Even the best NHL player can make a mistake, so if a kid who's 18 makes one it doesn't bother me at all. As I said, Solberg played very well in that game, and won the IIHF best player reward.
Did I watch the game? Yes, I was there. I've been inside Norwegian hockey for many years, so unlike you, I know what I'm talking about.
MBN and Solberg will be fine. And there are more talents on that team, Lafton who was picked by Utah looks really good. Others who look promising are Vatne, Eriksen and Aaram Olsen.
I know a lot of fans are disappointed after this tournament, thinking Norway was one of the favorites to win the group with two 1st round picks on the team and all. But it isn't that easy. This time there wasn't enough chemistry, too many one man efforts. You can blame parts of that on the coaching staff, but the talents are there.
They also lack discipline, most penalized team in the group. Or you can say at least they won the price for being the toughest team, right Stian? -)
You are all over the place.
1. "If a kid who's 18 makes one it doesn't bother me at all" - with all due respect, nobody cares if it bothers
you or not. If an NHL player makes mistakes and doesn't have a positive impact he probably didn't have a very good game. Same with these players in these games - they didn't play particularly well and it's somewhat ridiculous that you not only refuse to acknowledge it but insist on proving everyone otherwise.
2. "Won the IIHF best player reward" - IIHF best player awards are given by the coaches of the player's own team and the coach can have whatever agenda he wants. It's not surprising at all the coach felt Solberg, who played 3rd game in 3 days, deserved praise and appreciation for it. It's good when your star players feel noticed and appreciated. His drive was also admirable. It, however, doesn't say quite as much as you think it does about the quality of his play so you should probably stop repeating it as some end-all-be-all argument. Norway didn't have a myriad of choices either.
3. "So unlike you, I know what I'm talking about" - ah, good old personal attacks. Classy. It's funny, I wrote hundreds of posts on these boards in the threads of this level of tournament over the years (which is easy to tell from my posts, I'd say) and this is the first time I see you posting about the Norwegian team here or in the "Norwegian roster" thread. But sure, you are very invested and know all about it and others are clueless idiots because you say so.
4. "MBN and Solberg will be fine. And there are more talents on that team" - this was never part of the debate. But I guess you didn't bother following the discussion, your opinions are good enough for you as is. Nobody was questioning the talent of Norwegian players or their team. In fact, many people, me included are on the record multiple times about Norwegians being the favorites. That's why their play and results are so disappointing to begin with.
5. "You can blame parts of that on the coaching staff, but the talents are there" - again, that's what this discussion is all about. About you refusing to acknowledge that talents who are there yet did nothing share part of the blame. Buffalo Sabres or Ottawa Senators also have a lot of
talent. At some point, those underachieving
talented players are [also] responsible for never doing anything with it.
All in all, I truly don't even understand why are Norwegians collectively so insistent on defending their super talents who did not deliver. That's contextualized by 10+ years of data and dozens of comparable players. Nobody is calling them busts, or talentless, or terrible but they did not deliver.
