Olympic hockey -- who's your team and how will they do?

[CDSmith]

Sweden may be the gold medal defending champs but this time around team Canada and team Russia are both stacked with insane amounts of talent. So much so that it's tough to say with any certainty who is going to win it this year.

Czechs look strong. Slovaks played well against them yesterday but came up short.
USA always a contender.
Fins - always liked their style of playing.
GERMANY showed well against the Swedes yesterday, which surprised me. Nice to see.

All in all I like Canada's chances in these Olympics. :D

[ColetteX]

czech republic the olympic winners

[CDSmith]

USA beating Norway 2-0 right now.

Canada plays Switzerland tonight. yeeeeee :D

[CarlosTheGaucho]

I would sure wish the last big career triumph to my man Jagr. Seems like Vokoun works the goal right so far so if he will be super exceptional and if the defense will work on 110 pct. it could work out.

That and lots of luck.

Still have to check the other teams though, it ain't easy to watch matches due to the time difference.

Canada vs. Russia could be also great finals.

[Chicks Delivery]

BRAZIL!!!! Oh... Brazil is not playing.........

[Loch]

Gonna be in Row 5 on Saturday

Germany is playing

[rip raster]

I take it we're talking men's hockey, because I believe the Canadian woman's team is going to do a clean sweep for the gold

[CDSmith]

Originally Posted by rip raster

I take it we're talking men's hockey, because I believe the Canadian woman's team is going to do a clean sweep for the gold

Yeah women's hockey isn't quite "there" yet. I see some good improvement in the other teams, Sweden, the Czech women, etc, but the only game that really matters is the USA-Canada game.

Canadian women's team looks very strong but the Americans have been known to defeat them on several occasions. Nothing is guaranteed.

But yes, we're mostly talking men's hockey here.


GO CANADA!

[CDSmith]

USA beats Norway 6-1.

The CAN-US game should be a good one. :D

[andrej_NDC]

Originally Posted by CDSmith

Yeah women's hockey isn't quite "there" yet. I see some good improvement in the other teams, Sweden, the Czech women, etc,

Czech women didn't make it to the olympics...

I wish more countries would take icehockey seriously...because it is getting boring...its the same 6-7 countries all the time. And with a WC every year, its just too much and too common. I wish it was like football, which is played all over the world and there are 50 good squads.

[fatfoo]

I'm going to go with:
Russia - #1 team
Canada - #2 team

[Adraco]

There are really 5 good icehockey nations. It's USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Other nations might get lucky once in a while, but clearly come in second to those nations.

[CDSmith]

Originally Posted by andrej_NDC

Czech women didn't make it to the olympics...

You're right. I was thinking of the Slovak - Switzerland game from yesterday, meant to say the Slovaks.

[CDSmith]

Originally Posted by Adraco

There are really 5 good icehockey nations. It's USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Other nations might get lucky once in a while, but clearly come in second to those nations.

The Czechs have always been strong. Now that the Slovaks and them are separated the Slovaks will have strong teams too.


I don't agree that it's boring. The German team is looking stronger and stronger, as are the Swiss. I would however like to see France get into the hockey thing, because we certainly mine a lot of great French-Canadian players here in Canada, you'd think the people of France would take that cue and jump on board. They're more a soccer(football) nation though, seems to be little interest in the fastest sport on ice so far.

[ColetteX]

i think swiss is beating some canadian ass

[Mutt]

Canada couldn't beat the Swiss in three periods

that's embarassing. no excuse for it.

the US-Canada game should be interesting, it would figure that the Canadians will be fired up to prove tonight was just a case of running into a hot goalie - but the US team is young and all American hockey players despise Canadian players because they get it shoved in their face from the time they're peewees that Canada is superior, they'll be kinda like the Miracle on Ice team playing the Soviets. Not to mention that the US has a goalie who on some nights is the best goalie on the planet.

[Spunky]

Canada was kinda flat tonight.lucky they got that win against the Swiss.better kick it up a notch.not feeling too impressed with them.Russia looks too damn strong

[WebairGerard]

USA for the gold! Love watching Olympic hockey. Be nice to have the larger ice in NHL. Looking forward to US vs Canada this weekend. Will be a great one.

[CDSmith]

If our guys play Russia like they played the Swiss tonight Canada will get hosed.

But let's be fair the Swiss played an incredibly good game. It's not just that Canada didn't look as "great" as they have at times in the past. Got to give them some credit. Their goalie was fabulous tonight.

[andrej_NDC]

Originally Posted by Adraco

There are really 5 good icehockey nations. It's USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Based on what? Because I can't remember the US team to win anything in the past 30 years...no tournament. Russia didn't win shit except the last year, too. 10-15 years before that nothing...they always have good individuals, but almost never a good team. And Finland won last time 15 years ago, the world championship. So please tell me what do you base your statement on...EA Sports NHL 10?

If we go by titles won in the last 10 years, the its only Canada, Sweden, Russia, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

[CDSmith]

Slovaks win in shootout after a 1-1 tie through 3 periods and OT. Wow. I am seeing some chinks in armor of big giant Soviet Russian bear's team.

There's hope for Canada yet.

[Jensen]

we have no chance :/

[kane]

My team is team USA.

However, like you say the Russians are stacked with talent and Canada basically has an NHL all star team. My prediction is that the young, talented USA team will find the heart to get to the gold medal game where they will lose to Canada.

Final standings:
Gold - Canada
Silver - USA
Bronze - Russia.

[ColetteX]

it is great how some of you guys says usa. usa cause you have nhl? or why you say usa? usa has no hockey without nhl and nhl is filled with non americans, as czech team has this olympic games players from 20 nhl clubs. i am sorry, there will be no usa on first three places

[CarlosTheGaucho]

Originally Posted by CDSmith

The Czechs have always been strong. Now that the Slovaks and them are separated the Slovaks will have strong teams too.


I don't agree that it's boring. The German team is looking stronger and stronger, as are the Swiss. I would however like to see France get into the hockey thing, because we certainly mine a lot of great French-Canadian players here in Canada, you'd think the people of France would take that cue and jump on board. They're more a soccer(football) nation though, seems to be little interest in the fastest sport on ice so far.

Ice Hockey never had tradition in France, apart from a bronze medal they did on some of the very first championships if I remember.

Even their last years in the World championship A group half of their team were naturalized Canadians who didn't make it in NHL and played in French league, many of them well in their late 30's.

It's also connected with the total base of registered junior players, while I remember there were 200 000 registered around here ten years ago (for a 10 mil. population) it's going to also get worse as kids generally don't do sports these days and there's less new players every year.

[Varius]

Originally Posted by Mutt

Canada couldn't beat the Swiss in three periods

that's embarassing. no excuse for it.

the US-Canada game should be interesting, it would figure that the Canadians will be fired up to prove tonight was just a case of running into a hot goalie - but the US team is young and all American hockey players despise Canadian players because they get it shoved in their face from the time they're peewees that Canada is superior, they'll be kinda like the Miracle on Ice team playing the Soviets. Not to mention that the US has a goalie who on some nights is the best goalie on the planet.

It was great watching Thriller (Hiller) turn in a great performance though especially shutting down his Ducks teammates heh.

Some of these Swiss guys really impressed, like Roman Wick; I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of their guys get NHL offers next season.

The Swiss faceoff technique is interesting, go down on your knees every draw heh...

[Varius]

Oh and Canada needs to try a line of Nash - Getzlaf - Iginla.

[tranza]

yeah, that's cool

[BradM]

Originally Posted by Varius

It was great watching Thriller (Hiller) turn in a great performance though especially shutting down his Ducks teammates heh.

Some of these Swiss guys really impressed, like Roman Wick; I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of their guys get NHL offers next season.

The Swiss faceoff technique is interesting, go down on your knees every draw heh...

This is exactly what I have been thinking for the past 12 hours

[CDSmith]

Originally Posted by ColetteX

it is great how some of you guys says usa. usa cause you have nhl? or why you say usa? usa has no hockey without nhl and nhl is filled with non americans, as czech team has this olympic games players from 20 nhl clubs. i am sorry, there will be no usa on first three places

I won't be so bold as to count them out just yet, they've been playing very solid hockey in this tournament so far.

But if I had to call it I'd have to first point out that few to no people are considering the Swedes in their medals predictions. Why?

I say it ends up like this:

Canada - Gold
Sweden - Silver
Russia - Bronze

[CDSmith]

Feb 19th. Today's games --

Belarus vs Sweden
Czech vs Latvia
Fins vs Germany

[zurc-net]

Sweden sfobv...

Canadian's are bad at hockey.... ^_^


::::runs and hides::::

[CDSmith]

Wow Belarus really gave a good game to the Swedes.

4-2 Sweden with their 4th goal coming in the final seconds of the game to put it away.

[slayer69]

Canada. Taken the gold this year.

[CDSmith]

Czech 5
Latvia 2

Czech 5th goal was an empty-netter.
Jagr played pretty well, got himself a nice goal in the 1st, but the Latvians gave them more of a fight than I thought they would.


Now to see how Germany does against the Fins.

[CDSmith]

Originally Posted by ColetteX

it is great how some of you guys says usa. usa cause you have nhl? or why you say usa? usa has no hockey without nhl and nhl is filled with non americans, as czech team has this olympic games players from 20 nhl clubs. i am sorry, there will be no usa on first three places

Care to amend that statement?


It ain't over til the fat goalie cries of course but nice win for team USA. They finish the prelims FIRST OVERALL, so they obviously have as much chance to medal as anyone else does in these games.


As for Canada we mostly looked good in that last game, outshot the US, were all over their end for much of the game, but just couldn't get it done. Obviously we need to step up our game a little more and find a way to iron out just those last few kinks or things are going to get extremely bleak very fast. Should be able to beat the Germans, then on to the Russians where the rubber really meats the road.