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PGT: 9/14 - Exhibition: Team Europe 6 Sweden 2

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Here's my grades of last night's embarrassment.


Sweden's grades.

Out of 5.


H.Sedin ***
D.Sedin ***
Eriksson ***
Hörnqvist *
Bäckström **
Forsberg **
Landeskog *
Söderberg *
Berglund *
Hagelin **
Backlund *
Silfverberg **

Ekholm *
Karlsson ***
Hedman ***
Strålman *
OEL *
Hjalmarsson *

Lundqvist -
 
Hard to believe they beat Sweden that bad. I haven't caught any Sweden games, do they not look that great or what?
 
Draisaitl was extremely impressive.

Kopitar and a hot Draisaitl is going to be a handful for any defense in this tourney. They just need to use their older defense wisely.
 
hockeyisforeveryone said:
A team assembled of 8 countries should have a great advantage.
Click to expand...

What?
It's the worst possible position to be in. First, the big advantage of playing for your country is gone, that takes away the little bit of extra effort by the players. Second, there is next to no familiarity between the players. National teams usually play a certain style, and pretty much all the players in the World Cup have played for their nation to some extend in the recent past, which means they know how to play and what to expect from the others, even if they haven't played with all teammates before. Team Europe is a mix of drastically different playing styles, with no experience of playing together as a team, simply because there never has been such a team before.

You could say that eight countries should be able to offer more talent than a single one, but that isn't really true for these circumstances, and it ignores that all the pieces have to fit together, as too many cooks spoil the soup.
 
Sanderson said:
What?
It's the worst possible position to be in. First, the big advantage of playing for your country is gone, that takes away the little bit of extra effort by the players. Second, there is next to no familiarity between the players. National teams usually play a certain style, and pretty much all the players in the World Cup have played for their nation to some extend in the recent past, which means they know how to play and what to expect from the others, even if they haven't played with all teammates before. Team Europe is a mix of drastically different playing styles, with no experience of playing together as a team, simply because there never has been such a team before.

You could say that eight countries should be able to offer more talent than a single one, but that isn't really true for these circumstances, and it ignores that all the pieces have to fit together, as too many cooks spoil the soup.
Click to expand...

Actually, it is true mainly when talking about countries outside European top4. Of course, this team will never match the level of effort which would have been made by these players playing for their respective national teams, but these individual countries would never even come close to beating Sweden 6:2, albeit jet-lagged and with mediocre Lundqvist.
 
Karl Eriksson said:
With their D and Hank, no excuse for this kind of performance from Sweden. Yikes.

Who dominated for Europe other than Drai?
Click to expand...

Drai was totally invisible aside from those three spurts where he scored. Three goals could be viewed as a dominant outing, but it also means that he was dominant for a combined 15 seconds.

Best Euros were Halak (by far), Josi and Kopitar.
 
Sanderson said:
What?
It's the worst possible position to be in. First, the big advantage of playing for your country is gone, that takes away the little bit of extra effort by the players. Second, there is next to no familiarity between the players. National teams usually play a certain style, and pretty much all the players in the World Cup have played for their nation to some extend in the recent past, which means they know how to play and what to expect from the others, even if they haven't played with all teammates before. Team Europe is a mix of drastically different playing styles, with no experience of playing together as a team, simply because there never has been such a team before.

You could say that eight countries should be able to offer more talent than a single one, but that isn't really true for these circumstances, and it ignores that all the pieces have to fit together, as too many cooks spoil the soup.
Click to expand...

I am not the arguing type so I'll just state what I think and be done with it (so free lunch for your ego to smash me after this :) ) .

I think there is some pieces of truth in what you say, on the other hand I think there is another argument which can be made and that is stronger than those you put forward :

These are players used to playing in the NHL and they are used to switching teams, playing for a symbol that isn't holy:
Like "Donald Duck " when the play for Anaheim :)

I think it all comes down to that they are true professionals that love to play and probably would be absolutely fine with beating Sweden, Canada or any other hockey imperium even if it's with an "EU" symbol on their chest ...

They could be holding back in their NHL clubs too, but I don't think so, even if the argument could be made that they play with those guys all the time ...

I think that they were indeed motivated to play Sweden and they won fair and square ... This day they were in fact the better team and not because Sweden had jet lag or wasn't motivated ...

It's not a bad team on paper, their salary cap is just below Swedens and higher than teams like Czechs and Finland ...

I think they love the game and will love to upset by eliminating USA or Canada , even if I think it will be hard ...

But as true sportsmen they will indeed give Canada and USA a run for their money. For most of these guys it might be the only chance to win a "best- on-best" tournament ...
(or close to a "best-on-best" at least - I've seen the poll on that on this board :) )
 
ulvvf said:
Karlsson and sedin line good as always, Forsberg had some flashes, but overall this team is in bad shape. Not having players like Klingberg on the team is a huge mistake. But it is even more about how bad the forwards are. I think it will be as in the olympics, a few individuals have to do it and we have to hope for a good PP and many PP.

But the result do not really represent how the game looked.
Click to expand...

With having arguably the best D corp, I don't thing its a HUGE mistake that Klingberg is not there. They already have Karlsson and OEL playing the offensive defensemen game.
 
Cogsbreakaway said:
Drai was totally invisible aside from those three spurts where he scored. Three goals could be viewed as a dominant outing, but it also means that he was dominant for a combined 15 seconds.

Best Euros were Halak (by far), Josi and Kopitar.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you expect with so little ice time. He played 4th line minutes (2nd last TOI?) and also if look at the shot pressure charts most of the Europe SAs happened in the 3rd with a large lead.

https://mobile.twitter.com/IneffectiveMath/status/776235287798308868/photo/1

https://mobile.twitter.com/IneffectiveMath/status/776234413378142208/photo/1
 
Cogsbreakaway said:
Drai was totally invisible aside from those three spurts where he scored. Three goals could be viewed as a dominant outing, but it also means that he was dominant for a combined 15 seconds.

Best Euros were Halak (by far), Josi and Kopitar.
Click to expand...

I don't even :dunno:.
 
So, do people still think Drai is going to struggle without Hall? As long as Klefbom is healthy, he's going to be fine. Even without Klefbom, he'll still produce, just not quite as much.
 
Cogsbreakaway said:
Drai was totally invisible aside from those three spurts where he scored. Three goals could be viewed as a dominant outing, but it also means that he was dominant for a combined 15 seconds.

Best Euros were Halak (by far), Josi and Kopitar.
Click to expand...

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

That is exactly what you would call it.

And the shots against were largely score effects. Sweden was also doing it's best to match up the Sedins with Draisaitl so in his limited ice time yes he was outshot but he outscored their best line.

The D he walked on his beauty goal was Ekholm who isn't exactly a scrub.

So no idea where you are getting "invisible" from. If a 4th liner manages a hat trick in limited minutes that is a damn good showing.
 
It shouldnt be a suprise to anyone that Europe is going to get better. They didnt have a training camp and are the oldest team in the tournament.

I was suprised by this result though, Lundqvist has gotta get off his goal line. He is so deep in his net, his reflexes and reaction time are obviously dissapaiting at this point. He needs to challenge more or his career might not have much time left.
 
Sweden clearly played on 30%, there is no way such an unmotivated group of players that have no national pride could beat them by 4 goals. :sarcasm:
 
So Mikkel Bödker's track record for the past season:

Stupid and lazy play with Coyotes especially on PP, causing numerous shorthanded goals.

Stupid and lazy play with Denmark at olympics qualifiers, causing 2 crucial goals against in a crucial game.

Stupid and lazy play with Team Europe leads into him getting benched after playing on the first line next to Anze Kopitar.



Looking good for Sharks...
 
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