GDT: May 16 • Semifinal • Canada vs. Czech Republic

[Jtown]

Hall and Ebs were great

Couturier was garbage

Burns looked awesome. Would love him on the Oilers

how was coots garbage?

 

[1Gold Standard]

how was coots garbage?

He wasn't. He played a good solid game. He's had an excellent tourney. I hope he plays another solid game tomorrow.

 

[Canuck21t]

If you take last years rosters for example -- on paper, that Canada could compete with Russia, or Czech or whoever. Mackinnon, Kadri, Turris, Browuer, and a 20 goal Cody Hodgson arent scrubs.

The issue is that these are young guys who were inexperienced in both big ice and tournament play. While they may have similar skill levels to the other teams, they lacked in knowledge and experience. This is crucial.

Now you add a Crosby, a Spezza, a Burns, a Giroux. These are the best of the best in the world, and they have the experience. Plus they have been around long enough to know how big ice learns.

You can see that when Canada implemented a strategy to play on big ice, the players knew how to execute

Yeah, but this year's Team Canada is stacked with big names. Other years we matched other teams with one or two big names, but this year we have Crosby, Spezza, Giroux, Seguin, Hall, McKinnon, Eberle, all in one team. I've rarely seen Canada so well represented at the Worlds.

I mean, Team USA doesn't really have any starpower this year so the north american rivalry feels kind of "meh", atleast the russians got most of their offensive weapons... Missing guys like Datsyuk, Radulov and a few others.

Exactly. We like Canada-USA too, but the US roster doesn't bring much excitement to the event. On the other hand, it'll be a great feeling if we can beat Kovalchuk, Ovechkin and Malkin.

It looked like Canada went lockdown mode from the start of the 3rd. Pretty bad habit especially when the game wasn't even a blowout. Can't be doing that in the gold medal game.

Yeah, that's what I hate the most about Team Canada and we often do that. So very frustrating seeing Canada do that and risk their lead position when we know that our team is good enough to dictate all 60 minutes.

At the same time Swedish players seem to pick up the old canadian attitude of "nah..." I hope they get the memo.

I don't think it's the national associations that decided to take or not take the tournament seriously, but rather which players agree to join the team. For some reason this year big names have agreed to join Team Canada. Probably because they were frustrated by their season in the NHL and wanted something positive at the end of the year and the WHC is another chance to end on the positive note. What I've noticed is that the past few years, Swedish players think like North Americans and they don't consider the WHC as important like before unlike the East Europeans who still consider this tournament as very important. Swedish mentality has changed to more Americanized.

2002.

Olympics.

NHL-size rinks.

Sweden won with 5-2 over Canada.

I'm not sure what was your point with the above post. When I said that we were up to the game, unlike the Swedes, I was inferring this image that I have of Sweden going out if their way to avoid a good team in preference for a weaker one. Canada will play its best no matter who's the next opponent it gets.

 

[playasRus]

It's kind of funny though, Canada have been sending over 18-20 year olds and some random players for years, now they be like "what the heck, let's send a good team for once and take this tournament seriously" - and BANG, they cruise to the gold medal

Older guys tend to say no/go deep in the playoffs. See: Eric Staal.

 

[canuck2010]

This was a terrific hockey game.

Was actually a refreshing change from the Playoff grind. Large ice hockey can be great when both team play an agressive game,

Canada looked great. All 4 lines rolling well -- and the 4th line, which sees a significant name/pedigree drop has arguably been the most consistent and stable. Look out Russia

Agreed on your first point especially. For the most part when teams sit back its not so hot. Nice to see.

Something else I love about this team is that they take it to whomevr they are playing. I hate playing with a couple of scoring lines and the rest plumbers. We have the best players the most depth just roll the four friggin lines withthe the most talented players.

 

[Jablkon]

Why are you guys getting so defensive? I'm just trying to figure out what they are doing to make that high pitched sound. Is it just hundreds of people whistling? It sounds creepy.

I know its too late. But because of that question appeared several times, I will try to clarify it. The whistle is usually used against away team to make it less comfortable for them. As I read this thread it obviously worked against some people on Hfboards, not much against team Canada during the game

As a fan you have two tools during the game - i. support your team; ii. distract away team. Whistle is the second tool....

The reason why people behave in this way is mostly they somehow believe they are something like 7th player on the ice and they are capable to influence the game to some extent.....

 

[Faterson]

Yeah, but this year's Team Canada is stacked with big names. Other years we matched other teams with one or two big names

Nonsense. You obviously never looked at Canada's rosters in previous years. For example, team Canada in 2012 that got kicked out of the quarterfinals by Slovakia was similarly stacked to this one. Holy Crosby wasn't there, but otherwise, an all-star team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_IIHF_World_Championship_rosters#Canada

 

[Canuck21t]

Nonsense. You obviously never looked at Canada's rosters in previous years. For example, team Canada in 2012 that got kicked out of the quarterfinals by Slovakia was similarly stacked to this one. Holy Crosby wasn't there, but otherwise, an all-star team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_IIHF_World_Championship_rosters#Canada

I'm talking in general term. There has been some rare occasions where Canada gets more than a couple big names, but even 2012 is nothing like what we have this year.

When I say big names, mind that it's relative to Canada's potential. Maybe I didn't express myself correctly. When I say match, that means on paper we look to match other teams. We never look worse than others, even with few big names. Due to our depth, we'll always look good on paper, therefore we usually look at the very least on par with other teams except Russia that almost always look a notch above and sometime Sweden. This year though, even with the addition of Ovechkin, Canada still has the better roster on paper. Now let's see if the team is up to par with their names.