Bure
Registered User
Probably the greatest of all-time. They had a recent Norris Winner as a scratch.
-Russian Fan
Worse NHL olympics ever?
- Thread starter Pepper
- Start date
Probably the greatest of all-time. They had a recent Norris Winner as a scratch.
-Russian Fan
Zero effort is you sitting in front of your computer; not Canada working 60 minutes to dominate.
hockeyfan2k11
Registered User
- Jun 11, 2011
- 12,150
- 6
I think Canada should stay back and play Russia in a 'friendly'.
We never did get that rematch. Pretty sure it would have ended badly again for them though. Hopefully they get their act together.
We never did get that rematch. Pretty sure it would have ended badly again for them though. Hopefully they get their act together.
Pepper
Registered User
- Aug 30, 2004
- 14,704
- 275
It's funny (and sad at the same time) how people take this so personally because their fav team won. It's not a bash against the Canadians by any means, Canada dominated in a way that required only a 90% effort from them. We didn't even see the best Canada out there (which is frightening for the other nations), they had ample room to turn up the pace a notch or two, it just wasn't needed.
Sweden knew it needed the first goal, when Canada scored first, it was like the whole swedish team deflated and after 2-0 there was very little effort from Team Sweden (which is very surprising from the swedes). Canada saw that and played the rest of the game cruise-control on.
I'm not offended. I'm just being reasonable for athletes who put so much work and training. Wake up at 6 am and put their heart and soul. Win or lose, it doesn't matter, but you can't deny any of these Olympian (not just Canada) that they put no effort in. I feel bad for the athletes who make peanuts (from other countries), and get ratted on by fans because they didn't make some couch potato proud of their country.
NorthernILHawksFan
Registered User
The format really needs to be changed. Not enough games between the top-7 nations.
Have it like 2006, two pools of six teams, round robin. Top four in each advance to the quarterfinals. Do away with the pointless qualification round.
Have it like 2006, two pools of six teams, round robin. Top four in each advance to the quarterfinals. Do away with the pointless qualification round.
Pepper
Registered User
- Aug 30, 2004
- 14,704
- 275
Listen, we're talking about effort, drive, emotion etc. in comparison to other Olympic finals. This was so far from Vancouver 2010 and worse than Torino, SLC, Nagano as well.
I feel bad for people who can't read.
No! Send under 23s. Why is everyone so quick to dismiss this idea?
This is the best compromise.
It has nothing to do with the size of the rink.
The competition was the weakest ever, since the NHL players began to play in the Olympics in 1998.
Also, the competition format was awful.
Slovakia looks done, Hossa and Chara the last great generation, only "very good" players on the horizon in Sekera, Tatar, Jurco, Marincin... And only a few of them.
The Czechs' best player is a 42-year old Jagr and their defense is atrocious.
Goaltending weak and again, no great player on the horizon. Not a one.
A few "very good" ones, mind you.
Finland and Sweden ended up so banged up it got silly in the end.
Props to Finland for playing really solid hockey, if not for the Rask flue, who knows how everything ends up.
USA looked strong, and their program is strong, they continue to grow.
Their time will come.
To me, they looks like they got that "little brother" complex going vs Canada, but the talent is definitely there.
Russia has a strong top-6, decent goaltending... And that's it.
Awful D. Bottom-6 just not good enough.
Oh, and a terrible coach.
Switzerland is coming up strong, but they still need some time to grow.
...
Compare that to any other Olympic tournament so far, and it was really between Canada and the US.
The only team I can see beating them with these Olympic lineups was Finland with Rask in goal.
Not to take anything from the Canadians - they deserved the gold, but I came away most impressed with Finland.
Rask and mostly Finnish leagues and KHLers combined with not even their top NHL players did great, noone outplayed them heavily and they were in every game.
Considering how many fantastic young players they got coming up (reigning WJC champs), Finland definitely looks very strong for the next few Olympic cycles.
I voted yes because of team Russia horrible performance. Didn't watch semis or final, so can't comment on that
Riggins
Registered User
NorthernILHawksFan
Registered User
Tourney definitely wasn't as deep as years past. Czechs and Slovaks were down (and Czechs did not bring their best roster), and yeah, the injuries to Sweden and Finland were unfortunate.
Couldn't agree more, I'd even do 2 pools of 5 teams.
And I get why it's pool vs. pool in qualification or quarterfinal rounds, but I would much prefer that teams could play each other more than once before the final.
The format is simply a problem. But that's 100% on the NHL. There could be much better formats if NHL wasn't such an egocentric company.
Extra Texture
A new career
Czechs v. Slovaks?
Canada v. Latvia?
Sweden v. Latvia?
There was plenty of fantastic hockey on display, plenty of unmissable performances. The Americans and Swedes were electric to watch pretty much every game, and every Russian game was entertaining with the atmosphere. The intensity level seemed was lowered for some group games, but does that really make it unwatchable?
All some people know how to do is moan. If it was so unwatchable, why did anyone keep watching? Go turn off the TV and have a whine with Ed Snyder.
The format was much better.
2 Groups with 6 teams each is sooooo much better than this odd crap.
The only issue with the Turin format was that each team played 5 round robin games, while this format was 3 round robin games.
That's a whole lot of extra games to need to play, with demand on the players and arena availability.
That's a whole lot of extra games to need to play, with demand on the players and arena availability.
Canuck21t
Registered User
This Sochi Olympic hockey event has been indeed underwhelming due to various things.
Too many injuries from small countries like Sweden and Finland. Canada has so much depth that losing Samkos then Tavares didn't affect much because we could replace them with almost as good players. Sweden and Finland don't have that luxury so their team's strength was significantly diminished.
Then you have the Czech Republic and Slovakia who aren't what they used to be anymore. I really hope their hockey programs get a boost somehow, but their regression is not good for hockey.
The big ice surface is definitely not as fun as the small ice surface. It seems that the key to winning on the international ice is defense and that makes the games not as fun to watch.
I believe most of the crowd in the final were Russians? There were not enough fans of Sweden and Canadians so the atmosphere was rather quiet.
Canada's dominance in the last few games didn't help. It's always more fun when there is danger and there was few here.
Too many injuries from small countries like Sweden and Finland. Canada has so much depth that losing Samkos then Tavares didn't affect much because we could replace them with almost as good players. Sweden and Finland don't have that luxury so their team's strength was significantly diminished.
Then you have the Czech Republic and Slovakia who aren't what they used to be anymore. I really hope their hockey programs get a boost somehow, but their regression is not good for hockey.
The big ice surface is definitely not as fun as the small ice surface. It seems that the key to winning on the international ice is defense and that makes the games not as fun to watch.
I believe most of the crowd in the final were Russians? There were not enough fans of Sweden and Canadians so the atmosphere was rather quiet.
Canada's dominance in the last few games didn't help. It's always more fun when there is danger and there was few here.
chauron
Registered User
- Jan 5, 2014
- 2,335
- 1,153
There were many high quality games, essentially USA-Russia, Russia-Finland. Sweden - Czech was a good game too IMO. And USA-Canada was quite enjoyable too.
Too bad the final round was kinda letdown because Canada was a tad too good against Sweden.
Too bad the final round was kinda letdown because Canada was a tad too good against Sweden.
From an entertainment perspective it wasn't worth shutting down the NHL for it. A lot of teams were missing their top players, too. It wasn't really a best on best at the end of the day
The best moment from the Olympics was a shootout, surprisingly.
The best moment from the Olympics was a shootout, surprisingly.
