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Olympics: Team Canada 2022 (Part 2)

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Been seeing these two jerseys side by side in different stores and can't wait to see the two legends take the ice together. Want to see them on one line and just dominate on the way to Gold lol!
 
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Agree that the increased stakes of the Olympics, and each additional year in the league, tend to lessen the likelihood of guys like Darnell Nurse at this stage of his career, taking a bad penalty during this year's Olympic tournament. In the same vein, Marchand, and Couturier, are gonna make the team now, but would have been nervy selections say at the 3rd or 4th year mark of their careers, because of their tendency then, to 'lose it' out there on ice, earlier on in their NHL careers. It's great to watch the continued development and improvement of players like these three, and how they learn to 'rein it in' better and better, with each passing year, while at the same time improving their skills and play. Also similarly not nervous at all about Canada's goaltending situation. Carey Price had a considerable absence before the playoffs last year started, and was lights out against the Leafs, game 4 onward. He'll get in at least three games prior to the Olympics getting underway, and I think all other teams in the Olympic tournament are going to feel even worse than the Leafs, Jets and Vegas did.....very hard to score on and beat, and that was with an otherwise fairly average Montreal team up front. Canada's 2022 Olympic team will be anything but average up front of Price. Team Canada will be a very confident team at this year's Olympics, and will be the toughest team to beat.
 
team canada fan said:
Agree that the increased stakes of the Olympics, and each additional year in the league, tend to lessen the likelihood of guys like Darnell Nurse at this stage of his career, taking a bad penalty during this year's Olympic tournament. In the same vein, Marchand, and Couturier, are gonna make the team now, but would have been nervy selections say at the 3rd or 4th year mark of their careers, because of their tendency then, to 'lose it' out there on ice, earlier on in their NHL careers. It's great to watch the continued development and improvement of players like these three, and how they learn to 'rein it in' better and better, with each passing year, while at the same time improving their skills and play. Also similarly not nervous at all about Canada's goaltending situation. Carey Price had a considerable absence before the playoffs last year started, and was lights out against the Leafs, game 4 onward. He'll get in at least three games prior to the Olympics getting underway, and I think all other teams in the Olympic tournament are going to feel even worse than the Leafs, Jets and Vegas did.....very hard to score on and beat, and that was with an otherwise fairly average Montreal team up front. Canada's 2022 Olympic team will be anything but average up front of Price. Team Canada will be a very confident team at this year's Olympics, and will be the toughest team to beat.
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Canadian here, I’m nervous about team Canada because historically our strength has been defence and goaltending. I don’t see us having the same rock solid defence and goaltending. In a one game elimination tournament, we will have to rely on our forwards which is concerning. We have a Crosby and Bergeron not in their prime, mackinnon, mcdavid, Huberdeau have zero playoff success. Canada always lays an egg the odd time in best on best, and I feel team Canada’s run of success will come to an end. I have a hunch shesterkin or vasilevsky will give team Russia hasek like goaltending and lead them to gold. Hope I’m wrong.
 
centipede2233 said:
Canadian here, I’m nervous about team Canada because historically our strength has been defence and goaltending. I don’t see us having the same rock solid defence and goaltending. In a one game elimination tournament, we will have to rely on our forwards which is concerning. We have a Crosby and Bergeron not in their prime, mackinnon, mcdavid, Huberdeau have zero playoff success. Canada always lays an egg the odd time in best on best, and I feel team Canada’s run of success will come to an end. I have a hunch shesterkin or vasilevsky will give team Russia hasek like goaltending and lead them to gold. Hope I’m wrong.
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I hope you are wrong, too, but I fear you are right. We are due for a loss, our goaltending is weak, or D is in transition, and we need our forwards to be shooting on all cylinders to win.

I also have Russia as my dark horse.
 
The angst about Canada's Olympic team goaltending parallels the angst that Habs fans had about their goaltending two days before the 2020 and especially the 2021 playoffs started. Carey Price will once again silence all the doubters. Quite comfortable with Binnington or Kuemper in there also. To me, Russia's defence is suspect, and their forward group, though highly skilled and dangerous offensively, is lacking in Mark Stone/ROR/Couturier/Bergeron shutdown two-way studs, that help win the tight hard fought games. Russia indeed will need Hasek-type goaltending. I think it's the Americans and the Swedes, that pose the greatest threat and resistance to Canada's gold medal march.
 
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centipede2233 said:
Canadian here, I’m nervous about team Canada because historically our strength has been defence and goaltending. I don’t see us having the same rock solid defence and goaltending. In a one game elimination tournament, we will have to rely on our forwards which is concerning. We have a Crosby and Bergeron not in their prime, mackinnon, mcdavid, Huberdeau have zero playoff success. Canada always lays an egg the odd time in best on best, and I feel team Canada’s run of success will come to an end. I have a hunch shesterkin or vasilevsky will give team Russia hasek like goaltending and lead them to gold. Hope I’m wrong.
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Could be the case, if other teams didn't have glaring holes themselves. We'll still have the best D (don't think anyone can match Petro-Makar), and if Price is there a competent enough G.

The Russians - I don't believe in because they don't have centers, you can't mount a goaltending centric strategy with no centers. Give them Canada's 12th-15h centers and they are a very strong team, Namestnikov and Shipachyov are barely NHL players.
The Americans - I don't believe in because they are always over-evaluating players on an individual basis + no Eichel (you really think Matthews and Kane can do well against our shutdown lines?)
The Swedes - Offensive troubles - this ain't Sundin-Zetterberg-Forsberg who could play against anyone. Pettersson-Forsberg- Zibanejad etc. are a much weaker group.
The Fins Defensive troubles - Olli Maata and Risto 2nd pair <== McDavid is going to have some fun.

The Czech - No D
Slovaks - not deep enough

When Canada was losing say in 2006 etc. the other teams had the base of a cohesive structure, it's not true this year.

I think Canada will be more, not less, overwhelming vs. 2010-2014.

I think 2026 will be more challenging as we'll face much stronger Fins and American teams (based on the few last drafts)
 
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Mike Smith should be in the running. Was one of the top goalies in the NHL last year. .920 SV% this year too. He's outplaying, and has for the last year or two, most of the goalies on this list.
 
duul said:
Mike Smith should be in the running. Was one of the top goalies in the NHL last year. .920 SV% this year too. He's outplaying, and has for the last year or two, most of the goalies on this list.
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He was discussed. Some of us worry about "weak goals".

As many have said, we don't need a goalie to win us a game, just one who will not lose us a game - see MAF.
 
ORRFForever said:
He was discussed. Some of us worry about "weak goals".

As many have said, we don't need a goalie to win us a game, just one who will not lose us a game - see MAF.
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That's a good point. I wonder if he would 'clean his game up' so to speak on the world stage. His ability with the puck on his stick is invaluable in my opinion, although it does lead to goals against periodically ... the net gain must be positive.

Completely understandable to not need another variable thrown into the mix. A 'what-if'. He is a damn good goalie though who is making more saves at a higher rate than possibly EVERY other Canadian goaltender? I'm not sure. Was behind only Fleury and Driedger last year.
 
duul said:
That's a good point. I wonder if he would 'clean his game up' so to speak on the world stage. His ability with the puck on his stick is invaluable in my opinion, although it does lead to goals against periodically ... the net gain must be positive.

Completely understandable to not need another variable thrown into the mix. A 'what-if'. He is a damn good goalie though who is making more saves at a higher rate than possibly EVERY other Canadian goaltender? I'm not sure. Was behind only Fleury and Driedger last year.
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If he can stop giving up goals like he did against Vancouver - Hughes with 3 minutes left, we'd love to have him.

We just can't afford goals like that in a short tournament.
 
SOLR said:
But we'll be without a lot of current 2-way soldiers. Not the end of the world, we are already seeing young ones, but maybe there is an opening there. Depends if Wright or Suzuki are ready to take over Bergeron.
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Just watching last year's playoffs, I was impressed with all the (young) Canadians stepping up. On almost every team, a Canadian was the best player so I think we'll be fine.

We just need some of the picks from recent drafts to get better because we had some weak drafts.
 
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