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After Canada who is the top hockey nation?

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Dellstrom said:
What's bigger?

American Football? Self explanatory. Basketball? Ha. MLB is a little more diverse but 75% of the players are from the US. In any of those sports the US wins in a landslide.

Only sport I can think of is Soccer, obviously... Unless I'm missing a sport.
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Baseball and Basketball are way more global of sports than Ice Hockey. Basketball is played pretty much everywhere. Baseball is huge in Latin America, Asia, and North America. Other sports like Volleyball and even things like Handball, Cricket, and Rugby (only counting team sports) are more global.

You have to include Field Hockey into the definition of Hockey in order for it to get so much as a passing reference. It's non-existent in half of the United States and we're the 2nd 3rd or 4th biggest hockey nation in the world...
 
Future:

1. Canada
2. USA, Sweden
3. Finland, Russia
4. Czech
5. Switzerland
6. Slovakia, Latvia, Germany, Denmark
7. The rest
 
Russia. No disrespect to Sweden, USA, Czechs, Finland or Slovakia which are also great hockey nations IMO but watching Canada-Russia will always be something else. And I am neither Canadian nor Russian.
 
Russia is 4-6 about same level as Czech ..far from Can Swe Usa they just dont have enough talented skilled player's thats problem for them
 
After Canada?

I get that we're good, but the states are and have been pretty much on par competitively and developmentally for quite a few years now. 'Tis why the most tense games in the olympics are always against our neighbours.

Canada/USA
Sweden/Russia/Finland
Czech Republic/Slovakia
Switzerland
 
Whoever says Canada isnt the clear number 1 right now is out to lunch...... The 2014 team may have been the best if not one of the best teams ever assembled. In the best vs best era Canada has simply dominated everyone else.
 
I love how statistically, Finland is the clear #2.

However, they continue to be ranked at #5 by those "in the know". :) :)

That is the beauty of Finland. They will always be the underdog, and continue to win.

Was great watching Finland knock the US out of the metals during the last Olympics....putting the Finns #3rd.

Of course, the Finns won the gold in the 2014 U20 championships.

In fact, when was the last recent time the Yanks beat the Finns? U20 or professional?

Truthfully, no, the Finns aren't ahead of Sweden.

But saying the Yanks are better than the Finns, especially as it relates to actual statistics, is laughable.
 
Mikeyg said:
Whoever says Canada isnt the clear number 1 right now is out to lunch...... The 2014 team may have been the best if not one of the best teams ever assembled. In the best vs best era Canada has simply dominated everyone else.
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Has somebody said that Canada aint number 1 at the moment?

Price is the best goaltender in the world and they have by far the best defence. Also nobody can't match their centers. Not even close.
 
Quality McOil said:
After Canada?

I get that we're good, but the states are and have been pretty much on par competitively and developmentally for quite a few years now. 'Tis why the most tense games in the olympics are always against our neighbours.

Canada/USA
Sweden/Russia/Finland
Czech Republic/Slovakia
Switzerland
Click to expand...


WTF? Bud...until the U.S actually does something on the world stage they aren't even close to Canada. Developmentally sure..but Olympic games are always tense against anybody.... that has no value towards the U.S. And being competitive against us once again means nothing. Until they win something and bear some fruit in important tournaments you can talk until you're blue in the face about how competitive they are and how their development program is doing. Canada has owned the Olympics, they're defending Junior champs, and they won the World Championship. No one is close

It's..Canada and then........................................U.S, Sweden, Russia, Finland and so forth

You and some American posters will probably come in here and dispute what I'm saying and say I'm just being biased, but there is a difference between being biased and being honest. Honesty hurts sometimes and for that well...I would apologize but hey just deal with it.

Year after year we get these warnings of the impending take over of hockey by the big and bad U.S but tournament after tournament they usually finish weak. They get knocked out by the Finns early in the Olympics while we dominate Sweden on our way to gold. In the WC we smash every single team we play while the U.S got their bronze. Good for them, they finally medalled
 
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Stats01 said:
WTF? Bud...until the U.S actually does something on the world stage they aren't even close to Canada. Developmentally sure..but Olympic games are always tense against anybody.... that has no value towards the U.S. And being competitive against us once again means nothing. Until they win something and bear some fruit in important tournaments you can talk until you're blue in the face about how competitive they are and how their development program is doing. Canada has owned the Olympics, they're defending Junior champs, and they won the World Championship. No one is close

It's..Canada and then........................................U.S, Sweden, Russia, Finland and so forth

You and some American posters will probably come in here and dispute what I'm saying and say I'm just being biased, but there is a difference between being biased and being honest. Honesty hurts sometimes and for that well...I would apologize but hey just deal with it.

Year after year we get these warnings of the impending take over of hockey by the big and bad U.S but tournament after tournament they usually finish weak. They get knocked out by the Finns early in the Olympics while we dominate Sweden on our way to gold. In the WC we smash every single team we play while the U.S got their bronze. Good for them, they finally medalled
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We win games against them 1-0 and 2-1 in overtime in the semis and gold medal games. No other teams even compete against Canada aside from the US for the most part.

You're completely out to lunch.
 
Canadian Finn said:
I love how statistically, Finland is the clear #2.

However, they continue to be ranked at #5 by those "in the know". :) :)
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I think quality and depth of players in the NHL holds more weight than Finland's performances in single-game elimination.

They always play a great game and work well together in international tournaments, but I don't think that alone elevates them over the likes of USA, SWE, RUS as a hockey nation.

Really depends how much weight you place on certain factors.
 
Stats01 said:
WTF? Bud...until the U.S actually does something on the world stage they aren't even close to Canada. Developmentally sure..but Olympic games are always tense against anybody.... that has no value towards the U.S. And being competitive against us once again means nothing. Until they win something and bear some fruit in important tournaments you can talk until you're blue in the face about how competitive they are and how their development program is doing. Canada has owned the Olympics, they're defending Junior champs, and they won the World Championship. No one is close

It's..Canada and then........................................U.S, Sweden, Russia, Finland and so forth

You and some American posters will probably come in here and dispute what I'm saying and say I'm just being biased, but there is a difference between being biased and being honest. Honesty hurts sometimes and for that well...I would apologize but hey just deal with it.

Year after year we get these warnings of the impending take over of hockey by the big and bad U.S but tournament after tournament they usually finish weak. They get knocked out by the Finns early in the Olympics while we dominate Sweden on our way to gold. In the WC we smash every single team we play while the U.S got their bronze. Good for them, they finally medalled
Click to expand...

American progress is often overblown, but their recent trends are quite good. For instance, they've never produced prospects like Eichel and Matthews back to back, and this draft looks like the strongest ever for Americans. It's possible that USA is moving closer to Canada than to the rest.
 
Quality McOil said:
We win games against them 1-0 and 2-1 in overtime in the semis and gold medal games. No other teams even compete against Canada aside from the US for the most part.

You're completely out to lunch.
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To be fair, while the US put up an excellent fight in 2010 and gave Canada everything they could handle, they weren't very hard to beat at all in 2014. That game wasn't close, despite it being a 1-0 final score. Canada dominated that match in every way, and the US really only had one legitimate scoring chance, which came in the first five minutes. There was no moment in that game where it seemed like the US ever had a legitimate chance of winning. It was in stark contrast to the nail-biter that was the 2010 Gold Medal game.
 
AD1066 said:
I think quality and depth of players in the NHL holds more weight than Finland's performances in single-game elimination.

They always play a great game and work well together in international tournaments, but I don't think that alone elevates them over the likes of USA, SWE, RUS as a hockey nation.

Really depends how much weight you place on certain factors.
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Uh... Performance in international tournaments are the only objective empirical factor that matters. From a scientific standpoint Finland is above the USA.
 
Henri M said:
Uh... Performance in international tournaments are the only objective empirical factor that matters. From a scientific standpoint Finland is above the USA.
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the OP question could be answered better if everyone played each other in a best-of-seven series. I think Finland wouldn't beat US in that.
 
True Hockey Fan said:
the OP question could be answered better if everyone played each other in a best-of-seven series. I think Finland wouldn't beat US in that.
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Based on what? Names?

Out of how many top level competitions between these two countries have each of them won? You can find your answer there.
 
ikzu said:
Future:

1. Canada
2. USA, Sweden
3. Finland, Russia
4. Czech
5. Switzerland
6. Slovakia, Latvia, Germany, Denmark
7. The rest
Click to expand...

This is how I have them ranked as well with Sweden a little bit ahead of the states with their D and goaltending.
 
Henri M said:
Based on what? Names?

Out of how many top level competitions between these two countries have each of them won? You can find your answer there.
Click to expand...

Tournaments with single games is one thing but the US has too deep of a roster and would easily beat the Finns in a 7 game series, unless a goaltender stood on his head and "stole" a series.
 
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