Olympic Hockey Thread

[Serb]

No nipples anymore.

[Solver]

I love those old Soviet posters... the text on them is always sooo funny, and the picture usually is as well.

[Zoid]

What does it say btw?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

if the US loses in the quarterfinals, will they rip up the olympic village like in '98? some of those same players are still around, like AARP spokesman Chris Chelios

[Solver]

Originally posted by Zoid
What does it say btw?

Have you taken care of your breasts?


Harden your nipples by washing them with cold water every day.

[Zoid]

Kinky russians

[Datajack Franit]

why???

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Chalk up gold for the Canadian women's team!

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
At least the Swedish goal was fun to watch. 7 passes back and forth behind the goal, then a quick pass to a back by the blue line and slam-dunk!

Silver is better than expected for the Swedish ladies team, so I think they're all satisfied. Canada was the only team that beat them.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Flubber


I was not anti- McCabe like Asher but I will admit that McCabe has been one of the least impressive D-men on a less than impressive D-corps

A very, very unimpressive d-corp. Even Phaneuf could probably have fit in.

Admittedly, the defence has the hardest time adjusting to the bigger ice surface, but still, some of them have been making basic mistakes.

[Pekka]

This Euro rules Euro ice crying is way off.. it's taking off the focus to the wrong direction. All of big 7 are coming out of the NHL, most haven't played in big ice since the other ones. Or with the rules... so if you're going to play dump and chase and get whistled, is not because of Euro rules but D being totally out of their comfort zone.

I mean, that's not something one shoujld focus on. Everyone else si doing the same with the exception of few smaller teams like Germany etc, who mostly are euro players.

And yes, even though GM has chosen the team, Quinn leading it looks like the Leafs D all over again. I mean, they need Berg from our side and that's it, the worst D in the history of mankind . No seriously. Then the monster offense is freezing, get them young gun sthere.. hungry and stuff. They'll play.

[Tingkai]

You have a point, to some degree, but the Europeans have more experience playing on the bigger rinks. That makes the shift easier.

As for the young guns, they're not delivering, at least not as much as I would expect. Nash has one point. Thornton and Iginla have two. These guys are in their prime and should be firing the shots in. Old man Sakic is producing as much as young guys.

[Pekka]

More experience? That difference is about non existent. Many teams have loads of players who haven't seen big ice in years, where as there are NA players who have. It just doesn't matter that much. Pro player can make the shift in few games. That's not too much versatility to ask, the only players who have to adjust more are the goalies and D-men. I don't know about some teams, but our goalie for example has been playing in small rinks forever, in AHL etc.. that's not the big rink advantage.

D-men have some things to make up for, which is that they need to move more and they need to position themselves better, or more carefully. This causes problems for big and slow D-men, ala Toronto D. But this is something Gretzky et co knows, so why did they bring pronger and bunch of other giants, I have no idea. It lacks the comfortable, puck controlling and well skating D-men, I mean like ... well from US team Rafalski is a good example of well moving and adjusting player, he's not big, but he doesn't need to be big. However being big is an advantage if that doesn't limit your movement, ideal type being Pitkänen, or Niedermayer types..

That's why I argued Canadian D is built all wrong. But it's not bad, it's just not playing well, and the offense is just frozen, once they get going, it will compensate for the slow D well enough. And it's still definitely one of the top D's, I just wanted to poke some holes in it, like some claimed there are no holes in Canadian team. Yes there is.

Blinded by the light And Pronger and Hatcher (US) can get a room and ****** themselves into the worst D ever in history of hockey, and the most overrated.

[Pekka]

furthermore the problem is mostly mental than anything else. You can't blame big rink on Pronger losing all the battles behind the net. Or the lack of goals. Big rink, if anything, gives more room to wingers... and they are top of the line wingers, they should not have problems with big rink. D-men I understand for a while,l offense, there's no excuse for not scoring.

Besides Luongo is giving the winning chance for the team every night. Giving 2 goals isnt' too bad. It's the lack of good scoring chances and capitalizing on it. Even though the D played bad, they still gave only 2 goals. It's not a disaster. Offense is the disaster now, they're in some kind of lock out. They need to break that, and that's just a mental thing.

So all in all, I wouldn't say the team is in bad shape, or in trouble. They just need to score early against Czechs tonight. Also where is the Canadian style hockey, hard forechecking, driving to the net, getting the rebounds? Those are the elements that will kill teams like Finland and the Czechs. Czechs have different style but we try to do that, and you guys are way better at it, we try to take time and space away and turn over some goals. THat's new style hockey, best scoring opportunities comes from that, you're morem likely to score if you get the puck from the D in their own zone than with well constructed offense starting from your own defense.

There's no reason why hard skating and working offense can't do that in big rink. It's just not effective now. I think that right now, you're beating yourself in your own game. THat's mental. Get over it today, and gold is one step closer.

This is my view. Stop thinking about the big rink altogether, it's not the real problem. Luongo and D are giving you a chance to win every game. PP is better in big rink for scorers, because there's more time and you can hold the puck on positions you wouldn't normally be able to. PK is where big rink has some new problems, but on PP, there should be extra chances, and what it for sure is that it doesn't make the PP worse. More room doesn't equal more problems. Except on PK.

[Flubber]

Wow

ITALY tied the Swiss.

Interesting that the Swedes have stated outright that they would love to play the SWiss in the quarters, raising the spectre that they could throw their last round game so that they can finish 3rd in their pool and get the Swiss.



Canada and the Czechs are similar in that each needs to get their game going but again how crazy do they want to be with a QF game looming. Since everybody has clinched their QF berth I can see it being a day of unexciting hockey today. Since there are lots of scenarios where winning today could get you a HARDER QF opponent I expect a very weird day

[Pekka]

Yeah it would benefit the Swedes to lose this game. I understand it. My ego would never let me throw a fight though.

If you want to win the gold medal, there's no reason to go full steam and just smash and crush.

Also, there's betting involved in these games, so ... you throw a game, you're nothing but a PUNK criminal mob sissy.

So it will be professional pride vs. opportunity.