Sweden only lost to Canada in round robin. Its playoffs that matters, not round robin. You finns should know that. Sweden beat Canada in final, the same Canada that kicked out Finland. In semifinals Sweden beat Russia. Cant say Sweden did not deserve that gold.
It was a great generation for Finland but yet without winning culture. Later that spring they lost to Canada in the World championship final in penalty shootout. Next year was time for gold. They had for example line Saku Koivu-Ville Peltonen-Jere Lehtinen young boys back then. Also young players like Janne Niinimaa and veterans like Raimo Helminen, Timo Jutila and Janne Ojanen. Best players playing in Europe before the young guys went to NHL. Teemu Selänne was on fire in NHL, Finland won u18 European championship, Liiga was the best league in Europe and Aki Berg was the highest Finnish draft pick yet.
That is what they used to say in Finland that SM-liiga is the second best league in the World. Those days are long gone. Finnish teams did won the European cup from 1993 to 1995 and EHL 1997.
NHL rosters is the answer... I don't agree but that is the answer. That and U18 results.
That will almost certainly never happen, given that:
US have won 10 U-18 since 2002. What an awful record. Wonderful attempt at cherry picking.
www.quanthockey.com
There is no justification to have Russia anywhere but the top division, even in bad years, they are never worse than the 5th best. Don't care as much about Belarus but they are usually top-15 ish.
The USA can ice a team that will beat any other with the exception of Team Canada in a legitimate series.
The WC only shows that the team that wins the most games is likely the best in that tournament.
There’s absolutely no way Russia would agree to get relegated and start in a lower division. It’s more likely they will accept a permanent ban from the IIHF or leave it forever. It will hurt, but it’s the right thing to do - you can’t punish a hockey federation and relegate it because of the actions of the politicians.
Well it is not the problem of the rest of the world, if the us doesnt feel like icing a better team. They definitely have the players for it. This is like a kid saying well i didnt give it all in the game, thats why i lost.
They just "agreed" to skip this year entirely, thus they will surely accept conditional return.
Canada yes, they are the undisputed nr1 nation when it comes to hockey but USA as the undisputed second best? Nah, man there is like 3 other countries that belong to that debate with them.
And 5 posts later and there is your NHL roster and U18 answer (note it was U20 referenced not U18 so I was off by 2 years).
It's amazing to me that people see big gaps between the teams. I've never changed my answer.. it's tiered. Canada is on a slightly higher tier.. then the next 4 are all equivalent with each have different strengths and weaknesses. Any one of the Big 5 could win a best on best and I wouldn't even flinch or consider it an 'upset'.Canada yes, they are the undisputed nr1 nation when it comes to hockey but USA as the undisputed second best? Nah, man there is like 3 other countries that belong to that debate with them.
If we go by the pure player material, top players and depth then I think Russia is the 2nd strongest hockey nation just behind Canada. After that it’s USA, Sweden and then Finland.
Now I know these IIHF tournaments don’t matter that much to North Americans I still think that the results have to matter somewhat, it shows the consistency, depth and resiliance of a hockey nation. It shows how well can you play when you don’t have your best players and how well can a team play with their B, C, D or even lesser teams.
Best on best matters more but we haven’t got one in almost a decade now.
Now if we have the discussion on what country is the second best based on all things considered: best on best, NHL and IIHF success then it’s much more of a debate really, USA belongs to that conversation but is no means the automatic choice. And Finlands stock rises much higher but not quite to that 2nd best position… at least not yet.
