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So who was the SECOND best team?

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2nd best team was easily between Sweden/Finland .After these two ,Russia was the next best team than the Americans.
 
heksagon said:
Would? Yes, they certainly could, but you talk like it'd be guaranteed. Oh come on, don't start with these kind of things again. You have no way to actually prove that. Yeah that looks great on paper but how can you know if the chemistry would be as good as with the actual Olympic team etc.

Congrats on the win, just enjoy the fact that you won the Olympic gold medal, but I'm getting tired of this "We could ice multiple teams and they'd all medal" stuff. (Not directed to you, just Canadian fans in general.) It's somewhat disrespectful to other countries.
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Its a fact you should digest. Canada 2 would have been a stronger challenge than anyone Canada faced in Sochi. By quite a margin too.
 
Dontdive said:
Because I'm looking at the games that mattered to the U.S., and how well they played in those games, not only how well they did.

I saw that bronze medal game. They didn't care, so they weren't trying, so I'm throwing that game out.

Just because Europeans give a damn about that game is about as meaningful to me (and most Canadians and Americans) as who's third best in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I mean, what a worthless stat that would be, if anyone tracked it, right?

A much better way to tell who's better is to look at the level of play against Canada. And I saw both those games. The Americans were much more dangerous looking. Much.

Finland simply played not to lose. That's not winning hockey to me, and Canada proved it.

The Americans, at least, didn't play to lose. They played better than Finland.
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USA got what they earned and get placed where they deserve and that is 4th best team in this tourney.

The game is not played on paper , if teams are not recognized for what they actually accomplish in the games, then whats the point of playing them?

USA s claim to fame in this tourney is taking the 7/8th best team deep into a shootout win?
 
Alexei Yashvalev said:
If they didn't care wouldn't that mean they have no heart?
That doesn't sound like a very good team.
That has to be one of the saddest excuses I've ever heard.
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Except the Canadian team would have played with about as much "heart" as the Americans, if due to bad luck they had found themselves in the same game. Are you going to say the same thing about them?

I know it really annoys a lot of people over the ocean, but it's this mentality which helps a team like Canada win gold - we don't play to "do our best," we play to win it all.

And if we can't win it all, we don't care anymore.

It's actually a credit to the Americans that they're thinking this way more and more themselves.
 
As I have said this before, Finland was at least the second best team there. We were better at the semi-final against Sweden, but our guys didn't score on their chances. It would had been much more interesting and tighter game against Canadians in the final than what it was with Swedes there.
 
Sweden.

I wonder how differently everything would have turned out if every team's rosters were 100% healthy. I think Canada still would have won it all but the journey might have been different, Sweden would have been a lot better too.
 
Dontdive said:
I'm talking about the mens side, obviously.

I say the U.S. Nevermind that bronze medal game they didn't give a crap about, other than that the only other game they didn't look very good in was against Canada, and even then they only lost by one goal.

They're the only team I felt that (at times) could truly stay with Canada, I didn't see any other team being able to do that.
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I have to say USA, if they got passed Canada, maybe they are celebrating today. Finns were great as a team, they don't have the talent to match up against Canada or USA, and Sweden are too.

But really the gold medal game was Canada - USA on Friday. That game was tougher for Canada. And it was only a goal difference in the end.

Bylsma was out coached IMO. Not getting your best offensive players away from Toews with last change was an error for a NHL coach.
 
Dontdive said:
Except the Canadian team would have played with about as much "heart" as the Americans, if due to bad luck they had found themselves in the same game. Are you going to say the same thing about them?

I know it really annoys a lot of people over the ocean, but it's this mentality which helps a team like Canada win gold - we don't play to "do our best," we play to win it all.

And if we can't win it all, we don't care anymore.

It's actually a credit to the Americans that they're thinking this way more and more themselves.
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Good for you!

But, having said all that above, you were still the 4th or 5th best team in this tournament.
 
Sweden played only against one top-4 team and clearly lost. It doesn't prove that Sweden was 2nd best.

Finland played against all top-4 teams, won two, lost one and took one overtime. This is how it should go. All top teams should play against each other and not so that some team gets to final without facing a top team.
 
jinxy said:
As I have said this before, Finland was at least the second best team there. We were better at the semi-final against Sweden, but our guys didn't score on their chances. It would had been much more interesting and tighter game against Canadians in the final than what it was with Swedes there.
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:shakehead Sweden dominated Finland in the semi-finals.
 
Interactif said:
I have to say USA, if they got passed Canada, maybe they are celebrating today. Finns were great as a team, they don't have the talent to match up against Canada or USA, and Sweden are too.

But really the gold medal game was Canada - USA on Friday. That game was tougher for Canada. And it was only a goal difference in the end.

Bylsma was out coached IMO. Not getting your best offensive players away from Toews with last change was an error for a NHL coach.
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No. Best teams were....

Canada
Sweden/Finland
U.S./Russia
 
Dontdive said:
Because I'm looking at the games that mattered to the U.S., and how well they played in those games, not only how well they did.

I saw that bronze medal game. They didn't care, so they weren't trying, so I'm throwing that game out.

Just because Europeans give a damn about that game is about as meaningful to me (and most Canadians and Americans) as who's third best in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I mean, what a worthless stat that would be, if anyone tracked it, right?

A much better way to tell who's better is to look at the level of play against Canada. And I saw both those games. The Americans were much more dangerous looking. Much.

Finland simply played not to lose. That's not winning hockey to me, and Canada proved it.

The Americans, at least, didn't play to lose. They played better than Finland.
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I did too, the Americans tried to win that game. That's enough of this 'US didn't care about Bronze' garbage. Sure, they quit in the 3rd period when the game got out of hand and Quick melted down, but don't pretend they didn't play to win against Finland. They had their chances early, couldn't bury them, and then Finland connected and took over that game. You can't throw that game out. You should be asking how Brian Burke and co. couldn't put together a winning team and why he took role players over best players available.

Americans weren't more dangerous to play against that Finland from Canada's perspective, but you are also comparing an elimination game to a round robin game. Canada dominated the possession game, and frankly the score flattered the US. Once the US played teams like Canada and Finland with strong team D buy-ins, their offense disappeared.
 
KevyD said:
No... They might even have beat the Canadian men. Worst case... Silver. They are great, too.
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I'm assuming that this is tongue in cheek. For folks who don't know, the Ladies team usually plays practice games against AAA/junior B level men's teams.
 
Hammer79 said:
Americans weren't more dangerous to play against that Finland from Canada's perspective, but you are also comparing an elimination game to a round robin game. Canada dominated the possession game, and frankly the score flattered the US. Once the US played teams like Canada and Finland with strong team D buy-ins, their offense disappeared.
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I agree, 100%.
 
Hammer79 said:
I did too, the Americans tried to win that game. That's enough of this 'US didn't care about Bronze' garbage. Sure, they quit in the 3rd period when the game got out of hand and Quick melted down, but don't pretend they didn't play to win against Finland. They had their chances early, couldn't bury them, and then Finland connected and took over that game. You can't throw that game out. You should be asking how Brian Burke and co. couldn't put together a winning team and why he took role players over best players available.

Americans weren't more dangerous to play against that Finland from Canada's perspective, but you are also comparing an elimination game to a round robin game. Canada dominated the possession game, and frankly the score flattered the US. Once the US played teams like Canada and Finland with strong team D buy-ins, their offense disappeared.
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Of course they cared, it is just incredibly difficult for ANY team to pull together a best effort less than a day after a game like the semis.
 
KevyD said:
Good for you!

But, having said all that above, you were still the 4th or 5th best team in this tournament.
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Ah but that's the thing. I'm Canadian, not an American. I'm no fan of the Americans in hockey, and wish we had crushed them, not simply beat them.

And in the bronze medal game I was cheering for Finland, not the USA, in part because that helped the overall medal race of USA vs Canada.

So when I categorically state that the USA was the second best team in the tournament, I guarantee you it's not because of me being a "fan" of them. I'm not. :)
 
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