Canada/USA STILL don't understand Olympic/Intl Hockey
 

Forget Salt Lake where Can/USA won gold/silver - it was N.American rinks and clutcn n' grab hockey was still in style.

But again, Canada's hockey people built a team that would do great in the NHL, but outclassed in international hockey. Guys like Doan, Bertuzzi, Smyth, Thornton, Foote, Pronger, etc. are stars but if you're going to build a team for these Olympics names like Kariya, Staal, Crosby should have been here.

It's about speed, skill, finesse - not ground and pound.
Guys like Selanne, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Datsyuk are the stars here.

This year, Canada and USA will combine for exactly ZERO men's hockey medals (Canada's women will win gold). You read it here first.

Watch for a Finland / Slovakia final.

:pimp

I doubt finland gets to the final. We always fuck up.
2-0 lead to canada feels nice though ;)

So true....How can you take Drapper and Pronger but forget Staal...Spezza...Crosby...It's beyond me...We COULD've had a great team... but if you ask me, Gretzky was probably to busy betting on "football" game...

I agree.


This game with Finland is really not looking good. :Oh crap

didn't they made it to the finals at the world cup?

Can't remember. What I do remember is that we only have 1 world cup gold (1995) and no olympic gold. We suck.

Thats a pity, Finland have made great games in both World Games and the Olympics many times but seems to be unlucky in the wrong moments, but I think you have a great opportunity this year, see ya in front of the TV neighbour :) :) :)

Finland made into the finals in WCH 2004 and also got bronze in the olympic games of 1998 (beating canada ;) )

People in the US have lost interest in Hockey. They took a year off to bitch about money and no one missed them while they were gone.

I heard that Dancing with the Stars got higher ratings than the winter olympics last week. There is just so many ways you can race down a hill and keep people's attention.

easy guys, the tournament doesnt really start until next week

the olympics are on in the middle of the night and that probably has lots to do with it...and by the way the rangers, wild, avs, redwings, blue jackets, lightning, maybe more are all teams that sell out EVERY single game so I wouldnt say nobody in the US likes hockey...NHL has way better attendance than the NBA

people dont care anymore in my opinion. there is no cold war, its not a source of national pride and we are so overwhelmed with extreme sports of every kind that it just seems silly these days to sit and watch pole vaulting or luge or whatever.

Savard, Tanguay, Spezza, Staal, Crosby should have been on the team... I think they are 5 of the 7 best canadian scorers..

Bertuzzi, Draper, Doan, St-Louis and Smyth.. out!


Oh, and Phaneuf in, Adam Foote out...

double post....

Canada hasn't scored in 2 games and they were completely outplayed. They can (or you can, we can) say all we want that it's just the prelims, but the Canadian team knows they tried today and they were beat easily.

Canada looked bad early on in Salt Lake but picked up steam, this team seems to be going the other way.

Like I said, I don't see any medals for Canada/USA this year, it'll be like 1998...

The USA and Canada could play the game if they were teams, but they're collections of players who come from the same country. The team that has played the best based on their talent level in this tourney is clearly Switzerland. Beating the Czechs and shutting out Canada means they are a threat to medal. They realize that the key to winning in a tourney like this is playing solid defense and goaltending. With Hasek out, the Swiss probably have the best goaltending here in that they can start two top-notch goalies (Gerber and Aebischer) while most teams have one (Canada (Brodeur), Germany (Kolzig), Czech Republic (Vokun), Russia (Nabakov) , Finland (Niitimaki) ) or none (everyone else, including the USA, although DiPietro has played pretty well for USA).

The fact that the USA is the oldest team and that Canada is second oldest doesn't help, esp. when playing 4 games in 5 days. The D on both teams has got to be gasping for air...

mmmm so far Brodeur played 2 games and Luongo 2 games...and they are both top notch!...

Yes, another point: The Canadian D is big and slow and as one analyst pointed out before the event, losing Niedermayer to injury was a HUGE blow to the team. He's exactly the kind of defencement they really need and have very few of.

Foote, Blake, Pronger are much better in small rinks and when they can use their size/strength. Here, quick small guys just skate right around them.

Anyhow, for what's it worth I'd love to see the Swiss medal - apparently hockey is the most popular sport in their country and they've pretty much been doormats to the other countries in the past.

I can't see either of the teams going to the finals. Finland or Slovakia.. It'll be Canada vs Russia :D

staal/crosby/phaneuf/spezza will be at the next olympics. I think some of the players picked were chosen for their dedication to the country for many years, playing at the juniors and olympics before. Although I do think, guys like Doan/Bertuzzi should have not been on the team so we could have added Staal/Crosby. Next olympics we'll have the right team!!

Canada has a trend to go with players who have played/won for them before whenever possible - it's a bad trend for the most part.

Guys like Doan/Bertuzzi are not as good in the new NHL as the pre-lockout one, as speed/finesse is taking over there too; no way they should have made Team Canada.

As a Ducks' fan since Kariya's first season, I grew to be a Teemu fan back then too. He's having a great comeback year for the Ducks (signed at only 1 million dollars no less!), so I'm going to say GO FINLAND!

I hope his Olympic fire continues down the stretch for Anaheim :)

I agree. Gretzky screwed up. He chose friends and old timers before chosing talent.

WE WANT HIS HEAD ON A HOCKEY STICK!

BURN GRETZKY, BURN.

lol

"So what if the exact same team with some modifications won the GOLD MEDAL LAST OLYMPICS" Just FYI, the rules in INTL have not changed, neither have the rink size.

"people like pronger are in while crosby should be in"

Well when Crosby becomes a DMAN let me know.


This team is getting like 50+ shots on goal, we're getting OWNED by the refs, and if you recall what we did in SALT LAKE, we were doing a HELL of a lot crappier than we are now. The goals will come, all of these players are impact players, and ready to bring back the gold..

and to compare the USA olympic team (Who was VERY LUCKY to even make it into the gold medal game in SLC), to a Canadian team who had to cut players like Karyia, Staal, Spezza, Crosby, etc.. etc... you are just oblivious to the depth of Canadas roster.

You may also want to keep in mind that the majority of the players on this roster, 1. Have a TON OF INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE 2. Were playing on INTERNATIONAL ICE all of last season.

You heard it here first -> CANADA VS SWEDEN GOLD MEDAL GAME.

Maybe the people you know don't care, but I'm quite thankful that there are still many many millions of people in the world who do care, who do love not only the traditional Olympic sports but the newer "more extreme" ones as well. Did you know that in Norway they regard their top cross country skiers as near-gods? And in several countries including Austria, Switzerland and Italy their downhillers are all each like Gretzkys or Jordans to thier people each with their own fan base. In Germany the top bobsledders are some of the best in the world and are regarded as being larger than life. Don't get me started on speedskaters in some of those countries.

People don't care? You've got to be kidding dude.

As for Americans.... many care. They care quite a bit actually. Winning Olympic medals is very important to a lot of people in the US. Do you think they would have multi-million dollar sponsorships and advertisers and millions more in facility and training dollars if no one cared??


Hockey ---
Don't discount the Fins OR the Swiss OR Slovakia. Sweden too for that matter. Yak about it all you guys want but those teams all have a lot more depth right now than they did at any previous major world event.

But don't count Canada out just yet either. :D

hasnt scored in two games?
http://www.members.shaw.ca/flashfire/goal.jpg

havent played good enough but lets get real here

Savard...lol he is a one way player that costs him team as many or more than he scores

Yeah Canada was robbed a couple of times on what were clear goals.

That puck in his glove was so in a blind fucker with no hands and a hardon could tell it was in.

That's how in it was.

maybe the goal judge needed someone to circle the puck and draw an arrow
http://www.members.shaw.ca/flashfire/goal.jpg

Canada will be there in the Finals. Gold. Not sure about that....

I think Canada should have began the youth movement this year. With that in mind, here is my roster if I'm choosing Team Canada:

Center

Brad Richards
Joe Thornton
Eric Staal
Jason Spezza

Left-Wing

Simon Gagne
Alex Tanguay
Rick Nash
Brendan Shanahan

Reserve: Paul Kariya

Right-Wing

Dany Heatley
Jonathan Cheechoo
Patrice Bergeron
Jarome Iginla

Reserve: Michael Ryder

Defence

Bryan McCabe
Chris Pronger
Wade Redden
Dion Phaneuf
Dan Boyle
Jay Bouwmeester (replacement for Scott Niedermayer)

Reserve: Philippe Boucher

Goalies

Roberto Luongo
J.S. Giguere
Martin Brodeur

Possible Line combinations:

Gagne - Richards - Cheechoo
Shanahan - Thornton - Heatley
Tanguay - Staal - Iginla
Nash - Spezza - Bergeron

Pronger - Phaneuf
McCabe - Redden
Boyle - Bouwmeester

Notes:

- Scott Niedermayer I would have picked, but I didn't list him due to his injury
- I didn't list a reserve center but opted for wingers instead, because Bergeron can play C if need be
- I dded Heatley to the right side because I felt the choices for RW were much worse than the choices for LW. Far as I know, he can play either.
- Giguere has a much better Save percentage than Turco this season so that's why I went with him. He proved in the 03 Playoffs he can definately perform under pressure, I don't think it was a fluke.

What do you think ?

I didn't see the game so Im not saying it wasn't a goal...but that's a terrible angle to show it from. No way to conclude it's in the net there :2 cents:

dude look at the two posts....they are pretty much aligned...not hard to figure out the angle considering this! and the glove is way past the posts...

Errr...I think my eyes are tired - you are definately correct :thumbsup

I didn't notice the second post in the image, so in my mind that seemed like a completely different angle to me than it is now seeing BOTH posts.

Guess that signals its time to grab a drink :)

hehe no prob! You know,my rule is pretty simple; there's no bad time for a new drink! ;)

Hey BTW, noticed you are a PHP coder - any chance you might be interested in this job? :winkwink:

IwantU.com is hiring again! How does Costa Rica sound?

wow, sounds really good... not sure about the relocation part though :Oh crap

but...all expense paid?? LOL definitly sounds good! I will think about it seriously!.. I know ADODB and smarty so its really not a problem...

FYI:
We were also based in Montreal (still have an office/datacentre there) - that's where we relocated from 2.5 years ago :)

Also we hired one Senior Programmer/Project Manager from Montreal about six months ago now, he was skeptical as well, but he's loving it here so far.

Anyhow if you have any questions feel free to hit me up anytime - ICQ 520468

Its definitely there, but it seems that the referees are as bad as the teams this year, watched the game Sweden-USA yesterday and they were very close to destroy the whole game :mad:

Pronger is good, but I don't know about him on the large ice. Considering you can dress 20 skaters and 2 goalies, I might add in a powerplay specialist (Marc Andre Bergeron of Edmonton?) to the line-up.

This team would beat the current Team Canada 4 out of 7, especially if the first 4 games had to be played in 5 days after being in the air for 8 hours....

Luongo is terrific, but he doesn't have a track record in pressure situations. He is rapidly building one here. He is 1-1 with a GAA of 1.50, although he only faced 12 shots vs. Germany for one of those goals. It's certainly not his fault his team didn't score against the Finns.

As for the goal that was missed vs. Switzerland means that Canada would have lost 2-1. Gerber was incredible in that game.

Switzerland is going to take gold for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO SCHWEIZ GO

too bad Palffy retired just few weeks ago...and Handzus and Nagy are injured, Slovakia would be even stronger.

Interesting lineup but I would rather have Crosby than Shanahan and would have Kariya in the starting lineup. I'd love a few Steve Sullivan-type players over Richards, Thornton but I would still have Sakic in there - he's got a deadly shot and they need some "older", experienced guys up front.

Definetly Cheechoo should be there (most pts. in the NHL since early Dec.) and I 100% agree with the defence - I don't see Blake, Foote or Pronger suited to this type of game, but they need at least one.

Okay, that should've counted ... so they've score one goal in two games
That's one goal in 73 shots.

:)

what is hockey?

fuck hockey

anyone watching the ladies playing?

Canada will win the gold in men's hockey for sure...They struggled in 2002 at the beginning too I have confidence in them...

Yes.

I find myself wanting the Swedes to score at least one goal before it's over.

Hmmmm... maybe not. They ran into a hot Evgeni Nabakov today.. when he is on, he is very tough to beat....