I hear everything youre saying and I agree about Russia's defense ( although I think it was partly the US forwards looking shitty yesterday) but Karlsson and King Henry are difference makers that Russia does not have. Also Sweden seems to be playing much better as a team than the Russians
I actually do think Varlamov or Bob could put together a great performance that wins the Russians a game. Those two are both great goaltenders. Hank is obviously better, but those two are capable of playing a Hank-like game. USA and Sweden have the two best goaltenders obviously though.
Looks like we would face the Canadians if both teams get there. Canada has a brutally tough quarterfinal if Switzerland gets there. They are capable of beating Canada by playing a similar game to how Finland played today. They will just sit back, let their goalie bail them out a few times and hope for a shootout.
My thinking was that putting Radulov first would catch Finland off guard and they probably didn't have much of a scouting report on Radulov in a shootout. Hopefully the Us tightens up their game and is ready to get at it. Canada just still seems all over the place, as their leading scorer is a defenseman. Carey Price has not been tested yet. And to think, Sweden is also playing without Zetterberg.
This is what we'll likely see in the quarterfinals (because 3 of the 4 next matches are lopsided): Sweden/Slovenia (pencil Sweden into the semis) Finland/Russia Canada/Switzerland The fourth game to decide who faces the US is the most even and probably the bloodiest. Czech Republic/Slovakia. Tomorrow is women's hockey, and the men's tournament resumes on Tuesday.
Updated odds on gold. http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?t=80286 Somehow Russia still has the second best odds. I guess Norway is considered a bye so it's like they made the QFs.
Damn Canada. They didn't have the decency to win in regulation and now we're gonna have to go through them.
I think everyone is trying to put words in Voynov's mouth. If you knew him at all, you would know he's very quiet, very respectful guy. I can't see him calling out his MVP teammate. He probably said those words but in a much different context, like that Quick's aggressive side to side movements lead to dislodged nets from time to time. Fuck Ovie and Kovy though. Ovie for this Kovy for quitting on the Devils.
Good point...I can't imagine his English is very good and he may not have understood the question or given an accurate answer to what question he was asked
Yeah, the Russian players are always causing some kind of problem. Thats why I have so much respect Malkin and Datsuyk. These two are so different from the typical Russian super star. They don't have big egos and they don't try to make headlines.
The quarterfinals are on Wednesday. USA plays at noon EST in the real world. In NBC's world, they don't air the game on their main station because they're NBC. No Olympic hockey except for occasional highlights.
I know. I said they don't air it on the main station because NBC doesn't like to show Olympic hockey. It's on their cable network.
They're setting the schedule for tomorrow Slovenia/Austria 3 AM Norway/Russia 7:30 AM Latvia/Switzerland noon
John Tavares has been ruled out for the remainder of the games due to a knee injury. He hadn't contributed much but it's still good the US won't have to deal with him on the ice. Key to this semi-final matchup is block as many shots from the Canadian defense as possible. They've been the goal scorers thus far. Carey Price has barely been challenged in terms of shots on net so we need to throw some pucks his way. Canada is a finesse team and we need to be as physical as we can. What scares me is the only game that was tough for us was against Russia and we couldn't score any even strength goals. The other games we cruised by and got some crappy goals to go in for us.
