GDT: Gold Medal Game • Feb. 23 • Sweden vs. Canada • Part IV

[macavoy]

Price was 99% immaculate, wasn't he? I watched the replay of the Gold Medal game and there were more than one dangerous shot. Maybe you were opening your refrigerator door at the time. In the situations he faced he could have lost once and dashed Canada's hopes despite the team in front of him. Did that escape your notice? Sorry to catch you when your venom glands are already emptied but perhaps you'll refill them and tell us how Bobrovsky and Varlamov and Halak and Rask and Lundqvist and all the others were better.

Price was a sive

 

[Ivan13]

Is anybody talking about Gabriel Landeskog?

I feel like he was completely invisible these Olympics. Anyone else feel the same way?

He hit, forechecked, backchecked and provided pretty good defense, but he wasn't very noticeable on the offensive end, his game isn't a good fit for team Sweden and the big ice.

 

[rajot]

Backström or not, Canada was way too strong. If we would have all our centers available maaaybeee the game would have been a bit closer but Canada would have won anyways. There are something like 10 times more hockey players in Canada so goes without saying that they should have a way better selection of players!

 

[JeremyTB]

this team's best competition would have come from a 2nd Canada team. That's how much depth they have.

 

[DatsyukianDeke*]

He came off as an arrogant ***** honestly. But whatever, they won so he can do whatever he wants.

You have no idea the media in Canada. If you want to give yourself a few laughs look for some videos on Sportsnet youtube account. Most analysts on that show (Millar and MacLean - two idiots) were saying Canada would finish 5th in this tournament. What Babcock did was dedicated right to guys like them.

 

[LaGu]

this team's best competition would have come from a 2nd Canada team. That's how much depth they have.

You mean the team Canada sent to the world championships?




(sorry, couldn't resist)

 

[Stats01]

Backström or not, Canada was way too strong. If we would have all our centers available maaaybeee the game would have been a bit closer but Canada would have won anyways. There are something like 10 times more hockey players in Canada so goes without saying that they should have a way better selection of players!

What we do mean we should have a better selection of players, we already do lol. The amazing part is that we'll have MacKinnon and possibly McDavid available in 2018 if the NHL participates. It's almost unfair.

2018 roster: Tavares, Crosby, Toews, MacKinnon, Stamkos, Duchene, RNH, Hall, Giroux (McDavid possibly), Doughty, Subban, Weber, Pietrangelo, Vlasic, Price, etc.. too good!

With the way hockey participation numbers are going, USA and Canada are going to start pulling away in terms of depth and overall skill. Countries like Czech Republic, Russia etc are going to start struggling a bit IMO. Having around 70,000 organized hockey players compared to 600,000 is a massive difference.

I'm not worried now but we have to start developing some goalies soon. Price is in prime time form and by the time 2018 hits, he's going to be around 30 so we're going to need a new line of goalies after that.

 

[RorschachWJK]

Johnny T is an absolute legend! Great player with a fantastic attitude

Big fan of Patrice Bergeron and he also has some awards on his resume!

2004 IIHF World Ice Hockey Championships: World Ice Hockey gold
2005 IIHF World U20 Championships: World Ice Hockey gold, MVP, and All-Star Team
2010 Winter Olympics: Olympic gold
2010–11: won Stanley Cup with Boston Bruins (Bergeron became 26th member of the Triple Gold Club)
2011–12: led the league in plus-minus
2011–12: won Frank J. Selke Trophy
2012 Spengler Cup: won with Team Canada
2012–13: won King Clancy Memorial Trophy
2014 Winter Olympics: Olympic gold

One of these achievements does not belong...

 

[RorschachWJK]

Congrats to Canada for the gold!

 

[YWGinYYZ]

Congrats to Canada for the gold!

Congrats to Finland for a great tournament. What a send off for Selänne in his final international tournament. Loved watching him when he was a Jet, and glad that he secured a medal with Finland.

 

[Teufelsdreck]

Price was a sive

The word is spelled sieve, a utensil whose openings are too small to permit the passage of an object as large as a hockey puck. It could pass though the five hole of Halak, your favorite one-trick pony.

 

[steveott]

Canada's "domination" are illusion

canada had best team for sure.
however.. margins werent so spectacular one may think.

sweden were good. they choked because of "case backstrom".
finns were good. OT loss to can.. bad showing against swedes.
USA were good too. finland was luckier and US finally gave up.

RUS had potential to win it all. just couldnt get it together.

the real difference between top 5 nations are slim.
the real difference between top 50 players are nonexistent.

drew doughty and the rest of canada's D made the differene here.

 

[McGuillicuddy]

Hope that makes you feel better.

 

[PensBandwagonerNo272*]

3 goals against in 6 games is the definition of "domination".

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

lol. Almost all those games if replayed could have been 4-0 or 5-0. Lots of variance that kept the games closer than they should have.

Best stat from the game vs Sweden, there was a 27 minute stretch where Sweden had no scoring chances, not one. Can you imagine how dominant you have to be for that?

Also giving up 1 goal in all the medal round? I'll let that sit with you for a minute...

 

[Reclamation Project]

All excuses.

 

[Goon42]

such is life in sochi

 

[Davebo*]

canada had best team for sure.

Thanks! I tend to agree

The rest of your post is nonsense, and I couldn't in all good judgment repeat it in a quote. I feel dumber having read it once already...

 

[jboknows]

canada had best team for sure.
however.. margins werent so spectacular one may think.

sweden were good. they choked because of "case backstrom".
finns were good. OT loss to can.. bad showing against swedes.
USA were good too. finland was luckier and US finally gave up.

RUS had potential to win it all. just couldnt get it together.

the real difference between top 5 nations are slim.
the real difference between top 50 players are nonexistent.

drew doughty and the rest of canada's D made the differene here.

Did you watch them play? The score margins weren't there, you're right... but as far as most games went, Canada purely dominated the games. Many of those games were saved from being huge margins by unreal goaltending and a lot of posts being hit. This team, without Tavares and Stamkos, was incredible.

 

[CaptainCanuck19]

Yes, out shooting every opponent, having 60+ more shots than the next highest shooting team, and never trailing for a single second in the entire tournament.

What a bunch of hacks.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

Maybe it's a Canadian media bias, but I have now read 3-4 pieces that describe the 1-0 CAN win over USA as one of the mot lopsided 1-0 wins ever.

That's probably hyperbole, but it's got a core of truth.

The aggregate margins of victory might not have been huge, but Canada played in a dominating way when the chips were down.

Also, how does Backstrom being out make Canada's performance less dominant ? It was what it was. They dominated the Backstrom-less Sweden team.

 

[steveott]

Yes, out shooting every opponent, having 60+ more shots than the next highest shooting team, and never trailing for a single second in the entire tournament.

What a bunch of hacks.

czechs are having rough times.
swedes did lost some better guys. case backstron was a disaster.
finns lost every gamebreaker except temu.
88 took too much of a role. better find some yellowcab drivers...

whatever.. as i told canada was best. margins are still slimmer that people wanna think.

 

[Jeti]

Of course, single-game elimination and an inability to finish their chances as much as they should have meant they could have lost off a bad bounce/call - any of the other top teams could have won, but they didn't.

I wish they tracked time of possession in each zone so we could quantize just how much Canada controlled the play at the other end. It certainly passed the eye test for "domination".

 

[member 145483]

The data on scoring chances is even more stark:

Canada 26, Sweden 7;

Canada 22, U.S. 14;

Canada 30, Latvia, 10;

Canada 16, Finland 5;

Canada 35, Austria 12;

Canada 24, Norway 5.

Overall, Canada had 100 more scoring chances than its Sochi opponents, 153 to 53. Against its three strongest opponents, Canada had 64 scoring chances and gave up just 26.

http://www.canada.com/olympics/news...more-scoring-chances-than-its-sochi-opponents

 

[Wisp]

I think Finland and Sweden have very competitive teams - credit to their hockey programs and ability to develop elite talent given their more limited resources. They're good enough to beat Canada when they're healthy, but their talent pool isn't deep enough to cope with injuries like Canada can.

Canada can replace Tavares and Stamkos with little-to-no drop-off. Finland and Sweden suffered similar losses to their top offensive players, but are unable to replace them in the same way.

For all the ridicule I gave 'We could field a B-Team talk,' and it not mattering... that insanely deep Canadian talent pool was a feature that helped Canada win.