Ranking WC teams

[Art Vandelay]

Why are some of you predicting 7th overall?

67% of your goalies haven`t played competitive hockey in over a year.
Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo

57% of your defensemen haven`t played competitive hockey in over a year.
Scott Hannan, Ed Jovanovski, Wade Redden, Robyn Regehr

54% of your forwards haven`t played competitive hockey in over a year.
Shane Doan, Kris Draper, Simon Gagne, Kirk Maltby, Patrick Marleau, Brenden Morrow, Ryan Smyth

Thats over 60% of team Canada and thats why IMO.

(i could be wrong on a player or two, dunno if anyone played in lower NA-leagues)

 

[Bruins4Ever]

67% of your goalies haven`t played competitive hockey in over a year.
Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo

57% of your defensemen haven`t played competitive hockey in over a year.
Scott Hannan, Ed Jovanovski, Wade Redden, Robyn Regehr

54% of your forwards haven`t played competitive hockey in over a year.
Shane Doan, Kris Draper, Simon Gagne, Kirk Maltby, Patrick Marleau, Brenden Morrow, Ryan Smyth

Thats over 60% of team Canada and thats why IMO.

(i could be wrong on a player or two, dunno if anyone played in lower NA-leagues)

It takes a few games to get prepared. That's why they do exhibition. It's not like these guys do nothing at home as well. They train non stop, and most are in game shape.

 

[Art Vandelay]

He played with HIFK Helsinki this season and was one of the main reasons why they -against all predictions- didn't even make the semifinals of the Finnish league. I'm not sure what was the problem, perhaps motivation? He played well for the Czech Republic earlier though.

Hehe, it was the payback/jinx on for Olli Jokinen walking out on "my" team (Södertälje SK) in the middle of the season. We crashed from 7/8th pos. to 10/11th (12 teams total) but bounced back and made the playoff with a margin of 4 goals. Södertälje then knocked out second seeded Linköping (Norrena BTW) in the quarterfinals biggest succes for Södertälje SK in something like 15 years. "We" were knocked out in the semis though.

 

[wilka91*]

reading some of the predictions on this thread shows how badly informed some people are, including me. I mean most of us have absolutely no idea how the other teams are playing or who is playing for them, and still we make some silly predictions. Of course what I'm saying is based on some of the comments made about team Russia ... the only 2 teams I can predict right now are Russia and Sweden because I've seen their last 2 games, but I have really no idea how Finland or Canada are playing. And the same can be said about everyone here : did the Canadian fans see any of the European teams lately? Certainly not. Did we Europeans see the US or Canada? No.

 

[e-e]

The forwards are awesome, and Zdeno Chara is a kick butt player. However, the rest of the defence and the goalie don't excite me that much. But then again...who knows, right? Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if Slovakia did well in this tournament.

lasak has a full colection (gold, silver and bronze) from WC. i'm pretty confident that he will be the best slovak player AGAIN.

 

[f1nn]

reading some of the predictions on this thread shows how badly informed some people are, including me. I mean most of us have absolutely no idea how the other teams are playing or who is playing for them, and still we make some silly predictions. Of course what I'm saying is based on some of the comments made about team Russia ... the only 2 teams I can predict right now are Russia and Sweden because I've seen their last 2 games, but I have really no idea how Finland or Canada are playing. And the same can be said about everyone here : did the Canadian fans see any of the European teams lately? Certainly not. Did we Europeans see the US or Canada? No.

you totally misused that smilie LOL

 

[mattihp]

How many people outside of Finland and Sweden have ever heard of Fredrik Norrena and Nicklas Bäckström?

I`m not saying that the finnish goalies are bad but the most well known (Kiprusoff, Lehtonen etc...) isnt on the team.

Who cares. NHL goalies aside, Bäckas and Norre are both top 5-goalies in europe, and both better than Kipinä on the big ice.

The finnish names aren't big in the NHL, but for example, a lower line NHL player like Niko Kapanen is a better producer in the world champs than for example Sweden's Henrik Zetterberg.

The fact that everyone on Finland's team is a hard worker who bleeds his guts out for their country will matter alot, and I'd be surprised if there won't be a medal this year, and it's been along time since I was enthusiastic about Finland's chances.

 

[psycho_dad*]

That was basiclly my point, i was just surprised that someone would consider Finland goalies to the WC`s as "great".
IMO Norrena/Bäckström are not in the same class as Brodeur, Loungo or Voukon which (again IMO) are the "elite" goalies in this WC.

They are not even close when it comes to the name, but on the ice it's a different story. I had the "priviledge" to watch Vokoun several times in the playoffs, and now again in the Czech-Finland game...he is absolutely awfull right now. He is worse than Tommy Salo in his bad days right now. I wonder what has happened to him because he was such a stud against Detroit the other year. Bäckström in his current form is way way better than Vokoun. Bäckström also totally dominated Dwayne Roloson in the playoffs

He also made Tim Thomas his ***** in the finals, and Thomas was amazing during the year. I dunno in what shape Brodeur and Luongo are, but naturally they are the best goalies on paper. I'm just calling it like i'm seeing it....no real homerism here, I REALLY wanted Bäckström to suck in the semis, but he ate our "NHL star" Roloson alive.

 

[Raimo Sillanpää]

I think it's hypocritical that people are ranking Sweden's goalie, Lundqvist as good while looking down at the Finnish trio.

Lundqvist hasn't played in the NHL and a handful fo good Swedish seasons under his belt is all he has. Norrena and Bäckström have many many seasons of great play in both Finland and Sweden.
Only reason Norrena isn't in the NHL is Khabibulin and the lockout.

And then our third goalie, none other than Pasi Nurminen. Great on the big ice, great season this year. Made Pelicans who were on the verg of bankrupcy and probably the worst team in a big european league look competitive and respectable.

Finland wont suffer from goaltending, it might not be Lehtonen/Kipper game/championship winning goaltending, but it will be better than most. That's just how deep we are in goaltending these days.

The achilles heel for us, imho, is a lack of someone who cna put the puck in the net. We've got many hardworkers and checkers and grinders, so we'll be competitive in any game, will we score is the question?

 

[Ola]

1. Gold- Sweden
2. Silver- Chechz Rep.
3. Bronze- Russia
4. Slovakia
5. Canada
6. Finland
7. USA

My bet is that Canada, Finland and USA won't make it past the quaterfinals. Sweden will win it all.

 

[mattihp]

1. Gold- Sweden
2. Silver- Chechz Rep.
3. Bronze- Russia
4. Slovakia
5. Canada
6. Finland
7. USA

My bet is that Canada, Finland and USA won't make it past the quaterfinals. Sweden will win it all.

In Lundqvist you trust, eh? because from the looks of the world champs only Lunkan and Norström seem to be real threats on the team.

 

[Rob]

My predictions:

Gold Russia - I really think they are due.

Silver Czech Republic- Great team as always but I'm still not sure about Vokoun.

Bronze Canada- Still a good team but half of the players have not played this season.

4th Finland- Darkhorse team as always that might surprise.


There is one prediction that I will make right now. There is no way Sweden will win a medal in this tournmament. They simply do not have the talent.
If I am wrong I will personally come back to this board and aplogize to all Swedish hockey fans.

 

[mattihp]

My predictions:

Gold Russia - I really think they are due.

Silver Czech Republic- Great team as always but I'm still not sure about Vokoun.

Bronze Canada- Still a good team but half of the players have not played this season.

4th Finland- Darkhorse team as always that might surprise.


There is one prediction that I will make right now. There is no way Sweden will win a medal in this tournmament. They simply do not have the talent.
If I am wrong I will personally come back to this board and aplogize to all Swedish hockey fans.

There is no way they don't get a medal if Lundqvist plays to 90% of his capability...

 

[Canucksrock]

i cant see why people are making the fact that Canadians didnt play for this season aa big deal its not like they dont practice hard all year around and they wil be ready, they played well in there exhintion games and with this much talent on the team not medalling will be seen as a huge dissapointment hell not getting gold will be seen as a huge disappointment.

 

[mattihp]

i cant see why people are really making the fact that Canadians didnt play for this season its not like they dont train hard all year around and they wil be ready, they played well in there exhintion games and with this much talent on the team not medalling will be seen as a huge dissapointment hell not getting gold will be seen as a huge disappointment.

Training without match training is a completly different thing... but tha being said, even if the canadians are at 70-80%, they should be the by far favourites for them.

Russians have done so well in the pre-games because their opposition haven't tried to get them into the corners at all.

 

[Canucksrock]

yeah i heard that aswell about the russians that they havent been tested because other teams are allowin them to move freely. However they still haveagreat offense on that team and should do well.

 

[mattihp]

yeah i heard that aswell about the russians that they havent been tested because other teams are allowin them to move freely. However they still haveagreat offense on that team and should do well.

Yeah, they have an offensive arsenal to be feared... and I suspect guys like Malkin, Afinogenov etc. to go into the corners if called upon.
But IMO it seems they have too many god-complex players to be the big favourite... not a big surprise if they win a couple of real blowouts, but it wouldn't surprise me either if they get blowed out by a blue collar team.

 

[wilka91*]

Russians have done so well in the pre-games because their opposition haven't tried to get them into the corners at all.

So well??? Oh my god, Russia's defense sucks big time!

 

[SENSible1*]

Rusty or not, selecting Canada to finish any worse than 3rd is ridiculous.

 

[mattihp]

Rusty or not, selecting Canada to finish any worse than 3rd is ridiculous.

I'd further it with saying that selecting them to finish any worse than 2nd is a complete joke.

 

[Canucksrock]

I'd further it with saying that selecting them to finish any worse than 2nd is a complete joke.

Now i am not going to go that far for Canada to reach the gold medal game they wil have to play good and i am sure they will, however when u see some placing them 5-7 in the tounrey and saing they wont get even into the bronze medal game now thats a complete joke.

 

[TORRUS]

Training without match training is a completly different thing... but tha being said, even if the canadians are at 70-80%, they should be the by far favourites for them.

I don't agree! The winning team has to be 100% ready! We saw that in the last two years! Two years ago when Canada was 100% ready it took them I don't know how many overtimes to win it! Last year they were ready and were still very lucky to win it (semifinals against Slovakia )! Details decide the game! This year they are not as ready as they were before and that's why I don't think they can compete with other top countries! In normal circumstances this Canadian team (on paper) would be really strong and I would consider them as the favourites.

 

[Macman]

I don't agree! The winning team has to be 100% ready! We saw that in the last two years! Two years ago when Canada was 100% ready it took them I don't know how many overtimes to win it! Last year they were ready and were still very lucky to win it (semifinals against Slovakia )! Details decide the game! This year they are not as ready as they were before and that's why I don't think they can compete with other top countries! In normal circumstances this Canadian team (on paper) would be really strong and I would consider them as the favourites.

I tend to agree with you. I think Canada can win this thing but I think it's more likely they will lose. They are just not going to be in as good of shape as the Czechs, Russians and Slovaks and when it comes down to a tight, intense game, Canada probably won't have the fitness to come through. Canada will have to get great goaltending to pull it off, which is entirely possible with Brodeur and Luongo, or superhuman efforts from the guys who have played, like Heatley, Nash, Thornton and Morrison. The Russians and Czechs as the favourites IMO.

 

[wassup77]

This is what I think about this tournament:

Russia has the best forwards by far.
Sweden has the best goalkeeper by far. Thats right, better than Brodeur.
Canada probably has the best Defensemen though, I guess.

 

[mattihp]

This is what I think about this tournament:

Russia has the best forwards by far.
Sweden has the best goalkeeper by far. Thats right, better than Brodeur.
Canada probably has the best Defensemen though, I guess.

that is so ridiculous...