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It's time: Predict the winner, Torino 2006

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oh, I had no intention of bringing up memories of that... :sarcasm:


sorry


feel free to add any reference to Belarous at my expense...
 
DayWalk3r said:
:amazed: :confused: :amazed: :eek:
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What??

You do realize that Canada was hanging on for dear life versus the Finns in 2002. The Finns were controlling the play in the third period of that game.
Finland is very underrated, they are a good gritty team with great goaltending.
 
Canada 550 000 hockey players vs. 70 000 Czech and 75 000 Russia so it's normal Canada has more "depth" but that wasn't the case really for most of the 90's...And for the last 10-15 years the very best players were Jagr-Forsberg-Bure !!! Canada will stumble in the 1/4 finals. This time no Belarus to give them the gold medal on a silver plate!!! As Always it will be Russia Czech final and Usa for Bronze
 
You're just trying to unjinx the only real hockey super power.

Truth be told, Canada will once again show who's everyone's hockey daddy!

If Canada doesn't win this it must be a result of harsh injustice from the zebras or some freak accident such as widespread illness throughout the entire Canadian team. I bet they could win it icing 15 healthy skaters, though.
 
And don't forget Canada have 90%+ of their triumphs in hockey coming in North America when they're at home and using canadian "nhl" referees. When the tournament is outside they tend to play not that well. Remember Nagano 1998 when they didn't even step on the podium and they got a hockey lesson from the Czechs. Remenber last year world championsip when everybody had almost their real A line up. Canada plays the Czech on the 21st for first place in the group and then on the 22nd in the 1/4 vs. a tough opponent. Starting there anything can happen, and this time Belarus isn't there to open their road to Gold !!!2002= Terrible Lost to Sweden , tie with the Czech and didn't play Russia. They played in the knockout : weak Finland team, still drunk partying Belarus guys and an average Usa team with an old Richter clearly past his prime. An Ugly Win is still a Win ok but this time if they win it will be far sweeter and deserving than last time ! It's the Tie Breaker now Czech-Rus (98) Can-Usa(02) now let's see who the real champs are.
 
kidhander said:
I can't disagree more with you, sorry to say that. In hockey and in any other sport wins the team who puts more pucks into the other net, not who hits more...and however...su is Su-33 not 37 and he's all offense even if he works very hard. Korolyuk plays well in PK but more because of his speed than his defense. Malkin is not good in defense but he's smart and can be useful in shorthand situations
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Dude, I would be happy that I'm wrong and my Russia will win the gold. I would love that. And since I haven't been able to see Su-33 (got mixed up with the fighter, Su-37 - my bad) or Malkin in action, I can't really say how they'll perform. But I'll take your word for it.
 
Pushkin said:
And don't forget Canada have 90%+ of their triumphs in hockey coming in North America when they're at home and using canadian "nhl" referees. When the tournament is outside they tend to play not that well. Remember Nagano 1998 when they didn't even step on the podium and they got a hockey lesson from the Czechs. Remenber last year world championsip when everybody had almost their real A line up. Canada plays the Czech on the 21st for first place in the group and then on the 22nd in the 1/4 vs. a tough opponent. Starting there anything can happen, and this time Belarus isn't there to open their road to Gold !!!2002= Terrible Lost to Sweden , tie with the Czech and didn't play Russia. They played in the knockout : weak Finland team, still drunk partying Belarus guys and an average Usa team with an old Richter clearly past his prime. An Ugly Win is still a Win ok but this time if they win it will be far sweeter and deserving than last time ! It's the Tie Breaker now Czech-Rus (98) Can-Usa(02) now let's see who the real champs are.
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A fan of revisionist history, aren't you?

A hockey lesson against the Czechs? You're talking about a game decided in the shootout? While it's true that the Czechs had a slight edge in play for the first 55 minutes of that game, Canada rallied in the last five minutes of regulation to tie the game, nearly won it in the final minute of regulation, and then dominated overtime. As for not winning a medal, Canada was so down after losing to the Czechs, they could have played the Kazakhs and lost. Gold was the only medal that counted.

Canada had a very strong line-up at last year's Worlds, but keep in mind they were without six of their 12 forwards at this Olympics (eight if you include Spezza and Nash) and several of their top defencemen. But the Czechs were missing Elias and several other key players, so it's a moot point. But Canada did win the Worlds in 2003 and 2004 with far from their best lineup. (No offence to the highly skilled Daniel Briere, but he's far from our best centre. He was the top pivot on both teams).

Also keep in mind that the 2002 team got better as the tournament progressed. They improved in every game of the round robin, including a tie vs. the Czechs, and had a distinct edge in play in the first 40 minutes against the Finns. Their best game, far and away, was against the Americans. If not for Mike Richter (named the tournament's top goalie), that would have been a very lopsided gold medal game. Then again, if not for Richter, the Americans don't beat the Russians in the semi-final. We don't know if Canada beats Sweden in a semi-final, but that Canadian entry was a much better team by the time the semi-final and especially the final rolled around. It certainly wouldn't hurt that Martin Brodeur was the goalie instead of Curtis Joseph.

Canada has savoured plenty of international success outside of North America. Four World titles in the past 12 tournaments, despite never icing their dream team. They are the favourites and the team to beat.
 
Pushkin said:
And don't forget Canada have 90%+ of their triumphs in hockey coming in North America when they're at home and using canadian "nhl" referees. When the tournament is outside they tend to play not that well.
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Utter bull, Pushkin. Canada has won 23 world championships, all of them in Europe; 12 world junior titles, six of them in Europe; and six Olympic titles, five of those in Europe. Nice try.
 
Pushkin said:
And don't forget Canada have 90%+ of their triumphs in hockey coming in North America when they're at home and using canadian "nhl" referees. When the tournament is outside they tend to play not that well. Remember Nagano 1998 when they didn't even step on the podium and they got a hockey lesson from the Czechs. Remenber last year world championsip when everybody had almost their real A line up. Canada plays the Czech on the 21st for first place in the group and then on the 22nd in the 1/4 vs. a tough opponent. Starting there anything can happen, and this time Belarus isn't there to open their road to Gold !!!2002= Terrible Lost to Sweden , tie with the Czech and didn't play Russia. They played in the knockout : weak Finland team, still drunk partying Belarus guys and an average Usa team with an old Richter clearly past his prime. An Ugly Win is still a Win ok but this time if they win it will be far sweeter and deserving than last time ! It's the Tie Breaker now Czech-Rus (98) Can-Usa(02) now let's see who the real champs are.
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2002 was not an ugly win, and regardless of who you were cheering for the '02 gold medal game was far more entertaining to watch than the '98 final. It sounds like even after 4 years you still have the taste of sour grapes in your mouth.
 
The 1998 Final was good. It's not because a game ends 1-0 that it is boring. It was good hitting good saves good flow to that game altough I admit the round robin game wich Russia won was better. The 2002 final was lopsided and predictable. The US team was no match for Canada and it would have been far better a Canada-Russia final. From 1990-2004 no team ever fielded their A team to the World Championships. Czech Republic won in 96-99-00-01-05...without their best team also... 2005 WC was the first in wich everybody had a very good team, everyone was missing some players, but still it was very good hockey. No a big indication for this tournament I understand but still the Czech know they can win.I would have love too see a Sweden-Canada 1/2 in 2002 that game would have been 50/50 and the final vs. Russia would have capped a great tournament. Let's hope this time everybody is up for it. I'm predicting a Czech-Canada final with Russia(if good goalie) Sweden(if Forsberg healthy) Usa(under-estimated fast offense) all as potential finalists.


Canada-Russia= 23 World Championship Gold each
Canada-Russia= 12 World Junior Championship each
Russia8 Olympic Gold vs. Canada 7 Olympic Gold so it's time to get even everywhere !!!
 
Canada
Czech Republic
Russia

I don't think that there are too many other plausible predictions, although it could turn out like the U-20 WJC's and be completely different.
 
Cheering for U.S.

If/when the U.S. get eliminated I'll be rooting for Russia/Slovakia.

Gold: Russia
Silver: Canada
Bronze: Slovakia

The U.S. team is a joke.
 
It is clear to me that there are 2 teams above the rest and they are Canada and the Czechs. Canada is deep enough that replacing Jovanovski and Neidermayer should not really hurt them. The Czech had almost no one injured except Prucha, and they got to replace him with Patrik Elias who I would think 29 out of 30 people on here would consider is an upgrade.



Sweden and Finland suffered significant losses on defense, both will be playing with unproven goalies (even though Lundqvist and Niittymaki have both been awsome and great respectively) they are my next 2 teams in line, however. Although it may change should Forsberg decide to not play at all.


USA, Russia and Slovakia I think come next, Russia going with a lot of younger, inexperienced players, USA, I think is a mess, the defense will get lit up, and Slovakia still has to prove that they can even play with in a best-on-best tournament after a poor World Cup Showing.

I think the Swiss sneak in as the #8 team.
 
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Finland

Edit: I have to edit this one, Sweden looks bad.

1. Canada
2. Finland
3. Russia
 
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Pat Quinn extends his tournament Gold Medal Streak to four. And will win back to bach Olympic Gold.
 
Salming said:
Canada will start out slow (on purpose?), come together feeling the the self-proclaimed hatered from every other human being not-canadian, battle and then win it all as usual. In the end it will seem like there really was no competition - just a Canadian parade of hockey excellence.

1.Canada



2.Czech Rep.

3. Russia (beats Finland 6-5)

4. Finland (I think they only lead by 5-1 going into the 3rd period in the bronze game)
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Love your post Salming and i agree.We will be tested but i expect when all is said and done we should come away with Gold.A solid goaltending performance by an opposition team may keep it from us but i am still confident Canada will win.Deepest and most talented team from top to bottom and lines 1-4 and from the goalie out.

Line 4 is like line 1 With Canada and no-one else can do that.Go Canada!!!
 
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