I don't understand Russia's decision to not play goalie Bob until you've already let 3 goals go past. He's the reigning Vezina winner and has been playing really well the entire Olympics, even in the loss to USA. To further prove that point, when they finally did put him in, he stopped all (albeit, limited) shots towards him.
Canada absolutely dominated every conceivable metric in that game except for the score and save percentage. The Latvian goalie is literally the only thing that kept them in that game. The game should have been a blow out because yeah, it's god damn Latvia, but the one guy that can single-handedly stop a game from getting completely out of hand showed up and was on point all night. I personally hate the idea of having Carey Price in net against 'Murica this Friday, and I also hate the idea of dressing Kunitz and Bouwmeester at this point, but what can you do. I don't get it either. You don't want to play your goalie in two consecutive games, especially with the finals coming up, but you'd figure they would have given Varlamov the softer match against Norway and Bob the tougher draw.
I agree Canada didn't play a bad game, Latvia's goalie just played a great one. A goalie can't win the game but he can level the field. I swear coaches over think goalies. Why would you rotate Varly and Bob? For fuck's sake Bob is the reigning Vezina trophy winner. The American's didn't think twice about rotating Miller and Quick. Quick is the starter, thats it. Why wouldn't you start Price against the Americans? If Babz puts in Lou or Smith I'll have a chubby.
Yea, so there. But I was just giving you shit cause the second statement made it seem like you were making excuses, even though you haven't been banging the Canadian drum all week. My two Canadian friends from college have already been posting statuses about how Babcock sucks or the team is this and that, prepping themselves for a loss on Friday. Canada completely outplayed Latvia, but I think they were a bit impatient. They were faster and stronger than Latvia in all facets and thus had open looks, and were firing at will instead of working a bit for shots. As far as Friday, Quick has been fantastic, the offense has been balanced and prolific, you can't ask for much more to justify your confidence if you're an American.
I've seen this too from people up here and it's annoying as fuck. People should go read their messages from 4 years ago when they were pooling their money so one of them could blow Mike Babcock for bringing home the gold. I don't think it's necessarily preparing themselves for a loss, but more so trying to get their heads around not being as dominant as some people wanted. They have a hard time believing that even though it's at the Olympic level, Canada isn't just walking through teams 11-2. The Canadians have outshot last opponents 57-16, 27-15, 46-23 (also a 6-0 shutout), and 38-20. We had a clean (if unspectacular) win over Norway, blew the doors off of Austria, beat the Finnish team with the best goaltending on the planet (that wound up beating Russia today) in a nailbiter, and had a dominant win that was reflected everywhere except the score sheet against a Latvian team that has been a surprisingly live dog the entire tournament. The US has been more dominant on the scoreboard, but has also outshot their opponents by a total of 24, compared to the Canadian team's total of 94. I'm not sure exactly what to take away from that, so do with those numbers what you will. Assuming those trends hold true, Canada will be depending on their blue line to take away the good chances that the Americans seem to have been so good at converting, and the US will be hoping that Quick/Miller (I assume Quick) show up ready to turn away a pretty high volume of shots. Those numbers kind of make me nervous since it paints a picture of a US team that has gelled together quite well compared to a Canadian team that is absolutely packed with individualistic talent but a "shoot first" mentality. One would wonder if it might even be worth starting Miller since he's been there, done that, both in terms of international competition vs Canada and he's used to getting lit up behind an absolutely worthless Buffalo Sabres team. That said, I still think Quick is the right choice. Also keep in mind that everything I just said is pretty much worthless because it ignores the fact that both teams played in different groups and don't have a single opponent that both have played in this tournament.
Well, not in recent history. But the United States has never won a medal outside of the United States. And for that matter, no team has won back-to-back gold medals since professional players participated in the Olympics.
The Russians had a bad tourney. Ovechkin is starting to look like a bad influence. He's talented, but it seems like his teams always fall short of their potential. In the Olympics thats unfair to put Russia's flop on him, but if you look at how the Caps have done, it seems to suggest he's not much of a leader. More of a Pavel Bure type, less of a Steve Yzerman/Joe Sakic. Sweden-Finland will only be game because of the rivalry. I realize Sweden finished with the top seed, but if you look at the teams the played its not too surprising. Softest schedule by far. I'm hoping for a Finland-USA final. That'll be a true coin flip of a game. The Americans are more talented, but Finland just plays difficult hockey.
Russia's problem was complete lack of direction or cohesion from the coaching staff in their loss to Finland
Is anyone else watching this game right now? It's been sort of sloppy. I will never understand why women take slap shots. They just don't have the upper body strength to snipe a top corner goal with a slap shot. I wonder what the stats are for speeds on wrist shots vs. slap shots. And with as sloppy as female hockey tends to me, it's not worth taking the extra time to tee off on a shot.
I'm too busy wondering why checking is a penalty - ignoring the fact that these are tough athletes and can take it regardless, there's very evidently a ton of contact anyway. It just means sometimes one side will get dicked by a dodgy call.
There's no hitting in women's hockey at any level, anywhere. And frankly... there shouldn't be. Hitting is an art. It should be taught as much in a defensive way (how to take a hit) as an offensive way (how to deliver one). I disagree with the way it is taught most of the time in boys minor hockey - so there's NO WAY they could properly roll it out in girls minor hockey without people getting hurt.
My issue isn't "hitting should be allowed" so much as "hitting is happening everywhere its just only occasionally called"
Yea very sloppy. It is really noticeable with there power plays. Three minutes they had a 1 man advantage, and the middle 30 seconds where a 2 man, they couldn't do shit.
2-0 for USA ... yea doesn't look like we are going to come back from this. They just dont seem to be in the game.
Canada played like shit. Especially in the 3rd period. The Americans deserve the W. And on paper, the American Men's Team is the top team in this tournament. I hope Canada plays out of their skull tomorrow.