I’m betting on Russia, myself. Their players seem inspired, they have the best goaltending left in the tournament and their offence is just unreal.
My final (and was before the whole canada fiasco) was Russia v. Sweden. These two teams really are similar and, frankly, I think you can flip a coin. Sure, individually, Russia has more spectacular players but watching Alfredsson and Sundin (see what he can do with players, Leafs) play together is a real pleasure. They’ve been my favorite team to watch so far.
They seem to be the sexy pick and they definately play well as a team at a very high pace but there goaltending isn’t that great. They’ve been getting goaltending out of Niittimaki that I just dont’ think he can sustain. I also think the overall talent on Sweden and Russia is better. We’ll see…it’d hardly be an upset if they did win.
Then’s what’s the point of being a Cubs’ fan? 
I don’t see why not, it’s just two more games. It’s not like the Stanley Cup playoffs where you can ride a hot goalie for only so long, usually. And he isn’t a stiff.
I just don’t think Finland, and specifically Niittymaki will be able to withstand Russia’s offence. Russia has put up some big offensive numbers and has shown they can play good team defence if need be. I think Niittymaki will let in one weak goal (and a few good ones) and Finland won’t be able to overcome it.
Yeah, and it is hard to feel sorry for a bunch of millionaires.
How many times did Team Canada come up to the red line, dump the puck in, and go for a line change? All in all, a darn poor effort. Put Don Cherry in charge next time.
Good god no! If they actually did do this, I’d renounce my citizenship and move somewhere warm. That guy is an idiot of the highest calibre. Seriously.
On a related note: what in his history has Pat Quinn ever done to deserve the accolades he gets in the hockey world? He’s a suck-ass coach and useless GM, so why, why, why, why, why with all the quality hockey coaches in Canada is he in charge? Can someone answer this for me, because I just don’t get it.
Don Cherry in charge would only make this team even worse. He’d put more physical power forwards and more immobile defensemen on the team so the game could be played the “Canadian” way. i.e. More players like Bertuzzi and Pronger. We saw how well that worked. Finesse is a word foreign to Don’s vocabulary.
He’s a relic. It’s good that he’s kept contained inside the CBC’s studios so he can’t do any real damage to Canadian hockey.
You may be right, but the Finns have had the stingiest defense to date in the tournament and Kazakhstan managed to hold the Russians to a single goal. Nittymaki was the AHL playoff MVP last year. I expecvt a good game and really see it as a coin flip as to who will win and probably play the Swedes.
Well we know either Finland or Russia will play Sweden. With the exception of a one minute span in the middle of the second period, they sure did look good.
Looks like it’s going to be a Finland/Sweden final. The Finns have really surprised me in this tournament. They’re a team that’s greater than the sum of their parts.
You and me both. I thought Russia would play a much smarter game but they seemed to play right into the fins hands all night. Lets hope that Sweden learned a thing or two from that game. I want them to bust that trap wide open! (but they need to be careful doing it)
Canada did poorly.
The USA did poorly.
So how is the NHL blameless? The League insisted that players could not be released to the Olympics until they had played that final week-end’s games – after the Olympics had started! The American and Canadian teams never gelled? Quel surprise!
Oh come on, all the teams actually in contention are mostly NHLers. The Fins and Swedes appear to have gelled without too many hitches. I would agree that the thrown-together nature of the teams greatly diminishes the quality of the hockey, though.
Sometimes serendipity just insists on popping up.
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Are they looking for replacements already? :eek:
The Swiss coach was saying on the news that because of last year’s NHL lock-out and the fact that several pros played in Switzerland, one of the side effect was that the Swiss loss some of their awe of Canadian players.