding the events or anything else that is against forum rules.

Keep it friendly and civil as we do have posters from numerous nations on this site that will support their respective nation. Most importantly, enjoy the games!

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I'm a late nighter, and I was up last night watching the Sweden vs Japan women's game. I gotta say, comparatively speaking and considering the last time the Japan women competed and were outscored 45-2 in the games, they were reasonably impressive last night.

The final score was 1-0 which is by no means a blowout. Sweden played a bit better and controlled a lot of the game, but Japan stuck right with them for most of it and it was a relatively entertaining 3rd period.

The fact that I was watching Sweden vs Japan women's hockey also speaks volumes about how eager I am for Olympic hockey this year. :lol:

I'm pretty excited for the men's events to begin.

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I watched portions of both womens games today and was really impressed. The quality level has really gone up since last time I saw it, the goaltending especially which I remember as being particularly bad.

My wife commented that it was like watching the Sheffield Steelers (British team) and I have to agree with her, kinda ECHL level.

Japan - Sweden was an interesting contrast in styles, and Russia were very impressive in a surprisingly physical game with Germany.

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Japan - Sweden was an interesting contrast in styles, and Russia were very impressive in a surprisingly physical game with Germany.

I watched Russia -Germany too, we were pretty lucky in the first two periods. :P Nevertheless they can beat Sweden and Japan if they continue to compete like this and in the playoffround everything is possible.

But I'm looking more forward to the mens competition, that Germany unfortunatly didn't qualifie for.......against Austria. :glare: (Yes, Hockey is that great here.) So I will cheer for the USA and Sweden.

Edited by derblaueClaus

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BgDqmveIIAAMXlR.jpg

Louis Jean ‏@LouisJean_TVA

Russian Captain' Pavel Datsyuk could miss Olympics w/ groin injury. Would be a huge loss. #Sochi2014

I feel torn by this. I want Datsyuk to captain Russia, he deserves it. The other side of me wants him to rest, because something is seriously wrong, and I want him to come back the same player he was to start the season, the the next 3 years.

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I gotta say I think Team USA, Team Sweden, and Team Canada look stacked, on paper anyway. Especially the two North American teams. Those rosters look like they can score and throw some weight around. Sweden looks super skilled.

Russia has a great top 6, but IMO the rest of the team looks pretty mediocre, aside from the goaltending.

Finland looks weak after all their injuries.

Rest of the bigger teams look ok, just not that deep.

Talking about men's

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Finland and Slovakia has been hitten hard by injuries.

Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden for sure are the big favorites althoug hI really don't like Russias defense. The top 6 is very good but other than that, this is not a powerhouse team, they may have to outscore teams by a lot in order to have a chance, add to that the pressure of playing at home not an easy task.

The US will soon find out how important the non intense speller would have been, he just has this god given gamebreaking ability. As with russia I really don't like the defense, they are good but compared to Canada nothing to write home about. At the end of the day they just need to be good, because of Quick and Miller.

Sweden will regret not picking Hedman for the bigger ice guy is used to it and plays a great season in Tampa, I really like their overall roster especially the goaltending but my oh my the D without Lidström looks so much weaker it's amazing. Canada has surprise surprise the best team on paper, the only weakness might be their goaltending, but infront of such a great allstar defense Price and Luongo just need to be good and the team should win gold.

Dark horses for a medal are Switzerland and Finland for me.

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Finland and Slovakia has been hitten hard by injuries.

Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden for sure are the big favorites althoug hI really don't like Russias defense. The top 6 is very good but other than that, this is not a powerhouse team, they may have to outscore teams by a lot in order to have a chance, add to that the pressure of playing at home not an easy task.

The US will soon find out how important the non intense speller would have been, he just has this god given gamebreaking ability. As with russia I really don't like the defense, they are good but compared to Canada nothing to write home about. At the end of the day they just need to be good, because of Quick and Miller.

Sweden will regret not picking Hedman for the bigger ice guy is used to it and plays a great season in Tampa, I really like their overall roster especially the goaltending but my oh my the D without Lidström looks so much weaker it's amazing. Canada has surprise surprise the best team on paper, the only weakness might be their goaltending, but infront of such a great allstar defense Price and Luongo just need to be good and the team should win gold.

Dark horses for a medal are Switzerland and Finland for me.

Two things. 1) I assume you're talking about Bobby Ryan. I like Bobby Ryan. But Kessel, Kane, Pavelski, Pacioretty, Wheeler, and Van Riemsdyk all have more goals than Bobby does. Team USA will be fine without him. 2) Team USA's defense is STACKED, they're just not high profile names. McDonagh (30 pts), Shattenkirk (36), Suter (33), Fowler (31) are all top twenty in league scoring, while Carlson's 10 goals are good for 7th in the league. They're also all REALLY good defenders (Fowler's probably the worst). I guess you could say that Martin, Orpik, and Faulk are the weak links, but those guys are all very solid defensively as well. I'd rather our weak links be good defensively than offensively (Subban). They aren't as good as Canada's defense but are miles ahead of any other defense in the tourney.

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Two things. 1) I assume you're talking about Bobby Ryan. I like Bobby Ryan. But Kessel, Kane, Pavelski, Pacioretty, Wheeler, and Van Riemsdyk all have more goals than Bobby does. Team USA will be fine without him. 2) Team USA's defense is STACKED, they're just not high profile names. McDonagh (30 pts), Shattenkirk (36), Suter (33), Fowler (31) are all top twenty in league scoring, while Carlson's 10 goals are good for 7th in the league. They're also all REALLY good defenders (Fowler's probably the worst). I guess you could say that Martin, Orpik, and Faulk are the weak links, but those guys are all very solid defensively as well. I'd rather our weak links be good defensively than offensively (Subban). They aren't as good as Canada's defense but are miles ahead of any other defense in the tourney.

I'm not saying they are bad, just not as good as the ones Canada has (no other team can match that). I really like the top like you said, the problem is Martin, Faulk. The luxury is, they don't have as much pressure as Canada for the simple fact, that even if a guy like Suter or McDonagh are making a mistake (barely happens), Quick or Miller will be there to stop it. Canada does not have have this luxury, so their defense needs to be elite, which they certainly are.

Btw. here is the whole hockey schedule http://www.sochi2014.com/en/ice-hockey-schedule-and-results

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I'm not saying they are bad, just not as good as the ones Canada has (no other team can match that). I really like the top like you said, the problem is Martin, Faulk. The luxury is, they don't have as much pressure as Canada for the simple fact, that even if a guy like Suter or McDonagh are making a mistake (barely happens), Quick or Miller will be there to stop it. Canada does not have have this luxury, so their defense needs to be elite, which they certainly are.

Btw. here is the whole hockey schedule http://www.sochi2014.com/en/ice-hockey-schedule-and-results

I agree with your comments on the goaltending, but I'd also add that while the US team does have weaker links like Martin and Faulk, Canada's Hamhuis and Vlasic, or Sweden's Oduya and Tallinder, aren't noticeably better. Every top team has a couple of holes (relatively speaking of course) on defense.

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Fun Fact:

Ice hockey was introduced to the Olympic Games at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. The matches were played between April 23 and April 29, 1920. All matches took place in the Palais de Glace d'Anvers (ice palace of Antwerp). The rink measured 56 to 18 meters (165 to 58½ feet). All games were played with seven players on each side, with the rover position being used. All medals were decided by using the Bergvall system. The gold medalists were the Winnipeg Falcons, representing Canada. The silver went to the United States and Czechoslovakia took the bronze.
Edited by cusimano_brothers

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Looking at it from an outsider's POV (not really following the Olympics) I think that on paper it should go to Canada with USA and Russia/Sweden taking the other medals. Canada's goaltending is suspect and they could end up losing a high-pressure game. Their forwards aren't as good as 2010 and I think the US has gotten bigger and stronger since then. So the gold could really go to either depending how each side's goalies play. Still think Howard should be in MI right now.

Russia's offense looks decent on paper but light of great NHL talent. Malkin-Datsyuk-Ovechkin is almost impossible to contain, but if you were to pull off keeping them off the scoresheet you better have good 3rd and 4th lines to score your goals against some great Russian goalies.

Sweden's defense seems light this year (wonder why). Their offense has some great playmakers but no real power forwards so there will be a lot of finesse but no snarl which will be tough against CAN and USA.

But, looking at Finland's goaltending makes me think that they could play spoiler and end up on the podium pretty easily.

So, my BRAIN picks: Gold Canada, Silver USA, Bronze Sweden

HEART picks: Gold USA, Silver Sweden, Bronze Russia. Cause f*** Crosby.

Edited by vladdy16
Circumventing curse filter.

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USA women's beat Switzerland 9-0. The skill gap in women's hockey is ridiculous ha

The gap is actually closing a bit. Canada only won 5-0 on the weekend (although they did lead in shots 69-14) and US only beat Finland 3-1....who Canada is currently tied with in the 2nd.

Back in the early days (20s), Canada and US were dominant in the Men's division as well. US beat Switzerland 29-0 in the first round, then lost to Canada in the semis and Canada then beat Sweden 12-1 in the gold medal game (they had beat Czechoslovakia 15-0 in the first round). Apparently, it wasn't uncommon to have 30-0 scores back then.

Edit...just checked 1924 Olympics....after the first 3 games, Canada had outscored the competition 85-0.

Edited by toby91_ca

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The gap is actually closing a bit. Canada only won 5-0 on the weekend (although they did lead in shots 69-14) and US only beat Finland 3-1....who Canada is currently tied with in the 2nd.

Back in the early days (20s), Canada and US were dominant in the Men's division as well. US beat Switzerland 29-0 in the first round, then lost to Canada in the semis and Canada then beat Sweden 12-1 in the gold medal game (they had beat Czechoslovakia 15-0 in the first round). Apparently, it wasn't uncommon to have 30-0 scores back then.

yeah, i did read that the gap is closing which is good.

in my mind it's just like this....

1. USA

2. Canada

3. everyone else

:P

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