Some details about the World Cup...

[Get North]

What I said was "demonstrably better," which connotes clear dominance. The closest Canada came to exhibiting dominance was in the defensive end. They won all of their games, and sincere kudos to them for that, but there were no individuals on the Canadian teams that clearly skated better, or faster, or handled the puck better, or shot better, than the top players from other competitive teams. You can say it all you want, but the record and the scoreboard shows that Canada won on better coaching and a brilliant defensive scheme.

The players need to execute the gameplan and the Canadian players did that perfectly. The gameplan was from the coaches but the players have to go out there and execute the gameplan, Canadian players did that.

You can't really say that the other players on other top teams were on par with Canada because the Canadian players were outplaying them in every game, beating them to the puck, outscoring them, faster than them.

 

[JackSlater]

You can't really say that the other players on other top teams were on par with Canada because the Canadian players were outplaying them in every game, beating them to the puck, outscoring them, faster than them.

No one needs to see a single game of Olympic hockey to compare players. The best players on the best teams play in the NHL, barring a small number of Russia's players, so we can compare them over the hundreds of games played in the NHL as opposed to a tiny sample like the Olympics. To say that Canada's best players aren't clearly better than any other country's best at the moment is a willful disregard for reality.

Before we have some confusion, no that does not mean that another team can't beat Canada on any given day. That's the nature of hockey.

 

[Yakushev72]

It's a far cry from the Soviet/Red Army days, but the Russian team today has more chemistry and a greater sense of itself than it's had in years.

Granted Sochi was a disaster, but since 2007 Russia has had a consistent core group of players who have turned up whenever available which has led to strong rosters and four WHC golds. They've failed at the top level, but have come a long way since the chaos of the 1990s and early 2000s.

I think you accurately characterized the unity with which the 2014 Russian WC team played. Ovechkin, as usual, has been willing to come back and play in the WC, although he didn't produce much in terms of goals and assists. Malkin came back in time for the last 3 games in the medal round, but again, he didn't produce much. The core and heart and soul of the team was the KHL contingent. The only other NHL forwards were Kulemin and Anisimov, who were relegated to the 4th line. Most of the scoring, emotion and passion came from Tikhonov, Plotnikov and Zaripov from the KHL.

All of Russia was disappointed and disaffected by the poor performance of NHL stars like Ovechkin and Malkin at Sochi. Only Datsyuk played well among the NHL'ers, and he was crippled with injury. The absolute lack of chemistry and the inability to muster a unified approach made Russians yearn for the days when the team was formed from the home league and functioned like a unit that was hungry to win. There was certainly no hunger or passion at all by the Russians team as a whole at Sochi. In my opinion, the bulk of future national teams will come from the KHL.

 

[stv11]

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