GDT: Gold Medal Game | Canada vs. Russia

[CoachBadkitten]

Russia will likely have to figure out how to score when a Philadelphia Flyers Centerman is on the ice 5v5 to win...

something all the other teams have not really been able to do. Couturier has not been on ice for a goal against yet and Giroux has been out for one... and those two have arguably had the toughest matchups. (generally playing vs top sixes.)

Shows you just how much the Flyers D sucks...

hey now, let's give some credit to the incredible defensive LW on Giroux's line too

 

[Villert]

WTF is this actually true?

Apparently so. Not listed on any of the channel guides. That's some serious bull from TSN. What a disgrace if so.

 

[Lim Ran]

Well for some reason TSN 3 which services Manitoba had decided to show NASCAR instead of the game.

lol quoi

 

[Makar Goes Fast]

Apparently so. Not listed on any of the channel guides. That's some serious bull from TSN. What a disgrace if so.

man thats brutal, i dont know much about nascar but I can see manitoba liking nascar over this

Edit: according to TSN.ca only tsn2 is showing nascar over the game, not sure what region tsn2 is.

 

[Back in Black]

Is puck drop 230 or is 230 just pregame hype and puck drop at 3?

2:00 PM pre-game show. 2:30ish puck drop. Could actually be 2:45 puck drop

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Yeah Canada kind of has to outshoot Russia by at least a 2:1 margin to win because of the goaltending discrepancy. Should be a close game.

Smith has been actually pretty solid in WC and last 20 games of NHL regular season. He's in good form. Not huge edge for Russia there.

 

[Appleyard]

hey now, let's give some credit to the incredible defensive LW on Giroux's line too

Yep, he has been great as well.

The end of last game showed just who McLellan trusted the most of the defensive side of the puck... ROR-Giroux-Couturier as a line in those last 5 minutes was awesome to watch defensively.

 

[Back in Black]

Agreed. Every year it's the same thing. Take their time for the round robin, then this rushed nonsense for the final.

It's not that hard to understand. TV ratings, and more importantly people can attend and/or watch the important games on weekends.

 

[Stats01]

Smith has been actually pretty solid in WC and last 20 games of NHL regular season. He's in good form. Not huge edge for Russia there.

Still...you never know with him, he could randomly have a terrible game today. He gives up some of the weirdest goals.

 

[Beau Knows]

Should be fun.

 

[Yakushev72]

No, I'm factually right, since I actually bothered to check what you said. The American team gelled pretty well seemingly, but nothing like the Soviets and the talent level was less than even a single NHL team. Their captain plays on the fourth line of the Edmonton Oilers. Enough said.



Not really amazing considering the low level of teams in this tournament. Russia has by my count 10 of its Olympic players. Finishing third in its group, beating Sweden (4 Olympic players) and USA (0 Olympic players, several amateur players) doesn't strike me as amazing. As usual, Russia takes this tournament more seriously than other nations and sends much closer to its optimal team than other nations do. It's lucky for Russia that they did at least, since they have a solid chance to win today. Clearly as you say the depth isn't there otherwise.

There are 8 members of the Sochi Olympic team playing for Russia, and 4 playing for Canada. But on the Canadian roster, several current members were prominent candidates for Sochi who weren't selected for no obvious reason - Spezza, Seguin, Giroux, Couturier and even Taylor Hall. I even saw more than one opinion that MacKinnon should have been on the team. So its not as if the Canadian roster isn't Olympic caliber compared to other entrants.

The Russian team is predominantly KHL, so most Western observers have no idea who they are. Because of injury, they have about 8 guys who are less suitable than the guys they replaced, and that will obviously be an obstacle to fight against. I hope they have a good game and acquit themselves well. Everybody expects them to lose by a wide margin, which in effect gives them nothing to lose.

In regard to the USA, my opinion was that they were the best organized, coordinated and synchronized, which explains the success they had, but in no way would I suggest the quality of their play was comparable to the Soviet Olympic teams - only Soviet-like in team play.

 

[zorz]

 

[cska78]

Look at Russias roster ofcourse its going to be close its basically their best on best team without Voynov, Kucherov and Kuzenetsov.

Anyone that thinks this is an easy W should start watching a new sport.

Good thing the idiotic NHL scheduled both playoff games this weekend at the exact same time as the World Championship games. I swear whoever makes the schedule might be mentally handicapped.

Simply not true: Tyutin, Emelin, Denisov, Zaitsev, Biryukov, Medvedev, Nikitin, Zadorov, Markov on D
Radulov, Zaripov, Yakupov on O at the least.

We don't have nearly the depth Canada has, but this is NOT quite an A team you are claiming it to be.

 

[RobertR]

Lets hope for another miracle on the ice.

 

[HabsandSmokies]

Lets hope for another miracle on the ice.

The only miracle will be if Canada scores less than 10 goals!

 

[RobertR]

The only miracle will be if Canada scores less than 10 goals!

10:11 it is then

 

[Novak Djokovic]

Quite nervous. It seems like all Russian forwards are excellent at cutting to the middle of the ice, and letting that quick wrister/snap shot go above the goalie's shoulders. Smith is going to have to be good.

 

[Sharppi]

Lets go hockey!

 

[Rectify]

This is on NBC Sports correct? It's on my channel guide.

 

[Chimpradamus]

I'm so excited for this game as a hockey fan. Both teams were the best in the tournament, no doubt about it. The number of quality players is through the roof. I'm hoping for a classic.

They're pretty much even offensively when Russia added Ovechkin, maybe a small edge to Canada for better depth. Defensively Canada has been more consistent and have the better players. In goaltending I give the edge to Russia, Bobrovsky is a little bit more solid than Smith.

Overall? Canada wins this 60/40.

 

[m4tt145]

I love that this game is played on the big ice, rather than the small. I think it will make it much better.

 

[Snippit]

Any links to English streams?

 

[Snippit]

By the way, it's BS that it's basically the same time as Chicago/Anaheim...

 

[bert]

Russia will likely have to figure out how to score when a Philadelphia Flyers Centerman is on the ice 5v5 to win...

something all the other teams have not really been able to do. Couturier has not been on ice for a goal against yet and Giroux has been out for one... and those two have arguably had the toughest matchups. (generally playing vs top sixes.)

Shows you just how much the Flyers D sucks...

Or how good the entire team is.

 

[Novak Djokovic]

By the way, it's BS that it's basically the same time as Chicago/Anaheim...

It's not the IIHF's fault. NHL knew about it, and still scheduled it at that time... probably because of NBC.