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GDT: Group A • Feb. 13 • Russia vs. Slovenia

I am amazed by the contrast of our offensive and defensive talent. I wish we had an extra pair of quality shutdown D-men. A lot of things will have to go our way for us to win the gold. At this point, I think that getting a medal would be quite a good result.

The next game will show us where we stand.
 
Kap-the-Head said:
Wow, look at the freak out level on these boards. I, as a Russian, not worried. If you think that this is all Russia has to offer this tournament based on this game, then....
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haters gonna hate.
You can see that people are gloating at a possible loss of Russia.
Well, they are for a big surprise.
If Bill can get them to tighten up defensively, the US game will be a different beast.
Russia totally has the firepower to light up any goalie in the tournament.
 
kutskova said:
Did maxim chudinov get a look for defence. Seems like a decent shutdown guy.
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I believe that he was "on the bubble", but he never made the cut. He doesn't have much international games experience as well, so Bilyaletdinov didn't want to take the risk.

Our junior system simply has not been producing a lot of quality defenders lately. We have tons of great forwards as always, and our goaltending talent depth has vastly improved, but defense has been the Achilles' heel.
 
Sergei DRW said:
haters gonna hate.
You can see that people are gloating at a possible loss of Russia.
Well, they are for a big surprise.
If Bill can get them to tighten up defensively, the US game will be a different beast.
Russia totally has the firepower to light up any goalie in the tournament.
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I still think Russia will take the gold, that said I think the US will beat them on Sat. The US just seems light years ahead of other teams in terms of chemistry right now, their passes were mind blowing considering they've only been playing together for less than a week. I think they shoot out of the gates and potentially medal but other countries will catch up in chemistry. Russia seemed like they just had too many guys on different pages.
 
Skrudland2Lomakin said:
I still think Russia will take the gold, that said I think the US will beat them on Sat. The US just seems light years ahead of other teams in terms of chemistry right now, their passes were mind blowing considering they've only been playing together for less than a week. I think they shoot out of the gates and potentially medal but other countries will catch up in chemistry. Russia seemed like they just had too many guys on different pages.
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I would trade a loss to the US for a gold in a heartbeat. But if Russia loses on Saturday, it will most certainly NOT be seeded in the playoffs and will get a tougher matchup in the quarterfinals.

On the other hand, early adversity can sometimes play in favor. There's still time to get things right. Teams get an extra game to gel as well.
 
four years ago Canada lost to USA on the group stage and still managed to capture gold medal.



Russia can follow the same scenario
 
Didn't get to see the game. Did Pavel Datsyuk play? How did he look? I hope he tears it up this Olympics, but as a Wings fan I know he's pretty banged up.
 
if i check the lines i see semin up there didnt u all wrote him off what happened ? not that i dont like it xD
 
Sentinel said:
Datsyuk looked bad out there, except for the backchecking aspect. I sure as hell hope he improves.
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Yeah he had two typical, great backchecks, one on Kopitar who would have has a great scoring chance otherwise, but he still isn't skating like normal. He also looked fine on the PP when he had all kinds of time and space, but at even strength he's lost all of his quickness and burst. It's tough to watch. He's basically not even a puck carrier at even strength right now, which is telling considering that when he's 100% he's one of the best puck carriers in the world.
 
Awesome result for Slovenia considering what they were like 5 years ago.

Definitely one country to watch for because their development has been pretty damn impressive out of any country in Europe besides the likes of Germany, Latvia, and Suisse.
 
S E P H said:
Awesome result for Slovenia considering what they were like 5 years ago.

Definitely one country to watch for because their development has been pretty damn impressive out of any country in Europe besides the likes of Germany, Latvia, and Suisse.
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Im not so sure about that...Slovenian U20 team almost relegated from Div 1 and were only 1 point ahead of Poland that relegated
 
ViD said:
Im not so sure about that...Slovenian U20 team almost relegated from Div 1 and were only 1 point ahead of Poland that relegated
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Plus I believe the club that has traditionally developed a lot of Slovenia's talent has had financial issues in recent years. This could prove to be Slovenia's 'golden age' of hockey.
 
ViD said:
Im not so sure about that...Slovenian U20 team almost relegated from Div 1 and were only 1 point ahead of Poland that relegated
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You saying Russia sucks then?

With what Slovenia has to work with, they are a pretty impressive hockey country.
 
DatsyukianDeke said:
Didn't get to see the game. Did Pavel Datsyuk play? How did he look? I hope he tears it up this Olympics, but as a Wings fan I know he's pretty banged up.
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He was moving slowly and gingerly, not very effective. I hope they sit him these next two games, keep him healthy for when they need him.
 
ViD said:
Im not so sure about that...Slovenian U20 team almost relegated from Div 1 and were only 1 point ahead of Poland that relegated
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Slovenian NT will play on thair current level for at least next 5 years, maybe couple more years because of the age of our most important players (they are mostly around 25, 26). After that it will be hard...
 
Firsov99 said:
I am amazed by the contrast of our offensive and defensive talent. I wish we had an extra pair of quality shutdown D-men. A lot of things will have to go our way for us to win the gold. At this point, I think that getting a medal would be quite a good result.

The next game will show us where we stand.
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It seems to me that the FHR needs to launch some kind of project to correct the problem that you so accurately describe about the D men. It is a problem when so many talented forwards are offset and cancelled out by so few decent defensemen. The system is failing when that type of imbalance exists.
 
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