Nightmare opponents (Olympics analysis)

[Mr Kanadensisk]

I can't see how the Canada Cup have anything to do with the Olympics. Like comparing wrestling with a real sport.

The rest of the teams travel all over the world and play while Canada stays in the same hotell and gets to play on home ice with a canadian ref.

If John Muckler himself was the ref in the Senators games and the Maple Leafs and all other teams had to play Ottawa in Ottawa I am sure Ottawa would have a cup by now.

Well Oola, I guess Sweden isn't wrestling that well either.

Obviously the World Cup rules and format favour the North American teams, and the Olympics favour the Europeans.
In the last World Cup Sweden played three games in Stockholm, and one in Helsinki.
No doubt this hellish travel schedule is what led to their demise!

 

[Raimo Sillanpää]

Finland usually struggles the most against the Czechs imho, in Nagano we lost to them, and then those 2-3 world championships finals we lost to them. Ouch

Russia we actually do well against, Finns get almost as motivated as against Sweden. Our only win in Salt Lake City was against Russia.

Canada we struggle against, we play Canadian style vs Canada and never quite get there. Lost in World Cup (3-2), lost in Salt Lake City (2-1). Recent years include losses in juniors and world championships.

Sweden we do well against, not too long ago there was a good run where we constantly beat Sweden. Now that run has ended and its about 50-50.

USA we usually beat, usually by outmuscling them which they don't seem to be prepared for. In the World Cup we beat them by hitting everything that moved, and Team USA seemed to be surprised about that and never quite got back in the game after losing momentum.

Slovakia we haven't met in major tournaments, eliminated in the World Cup and failing to qualify in the last two Olympics. In the World Championships theyve run as ragged, played an offensive game that we didn't have the tools to respond to. But A vs A, indecisive, not played in ages.


Finland will need success in terms of goals from: Selänne, Jussi Jokinen, Olli Jokinen.

Solid goaltending, a defence that doesn't commit gaffs (at times the mistaked from defenders resulting in goals have been more back breaking than having Hoover as a goaltender). And secondary scoring from others, Lehtinen, Koivu S&M, Timonen etc


Nightmare opponent: Czechs
Ideal opponent for a knock-out game: Russia, USA, Sweden

When we get more hyped up, we can be unbeatable at times.

 

[Corto]

Why isn't Slovakia listed? They have one of the best teams in the tournament and I'd be scared of them regardless of the team I have. They're offense can turn rocks into sand and on the big ice surface, they're deadly.

Gaborik - Demitra - Hossa
Satan - Nagy - Palffy
Bondra - Handzus - Svatos
Zednik - Stumpel - Radiojevic

Chara - Meszaros
Visnovsky - Suchy
Majevsky - Jurcina
Strbak

Budaj
Lasak

I just don't see Budaj/Lasak outduelling Hasek/Vokoun, Brodeur/Luongo, Lundqvist or Kipper. They have a good shot against the USA, since Ryan Miller may have to watch the games from the stands.


IMO, this is all relative...

If you want to nitpick, the team I'm most scared as a Czech Republic supporter (though I'm not Czech) is Sweden. Russia games will be 50/50, IMO... Tight, low scoring games... Canada's the favourite, but if the Czechs are on their game, they have a good shot at beating them.
The one thing that could end up hurting the Czechs is possibly no Elias there. Good call or not (easy to say wrong in retrospect), he's not gonna play there unless someone gets injured. He is by far their best LWer, and they're gonna miss him and Havlat (both two-way guys, and Havlat was a monster on the PK for the Sens before he got injured). I don't know why they didn't pick Hamrlik, but as good as Malik and F. Kaberle have been, I'd easily pick him on that team. Maybe they thought his injury problems are a bigger concern than it seemed then.

As for Slovakia, they could surprise and win a medal if things fall into place... With the emergence of Meszaros, their D is looking better (though IMO; they'll miss Mezei more than some people think).. But again, goaltending could easily be their downfall.

 

[Leon]

There is one more goalie in Slovak team, Karol Krizan from MODO, and he's the best goalie in the Sweedish ligue at this moment i think... so don't underestimate us

 

[Macman]

I can't see how the Canada Cup have anything to do with the Olympics. Like comparing wrestling with a real sport.

The rest of the teams travel all over the world and play while Canada stays in the same hotell and gets to play on home ice with a canadian ref.

Not true. The '76, '81, '84 and '87 Canada Cups all had refs and linesmen from different countries. In 1991, I'm not sure.

 

[Ola]

Not true. The '76, '81, '84 and '87 Canada Cups all had refs and linesmen from different countries. In 1991, I'm not sure.

Yeah right. The russian linesman in the 87' finals sure made up for the work by the canadian refs in that series. Good argument...

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Finland usually struggles the most against the Czechs imho, in Nagano we lost to them, and then those 2-3 world championships finals we lost to them. Ouch

Russia we actually do well against, Finns get almost as motivated as against Sweden. Our only win in Salt Lake City was against Russia.

Canada we struggle against, we play Canadian style vs Canada and never quite get there. Lost in World Cup (3-2), lost in Salt Lake City (2-1). Recent years include losses in juniors and world championships.

Sweden we do well against, not too long ago there was a good run where we constantly beat Sweden. Now that run has ended and its about 50-50.

USA we usually beat, usually by outmuscling them which they don't seem to be prepared for. In the World Cup we beat them by hitting everything that moved, and Team USA seemed to be surprised about that and never quite got back in the game after losing momentum.

Slovakia we haven't met in major tournaments, eliminated in the World Cup and failing to qualify in the last two Olympics. In the World Championships theyve run as ragged, played an offensive game that we didn't have the tools to respond to. But A vs A, indecisive, not played in ages.


Finland will need success in terms of goals from: Selänne, Jussi Jokinen, Olli Jokinen.

Solid goaltending, a defence that doesn't commit gaffs (at times the mistaked from defenders resulting in goals have been more back breaking than having Hoover as a goaltender). And secondary scoring from others, Lehtinen, Koivu S&M, Timonen etc


Nightmare opponent: Czechs
Ideal opponent for a knock-out game: Russia, USA, Sweden

When we get more hyped up, we can be unbeatable at times.

Then there's the 2002 Olympics where the U.S. beat Finland 6-0.....

 

[Macman]

Yeah right. The russian linesman in the 87' finals sure made up for the work by the canadian refs in that series. Good argument...

Actually, there was only one Canadian ref in the '87 Canada Cup -- Don Koharski . There were two from the U.S., a Finn and a Czech. Mike Noeth, an American, officiated the Cda-Czech semifinal. Yeah, I know, Americans like nothing more than to see Canadians win at hockey and thusly cheat to ensure we do.


Koharski did games 1 and 3 of the final and Paul Stewart, another cheating American, did Game 2. I just happened to pull out my tape of the finals and, lo and behold, the Soviets actually requested Koharski for Game 1, according to the announcer. But he's Canadian, so he probably lied. Either that or the Russians were bought off by the cheating Canadian hockey mafioso. The Soviets won that game, by the way, so clearly Koharski didn't do his patriotic, cheating duty and was pulled for Game 2. You get the picture.

 

[Raimo Sillanpää]

Then there's the 2002 Olympics where the U.S. beat Finland 6-0.....

True, but that was an ugly game from us. It was almost a reversal of canada-sweden earlier that day. (Where canada didn't adapt to the differences and got "taught" about it, then Finland proceeded to make all the same mistakes and the US capitalised mercilessly)

I'd just fancy our chances against the US though..

 

[Rabid Ranger]

True, but that was an ugly game from us. It was almost a reversal of canada-sweden earlier that day. (Where canada didn't adapt to the differences and got "taught" about it, then Finland proceeded to make all the same mistakes and the US capitalised mercilessly)

I'd just fancy our chances against the US though..

Fair enough. Finland usually finds a way to compete, even with a roster that on paper seem to leave a bit to be desired.

 

[12# Peter Bondra]

Who will Jurcina most likely play with? He has been nothing short of amazing over the past month for the Bruins, and has been solid on both ends of the ice.

Chara-Meszaros
Strbak-Visnovsky

Leaving Jurcina, Majesky and Suchy. I hope the 3rd pairing is Suchy-Jurcina but I guess (as the coach has had this pairing the 2 last WC's) the pair will be Majesky-Suchy = Jurcina 7th D-man.

 

[pihinalle]

Our only win in Salt Lake City was against Russia.

That's not true. We also beat the mighty Belarus 8-1.

 

[kjri]

The Soviets won that game, by the way, so clearly Koharski didn't do his patriotic, cheating duty and was pulled for Game 2. You get the picture.

So, he corrected his "error " in game 3..

 

[espo*]

So, he corrected his "error " in game 3..

They lost fair and square pal,too bad for them.They should have played better and then they would'nt have to sook about the refs.

 

[leafnation67]

the fact of the matter is simple, CANADA= WORLD HOCKEY DOMINATION

when it gets down to it, canada simply finds a way to win, sure they struggled to find their form a little in salt lake, (especially against the swedes), but the bottom line is that in the medal round when it truly matters, no one wants to play the mighty canucks.

the depth that canadian hockey has is far better than any other country could even dream fof. other countries would kill for a chance to have some of the players left off the canadian roster, or that were on the taxi squad (ie. spezza, staal, mccabe, crosby, dion), and the list goes on and on. and i havent even begun to talk about canadas depth in between the pipes. where other countries have one, maybe two goalies who are very capable of winning the tourney for them, canada has several that werent even named to their roster.

the bottom line is this, when it really counts canada is everyones nightmare opponent, and candas only nightmare would be letting the game go to a shootout like what happened in nagano (which if u ask me was the worst way to possibly lose). knowing that if olympic hockey was played like hockey should be (ie. no shootout) maybe, just maybe salt lake wouldve made it back to back golds