The first half(or so) of the NHL season comes to an end. Man did my wings look shitty. 1st half grade D+. Injuries or no injury they still have to clear the puck from their end, and they simply didn’t all season. If not for Jimmy!(you have to say it like south park) Howard playing way over expectation they might be well out of playoff contention.
Osgood is one of the strangest players ever. Every fourth year or so he just turns into a sieve and becomes a huge liability. But then he scrapes it back together to become a solid goalie. I wonder if he will do it again, but I doubt it will be with the Wings if he does.
All that said, the NHL regular season means crap as long as you make the playoffs, and they are still in position to make it if they play over .500 hockey for the rest of the year. They need the break much more than anyone else to get some guys healthy and back into condition. Hopefully things come together a bit and Howard stays hot.
And how about a sniper or two? Lidstrom only has an average shot these days, joining Rafalski and Stuart as decent but not great, hoping for the defelction or rebound from the point. They simply don’t have anyone with a knack for putting the puck in the net. Datsuk, Zetts, even Helm, Williams, Draper, Filipulla, Maltby are all great away from the net controlling the puck and setting things up. Franzen and Holmstrom are great in the crease, and Bertuzzi is pretty good there.
But they could really use a Shanahan, Sakic, or Hull type who can take advantage of the open space and just put it where the goalie ain’t.
I’m loathe to count Canadians out until they are counted out. That having been said; if Canada is to win, they will have to go through Russia somewhere.
I have to agree with the group. I like Russia to win. Just too much pure talent.
I think Sweden is going to disappoint this time. They just don’t feel as good as they are rated. That should open the door for the U.S. to get a bronze, but This team doesn;t feel all that great to me either.
Russia
Canada
a surprise lower expectation team should come through for the Bronze.
i think our goaltending is gonna fail in huge proportions. I really hope Luongo, Brodeur and Fleury can handle the offensive power of the nations with firepower. If the Olympics is a gauge of who has the hottest goaltender then it’ll be tough to beat Ryan Miller of USA.
In a single game elimination playoff format, anything is possible. I remember in 2002 when it seemed inevitable Canada would face a very good Swedish squad. And then they ended up against… Belarus.
If this was a setup ofl 7-game series I’d say Canada would be a huge favourite; other teams have guys to match the very top of Canada’s talent, but nobody has anywhere near the depth. Nobody else was leaving guys like Jeff Carter, Dion Phaneuf, and Mike Fisher off the roster for lack of room. Canada could easily field two competitive teams.
But in single game elimination, depth doesn’t necessarily play into it. All you need is one goalie having a great night, or one sniper hitting the corner twice, and that’s all she wrote. Consequently, there are at least six or seven teams that could quite plausibly win the gold medal.
I’d more or less see it, in percentage terms, this way:
Ryan Miller has been absolutely run into the ground by the Sabres. I don’t have many worries there. Canada’s goaltending also doesn’t worry me.
What does worry me is the prospect of going into a high-pressure tournament depending on Joe Thornton to anchor the second line. I do not like the prospect of going into a game against the Russians with Volchenkov matched up against Crosby and the team needing Thornton to step up. Here’s hoping that Getlaf and Perry can break through against that KHL third pairing.
seems like goaltending is really gonna matter. Who is the #1 goalie for Canada? Luongo or Brodeur? And doesn’t M-A Fleury need to play at least 1minute to be eligible for a medal? I thought the Norwegian goalie was good in the first period and was worried Canada was gonna suck balls. Luckily they proved me wrong enough that I could change channels and watch Lost and not worry that we were gonna lose.
I don’t think there is an official #1, though everyone believes it’s Brodeur. Babcock has pretty much said that he gave Luongo this start out of courtesy (it is his home ice), but Marty starts the next one, and he’ll make his decision after that. I’d be surprised if they don’t toss Fleury in there for at least one period in a later game, just to be sure to include him.
That game did start out slowly - I couldn’t believe it was 0-0 after the first. But it seems Norway gave it their all for 20mins, and after that the Canadians just steamrolled them.
Two things I loved:
the RDS announcers twice misspoke and called them the Canadiens…which my husband and I were doing all night!
The goal song is Olé, Olé, Olé, which didn’t really help cure us of our tendency to engage in 1) above, and must kind of annoy the players, especially since none of them are Habs.
Go Canada Go!
the Canadiens as in the habs? I heard the CTV commentators say the Canadians but I was thinking of the Canadiens. I think the better phrase would be Team Canada or L’equip Canada or however you say it en francais.
Not if most teams are below 8.33%, as is in fact the case under my little prediction system. It’s not an even spread.
When you have a legitimately dominant squad like Canada, and a hell of a team in Russia, I’d say a 1 in 20 shot at gold - just at gold, mind you, but obviously a much better shot of winning any color of medal - is pretty good.
I didn’t watch it in English (I prefer hockey in French), but yeah, it was a definite Habs slip-up. These announcers do the calls for every single Habs game all season long, so certain phrases probably become second nature. Things like saying “les Canadiens auront la supériorité numérique” (The Canadiens will have a power play) and “J’aime bien comment le Canadien se comporte” (I really like the way the Canadien are handing things) get said all the time, and a couple of times they slipped up and said it tonight.
It isn’t really wrong in the first case since it’s how you’d refer to the nationality of the players, but in the second “le Canadien” refers to the NHL team. Officially it’s Équipe Canada, and most of the time, that is what they said. We just enjoyed hearing the Habs references. I think in English, there isn’t usually a distinction made between “Canadians” and “Canadiens”, although the French team name is actually pronounced differently.
Marc-Andre Fleury just needs to be dressed for one game. He doesn’t actually have to play one minute. Ed Belfour was the #3 goalie in Salt Lake; IIRC he only dressed for the second round robin game against Germany. Yet I believe he still got a medal.
nah, the way they pronounced “the Canadians” it sounded like “the Canadiens” to me. I thought that Team Canada would’ve been the “proper” way to address the Canadian team, since hearing “the Canadians” is obviously similar to the Habs. I guess it’s the way we perceive what’s being said. Whenever i hear the Montreal team being referred it’s usually with a more feminine sounding ending like “canadienne” with the ending a little more elongated with the “N” sound.
Just seeing the first goal by Iginla got me jumping and yelling. I was elated with that goal because I really thought the Norwegian goalie was gonna blank Canada after that terrible first period of no one shooting enough and no one really getting in his face.