GDT: Women's | Preliminary Round | Group A | Finland vs USA| 2:40 AM

[Mestaruus]

The format of the tournament is the top 4 teams in group A with the 1st and 2nd place teams advancing to to semis where the 3rd and 4th place teams go to the quarters vs 1/2 of group b.

No one is eliminated out of group a. It is done to avoid the blowouts given the skill difference between the top teams and bottom teams in the tournament.

Strange system but quite fair I guess. Sweden could benefit if the teams from other group injures each others' players when having tough battles while Sweden & Swiss will have blowouts / ez wins.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

Game's currently re-airing on NBCSN if anyone's interested.

 

[rj]

U.S. one-sided dominate a game vs. Finland in women's ice hockey but only win 3-1 after the Finnish goalie stands on her head; the Finns are the 3rd-best team in the competition most likely, and all this demonstrates everything wrong with women's ice hockey, there's only 2 teams.

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

U.S. one-sided dominate a game vs. Finland in women's ice hockey but only win 3-1 after the Finnish goalie stands on her head; the Finns are the 3rd-best team in the competition most likely, and all this demonstrates everything wrong with women's ice hockey, there's only 2 teams.

Weird how the only 2 countries where the sport is played for a decent profession salary (still not good and not sustainable in all stages) you will find such talent
/s

 

[rj]

I understand why Finland and others are not at the level of the U.S. and Canada, but we've been doing this for 20 years now and these countries' only hope still is to hope their goalie stands on her head while she gets pummeled with shots and to sneak in the odd one here and there. The game is not improving, that's all I'm saying.

 

[BigT2002]

I understand why Finland and others are not at the level of the U.S. and Canada, but we've been doing this for 20 years now and these countries' only hope still is to hope their goalie stands on her head while she gets pummeled with shots and to sneak in the odd one here and there. The game is not improving, that's all I'm saying.

Money make the world go round. It isn't going to improve if there is no way to make a living off of it. The only reason US and Canada can make it work is they can play "friendlies" against one another in the Northern states or Canada and at least get a mildly decent crowd to come out and cheer for them. It is at least an incentive for them to keep playing after college.

 

[offkilter]

Weird how the only 2 countries where the sport is played for a decent profession salary (still not good and not sustainable in all stages) you will find such talent
/s

The pro level isn't where the competitive advantage comes from, its the college level. Thanks to title IX ensuring women's hockey gets full funding at that level while in Europe women's hockey is considered an afterthought post high school with most teams getting less than a quarter the funding the men's team does. Most women quit the sport while the few real standouts head to North America to play for college teams there. Oddly enough the only country with a system similar to Canada's and the US is Japan which is why their team is the only one showing continued improvement. If you want the European countries to improve their Ice Hockey Feds need to take the women's game serious for a change.