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WJC: SF Pre-Game Discussion

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I think it'll be a USA-Finland final. I don't think either SF will be close. I think these are the two best teams in the tournament. If Russia would play Samsonov, I think they could win, but Bragin seems to prefer Georgiyev.
 
As a Swede, I still think the US takes Gold this year.

Sweden hopefully will win over Finland, but its gonna be tough.
 
Epic semis! Hope we can pay Fin back for Malmö. US probably wins gold though. They have a really complete team.
 
I see Sweden as a clear favorite against Finland. Sweden has a team of excellent puck handlers. Really strong and crafty defense, gets the puck to the offense who can build a lot of pressure without sacrificing much defense. I think the main weakness the lack of killer instinct in front of both nets. They love cycling and setting up shots from blue line and trying shifty passes to good shooters but they have looked a little hesitant to get their hands dirty in scrums.

Finland's defense is lacking and makes a lot of mistakes. Offense is deadly escpecially first line. But I think they're gonna get interrupted a lot before getting pucks to the forwards. If Kahkonen (or Vehvilainen?) has an amazing game they will win, otherwise i think they're gonna lose.

Swe 6 - Fin 2
 
Russia vs. USA - now, of course everyone is obviously saying: 'Oh, but look how bad Russia is, they barely won against Denmark'. The 'Russian factor' will come into play in the Semis, Russia usually plays much better against 'medal contenders'.
 
Komarov77 said:
Its anything but sure win for Russia :D They are clearly underdogs against Usa.
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Its certainly not a sure thing, I think I mentioned anything can happen in this tournament, but the US hasn't looked very impressive this tournament other than running up the score against the bottom teams.

They beat Canada but were clearly outplayed and the Swedes easily beat them even though the score was close.

Russia and Sweden look like the better teams out of the 4 so I expect the to win easily but with 17-19 year olds odd things can happen and with a one game knock out tournament anyone can have a good/bad game and be out.
 
Russia vs. USA will be very interesting, because we'll get to see more clearly the potential of the Russian team. Team Russia has shown good play against Team Finland, and a lot of character coming back from behind. But we need to see them play a more focussed, 60 minute game without major 'wrecks' along the way. A huge game for sure.
 
My power rankings or what ever currently for the best teams of the tournament are:
1. SWE - Very close with USA
2. USA - Very close with SWE
3. Finland
4. Russia
5. Canada

However I believe that Finland can beat Sweden, but it definately requires for us to improve our goalkeeping, defense and PK. If we can't improve that we deserve to go to the bronze game and get a revenge game vs RUS.
 
jaloviina said:
i'd say done for this tournament. head injuries are no laughing matter. and maple leafs probably dont want to risk their possible future no 1 player in thease tournament.
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That's a bit of a dilemma right now. Just throwing him in this late as a top line center without practicing for over a week would be pretty risky, the team is playing well as it is. On the other hand, he is our best player so scratching him would be madness. Place him on a third line and give him major PP-time could be an option. Then again, we know very little but it sure looks like his NHL-team is stopping him from playing.

Gonna be a tight game I think. The US will beat the Russians fairly easily.
 
kp61c said:
usa'll demolish russia, and sweden is already in the final. usa'd win it all pretty easily.
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We've had this so many times, every always thinks 'Russia aren't that good, look at their games' - it's exactly in the medal round where our boys turn up the heat.
 
I think it will be a Sweden - USA final, although I'd like to see the hosts in there. I'll go with Sweden to win in the final.
 
Macbanan said:
I see Sweden as a clear favorite against Finland.
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Finland loves this underdog position though.

What favors Sweden is that they should be the official home team and therefore can match up lines vs our beast line. So it might help in trying to shut down that line, but no team has been able to stop that line yet in the tournament. It remains to be seen if Sweden can.
 
Mestaruus said:
Finland loves this underdog position though.

What favors Sweden is that they should be the official home team and therefore can match up lines vs our beast line. So it might help in trying to shut down that line, but no team has been able to stop that line yet in the tournament. It remains to be seen if Sweden can.
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True, I think the Finns like that as well :D. It might play in their favour, though the Finns' first line is a threat to all teams.
 
Mestaruus said:
Finland loves this underdog position though.

What favors Sweden is that they should be the official home team and therefore can match up lines vs our beast line. So it might help in trying to shut down that line, but no team has been able to stop that line yet in the tournament. It remains to be seen if Sweden can.
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The problem is, if Finland does beat Sweden, good luck trying to convince them that they still have another game to play :laugh:
 
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