AHL- Apolyton Hockey League III-- Olympic edition

[Guynemer]

To get A medal, Canada has to beat Germany (fine) and then....****ING RUSSIA.

Epic fail.

Is there a page somewhere that shows the matchups for the tournament? cnnsi and espn have baffling Olympic hockey pages.

What the **** does this even mean? Holy ****.

Somebody ban Ben Kenobi from this site before I go postal.

Bit late for that, methinks.

[Kitschum]

Is there a page somewhere that shows the matchups for the tournament? cnnsi and espn have baffling Olympic hockey pages.

I always use

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_tournament

[Tuberski]

Seems to make all the argument about Team Canada pointless.



ACK!

[Flubber]

Freekin' goalies!

Yup-- While we can never know how the US would have played differently had Marty made those stops, the game they played was dominated by Canada. If Canada plays like that in all their games they will be fine if they just get some goaltending like the other teams are getting.

I said at the beginning that Canada wins gold if their goalie is the best goalie and maybe wins gold of he is very good. mediocre/average adn they win nothing.

The benfit of having Marty as #1 and Luongo as #2 is that we get a goalie as good as Luongo to step in .


Iggy was just fine-- Ben seems to think that if he doesn't get a hat-trick every night HE is the big failure. There are a lot of players who get far more ice time that you should look at before Iggy. That said, it was baffling to me that they went away from Iggy on the Crosby line when they scored so well in about half a game against Norway. When they finally went back to Iggy on that line late in this game, they just freaking dominated. BY my count Crosby and Nash are pointless when Iggy is NOT out there with them. That weird actually since their talent and ice time should see them score with ANYONE else on their wing.

Oh and where is that Getzlaf line?? They seem to disappear for large periods.

Oh and while all of Canada went "oh crap", you can bet the Russians are crapping themselves too--They win their pool and Canada is their quarterfinal reward??

[Guynemer]

I always use

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hoc...27s_tournament

Excellent, thanks.

So if the Finns win tonight, they will be #1; USA #2, Russia #3; and the Czechs would probably be #4, though the Swedes could be #4 if the score is just plain nuts.

If the Swedes win, the USA will be #1, unless the Swedes go stone cold nuts and win by 6 goals.

Hopefully, the Swedes will win, allowing the US to avoid the potential viper of Slovakia in the quarterfinals.


If USA is #1, a potential rematch with Canada would have to be in the finals. #2, the semis. I'll be pulling for the Canucks in a rematch.

[Asher]

That's exactly it, Flubber. It's why I'm so pissed right now.

The Iginla - Crosby - Nash line has always been phenomenal. Why it was dismantled is ****ing beyond me, and it's no coincidence that while that line was dismantled Canada had struggled with scoring (and Crosby and Nash are pointless without Iginla on the ice). They finally clued in and put it back together at the end of the game, and the pressure was phenomenal. I suspect that line will stay together for the remainder of the next couple games, unless Babcock is a complete ****ing idiot.

Brodeur was definitely underwhelming, to say the least. Luongo will, and should, start the next couple games. We'll see how he does.

But remember, the last time Luongo played a game at GM place under the gun with pressure on him, he let in 7 ****ing goals.

How about we try Fleury?

[Kitschum]

I'm now thinkign Sweden should throw the game to avoid the Canada/russia side of the playoff tree, just like Turin.

[Asher]

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/news/newsid=49127.html?cid=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

A significant loss in more ways than one
By Bob McKenzie, CTVOlympics.ca Posted Sunday, February 21, 2010 11:28 PM ET

With a loss to the United States on Sunday, Canada will face Germany in a qualification game on Tuesday.

And if Canada were to win that game, they'll get a quarterfinal game with the Russians. So obviously, the loss is a significant one.

Where the bigger picture is concerned, U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller outplayed his counterpart Martin Brodeur and the Americans played what I would call a tremendous road game.

Also, the Canadian power play was misfiring during the game. Granted, Sidney Crosby got his first goal of the tournament with the man advantage in the late stages, but the power play was stagnant the rest of the night. There wasn't good puck movement and the players weren't moving their feet very well.

But it all comes back to Miller, who was pretty special on this night.

There was a strategic question that could be asked - whether or not head coach Mike Babcock should have called a timeout during the last faceoff outside the American zone.

Well, I don't mind saying now that I would have, but while it was happening, the Canadians were having a very good shift. They had Crosby, Jarome Iginla, Duncan Keith and Drew Doughty with sustained pressure in the U.S. end for a long time and they were exhausted.

Canada has a lot of weapons and I'm sure Babcock was thinking he wanted to save the timeout for an offensive zone faceoff. But it was off that faceoff that they had the San Jose Sharks' line on and the shift eventually led to the empty net-goal.

So at the time, I might have been inclined to call it.

The Canadians looked like they had the tide turning in their favour in the second period after Dany Heatley's goal to make it 2-2. That is, until Chris Drury scored his go-ahead goal with Brodeur, Chris Pronger and Dan Boyle caught down low.

At that point, Crosby and Rick Nash were each minus-3 in the game while there was a bit of bad gap control between Pronger and Boyle and the forwards.

We could be seeing a changing of the guard on the blue line with the younger defencemen - Keith, Doughty and Seabrook - being counted on for more minutes going forward.

[Flubber]

I'm now thinkign Sweden should throw the game to avoid the Canada/russia side of the playoff tree, just like Turin.

Well both have shown themselves to be beatable so maybe you should try to avoid those unbeaten yanks.

[Sparrowhawk]

Not that is matters now, and I am sure there are plenty of what if's and what could have beens, but if Canada had beaten Switzerland in regulation (as I am sure we all expected they would and should have), they would have finished 4th as things stand today, and gotten the bye to the next round instead of Finland. Not that it matters in teh end, as they have to win one additional game, and maybe that game will help to get them rolling and gelling as a team, which they clearly haven't done yet.

I just hope they arn't looking past Germany or this could get uglier

[action=Sparrowhawk][/action]

[Pekka]

So Sweden beat Finland pretty decisively, 3-0.

Finland just couldn't pick it up, had 5 on 3, had chances with PP but no goals. Pretty bad performance. Sweden was better and deserved to win. Now, hopefully that woke them millionaire lazy asses up, who think they can just skate with their backs straight. Sweden killed it pretty good, we didn't have much good scoring chances, and they controlled the center from the first second to the last.

Damn it! Grrrr!

[Flubber]

as they have to win one additional game, and maybe that game will help to get them rolling and gelling as a team, which they clearly haven't done yet.



[action=Sparrowhawk][/action]

Hmm -- THey played a quality opponent and held obvious advantages in shots, quality scoring chances and territorial play. Other than a couple of very obvious defensive lapses or goaltending miscues which ended up in the net, they were better than the Americans all night. If Marty Brodue was playing at the same level as Ryan Miller, the Canadians win that one easily.

They seem to be rolling pretty well and the effort is apparent. Only two things are wrong-- They have been clearly out-goaltended two games in a row and there does seem to be a lack of finish around the net. Oh ya-- and when does that Getzlaf line show up and start playing like a #2 line.

The best line so far is the Shark line. I know they had existing chemistry and maybe the reason they keep on throwing Crosby and getzlaf out there is to help them learn more and more about their 1 or 2 linemates.


Bottom line is that none of this matters anymore-- Now the path is known and Canada has subjected themselves to a hard path. Tough. Too bad though as Russia is the only team I feel CAN outplay Canada on a team-wide basis even if Canada is "playing well" ( and ditto the reverse). Other teams can obviously defeat Russia or Canada (usually through stellar goaltending) but I don't think that either has been outplayed over the course of a game yet.

But in the end its irrelevant. A win is a win and in the end the US team defeated Canada last night. There are no medals or points for out-shooting or outchancing and when the chips were down the US buried their chances and Canada did not.

I expect and hope to see Luongo next game. Marty "deserved" his shot at number one. He didn't come through.

[Kontiki]

One of the things it seems Canada lacks is speed. As much as I hate to agree with Ben even a little bit, I think St. Louis really should have been on this team. Not at the expense of Iginla, mind you, but probably instead of Bergeron or Morrow.

[-Jrabbit]

The U.S. would like to thank the goalies on both theams for their contributions last night.

[SlowwHand]

The U.S. goalie did pretty well.