Team Canada Announced (Turin 2006 Hockey)

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Asher

PEI is a statistical outlier due to insufficient samples.

Per 100,000 is a standard statistical sample. PEI wins!

And for hockey towns: Cranbrook, B.C.
Home to Yzerman and the Neidermayers, plus Brad Luckovich, who with the Lightnings when they won the Stanley Cup. There's been someone from Cranbrook on the last three Stanley Cup winning teams.

And home to two future NHL stars, my nephews.

[Pekka]

isn't it great, we get to have many hockey threads, JWC, Olympics, soon NHL playoffs.. marginal WC NA doesn't care about..

Anyway Team Finland has been announced. Here's the latest, some of you might find interesting.

First line is:

Selänne - S. Koivu - Lehtinen
Salo - Timonen

We're hoping this line will be the power line, making the goals we need, the game winning goals. Selänne, as most have said, is yesterdays news but he has caught himself on fire this season, after having his succesful knee surgery. Already 20 goals and making more. Saku Koivu should be the Captain of our team and usually injures himself due to his style of playing in long season, but should be OK this year. Jere Lehtinen is a great two-way player, one of the best 2-way players in NHL. Everyone can score. Sami Salo has had a great season so far and is one of the top defensive players in NHL in points and +- stats. Big, great slap shot. Kimmo Timonen is kind of small but moves great, and can't be underestimated.

(predictions from now on, players are set but lines aren't)
Second line:
Peltonen - O. Jokinen - T. Ruutu
Lydman - Numminen

Basically this line should be the one that carries us when the first line fails. Should be able to score but requires that everything works out. Peltonen, I don't know why he is in the team. He has good eye, but that's just about it, slow and can be overrun when superstars starts to play. O. Jokinen, Captain of Florida is actually pretty good, 32 points so far, was thought as a great future prospect (one of the top ones) who totally dominated all junior tournaments by himself. Then he lost it, never grew up, until Keenan saw his potential again and he was given some time on the ice and Jokinen held his end of the deal, rising to be the captain later on. Tuomo Ruutu is a future superstar, perhaps the player with most future potential on this team and any team. He has had bad injuries this and last season, and in fact the season before that so he has never been able to really be healthy lately and hasn't played much. However, I'm not worried about his abilities at all.

Defense is OK, Lydman is average but paired up with Numminen, should be stable and able to handle most defensively.

These two first lines were actually the same in WC last year.

Third line:
S. Kapanen - N. Kapanen - Miettinen
Pitkänen - Berg

Sami Kapanen has also suffered a long injury, but is MAYBE the fastest player on this whole tournament. Ridiculously fast, I just hope his aim is good too this year. I'm not so sure about Niko Kapanen though, but he is paired up with Miettinen, both Dallas players, not a very strong line, but can play. Can they hang on? I know Sami will but the rest? We'll see. Defense is good with Pitkänen, a great offensive D, but Berg, I don't know how he makes these teams. He is just big, sloppy and ugly. One of them hazardous players, where you always are closing on heart attack when they are on the ice, making their passes and stuff. Pitkänen should neutralize this threat a little bit.

All in all, this should be a line that is expected to play two-way, mostly defensive but also some good offenses hopefully.

Fourth line:
Hentunen - M. Koivu - Laaksonen/J.Ruutu
O. Väänänen

Our horrible line. This is a total fiasco. Mikko Koivu has potential but is not ready yet, Hentunen is just not good enough, period. Hentunen is one of our 'Euro players', and is one of them who never can win or do. I don't know why he is in the team. I'd rather have Jussi Jokinen from Dallas or Ville Nieminen from Rangers. Laaksonen is OK but not good enough for the team and Jarkko Ruutu... well.. he's hard worker but.. IMO not good enough. If we want players who irritate the opposite team, we should have taken Ville Nieminen instead, because he can make the occasional play too. Hentunen out and Jussi Jokinen for offensives. I feel this is a bad mistake this whole line and could turn to be our achilles heel.

Goalies, I have some bad news. Good news for Flames fans, bad news for our team!

Kipper just told he won't be coming to the games. He has some kind of hip problem, so he said he will take the rest when games are on, so he will be OK for Flames when the playoffs etc starts. He said he really wanted to come but he is committed to the Flames. So NO Kipper.

DAMN!

And this can backfire, since we named Lehtonen our second goalie, also injured the whole season. Maybe even better than Kipper, but can he play come February????

Thrid goalie is Euro goalie, he is decent but.. I'd rather have someone else.

So today we are flipping coin between Niittymäki, Markkanen and Toivonen. Personally I hope it'll be Niittymäki, since Markkanen is OK but has too many bad days. When he is playing to his abilities, he can put on a show but he has too many bad days. So does Toivonen, even more so. Niittymäki is more consistent.

I of course hope we can have Lehtonen, and problem is solved.

Because Kipper is out and fourth line is such a fiasco, I predict we are lucky to get to semi finals!!!!!

[Tingkai]

Tough luck on not having Kipper.

[Ninot]

Koivu

Sorry tho, this is Russia's year

KOVALEV!!!

[Asher]

Kipper just told he won't be coming to the games. He has some kind of hip problem, so he said he will take the rest when games are on, so he will be OK for Flames when the playoffs etc starts. He said he really wanted to come but he is committed to the Flames. So NO Kipper.

He's a class guy.

Tingkai: Have you changed your opinion of having Belfour or Kipper in the playoffs? Last season you were hell bent on having Belfour.

[Pekka]

Right, of course he has bigger commitment to his team. This is usually not what happens, we always get every player we ask, and they all come, every time, so this is almost breaking news that someone won't come, and someone who is expected to be there and perform. He won't even wait to see how the hip thing develops, just outright said his doctor doesn't think it's a good idea so *BAM* that's it, no Olympics for Kipper.

Well, good for him, maybe he'll start picking it up. IMO he plays way too much. There's just bound to be some bad streaks soon, like he just had few.

[Asher]

The bad streak is probably due to his hip inflammation. I think Sauve is going to get a bigger share of the games in the rest of the season.

[Pekka]

Ninot, I have no problems seeing Russia go all the way, in fact they should be dominating most teams excluding Canada, however, as you know, it depends. If they have a good day, they will be a superforce. If they have a bad day, they will lose to Japan. And if they do it once, they start doing it the whole tournament. They need a good start and good feeling and be mentally there, and play for good team effort, if that happens, man it's a scary thought

[joncha]

Jarkko Ruutu is my hero.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Asher

He's a class guy.

Tingkai: Have you changed your opinion of having Belfour or Kipper in the playoffs? Last season you were hell bent on having Belfour.

Belfour is one of the greatest goaltenders. No question about it.

He's having a rough year, but that's because he's not getting enough support from the D.

He needs to start bashing some tvs.

As for Kipper, yup, looks like he's not a flash in the pan. He's proving himself this year.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Pekka
Ninot, I have no problems seeing Russia go all the way,

It'll be Canada and the Czechs in the final.

[Pekka]

joncha, why? I mean sure he's a great deal when you think about how cheap he is, but that's about it. He's in the team to play irritating game, but Nieminen is better at that plus he can make a play every now and then so I don't see why Jarkko landed on top of that.

Interesting fact, we have two sets of brothers, Ruutu's and Koivu's. If Marko Kiprusoff had made it to the team, we'd have 3.

Now.. let's see.. the way I see it going is that Canada vs Russia for the finals, Finland vs. Sweden for bronze.

This is IF the structure allows these pairs.

I see USA failing, even though they have a decent team, I just don't think they can live up to it this year either. Czechs are awesome but they will have defensive problems and if their great offensive won't be on fire, it's good bye..

Slovakia is interesting, they have such creative and fun offense. Filled with awesome players, I say their offensive is one of the best in this whole tournament. Creative, and also usually their team can play when the time comes, at least to ther abilities, unfortunately defense is not so strong.

For most teams it'll go down due to their lackign defense. In this tournament, you need a good defense, every potential team can lay down some beatings with their offense, so defense is in key role IMO.

You say well look at our offensive lines.. sure, but who doesn't have them? Jagr's, Forsberg's... every team has them. So defense is especially important I feel like, if it can't match the opposing offenses, it'll be a lost cause.

And that's why I ranked my teams as I did.

[joncha]

Yeah, the Czech team looks scary.

[joncha]

Originally posted by Pekka
joncha, why? I mean sure he's a great deal when you think about how cheap he is, but that's about it. He's in the team to play irritating game, but Nieminen is better at that plus he can make a play every now and then so I don't see why Jarkko landed on top of that.

Nieminen's giant horse head scares me.

[Pekka]

haha, yeah, he looks like a goof no matter how you put it. BTW, I'm not sure how he has carried himself in the NHL regarding statements, but in here he says THE weirdest things. He jokes but he has a weird sense of humour, the kind I like You know when you'd be like 'what did he just say?', but then you know he is like that so you know he is just joking and weird. Unless you knew that, you'd be totally offended or think he is insane or just not able to understand what he means.

Great guy, sometimes a little bit of a pig, but hey, he's a character.

Anyway, what do you guys think fo the chances of team USA? I think there's again some fundamental mistakes like last years WC (team TOO OLD!).

I don't know what Chelios is doing in that team. Shouldn't he retire already?