Men's Olympic hockey

[ZBBM]

USA!  USA!  usa?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Dejan Kovacevic ‏@Dejan_Kovacevic  4m
Parise: 'We were passive. We had one forechecker at times, let them break out of their zone.' ... Ouch on that one.

Parise not too happy with the coaching staff maybe? Even with the guys that they left off, this team on paper was better than the 2010 team. But I agree 100% with Parise that they were way too passive in both of these games. I don't recall Wilson playing them like that.

 

[moon111]

A former Leaf netminding prospect does extremely well and two Leaf players are on a team that shows no concern for their own end?  Nothing to see here, moving on.

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

Hughson: "I think Canada would have played this game the same way as the Americans"

I get the emotional letdown after losing the SF, but I would hope that Canada would show a little more effort and pride in this scenario. Sure they played for the bronze in Nagano and lost but that was the first year that the NHL was at the Olympics and I would hope and think attitudes have changed since then. Winning a bronze is still an accomplishment, especially with the strength of these teams and the big ice adjustment.

At the same time, full credit to the Finns who have been solid and played the same game all tournament. Even if the Americans had been playing with 100% focus and desire I think the Finns still woulda won.

I have to lean a little more in the direction of Hughson on this one.  I thought the americans were playing all right for the start of the game..but going down 2-0 like they did..that was it.  If the US scores first in this game I think the interest level would have been there..but having to overcome the defecit as well as the heartbreak of losing to Canada proved to be too much.  You can say that the team should put more value on bronze..but I feel like the majority of the fans in both canada and the us don't ..so it seems hard for me to believe the players would be that much different.

 

[Redleaf]

Hughson: "I think Canada would have played this game the same way as the Americans"

I get the emotional letdown after losing the SF, but I would hope that Canada would show a little more effort and pride in this scenario. Sure they played for the bronze in Nagano and lost but that was the first year that the NHL was at the Olympics and I would hope and think attitudes have changed since then. Winning a bronze is still an accomplishment, especially with the strength of these teams and the big ice adjustment.

At the same time, full credit to the Finns who have been solid and played the same game all tournament. Even if the Americans had been playing with 100% focus and desire I think the Finns still woulda won.

I have to lean a little more in the direction of Hughson on this one.  I thought the americans were playing all right for the start of the game..but going down 2-0 like they did..that was it.  If the US scores first in this game I think the interest level would have been there..but having to overcome the defecit as well as the heartbreak of losing to Canada proved to be too much.  You can say that the team should put more value on bronze..but I feel like the majority of the fans in both canada and the us don't ..so it seems hard for me to believe the players would be that much different.

So, having said that, were the Americans the 2nd or 3rd best team in this tournament? Or did they end up where they should have been, in 4th?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

So, having said that, were the Americans the 2nd or 3rd best team in this tournament? Or did they end up where they should have been, in 4th?

If we're just talking about on paper, given the injuries Sweden and Finland had before and during the Olympics (Sedin, Zetterberg, Franzen, Koivu, Filpulla, Barkov), I think the US were the 2nd best team behind Canada. Although even without the injuries I would have put them ahead of Finland.

 

[Stebro]

He thinks that there are better options.

Do you agree? Has OEL had a bad tournament? I've only watched a bit, but it seems like Edler is having a better tournament than I would have expected and that might turn his poor season around. Karlsson is Karlsson. I'm guessing he doesn't want to break up the Chicago pairing. That leaves Ericsson and Kronwall. I didn't expect Ericsson to excel on the big ice, but I can't really say much about how his tournament is going.

It's just crazy to me that OEL, a player who has the reputation right now of being a top-10 defenceman in the league, is being benched.

I think that OEL deserves a spot, but our coach didn't wanna change the team that won vs Finland. The only thing I can think of as another reason why, is that he don't want Karlsson+OEL on risky offensive raids vs Canada. But IMO he should still start ahead of Tallinder. Having OEL+Karlsson on the pp is pretty good, so I don't think we should miss out on that opportunity.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

A former Leaf netminding prospect does extremely well and two Leaf players are on a team that shows no concern for their own end?  Nothing to see here, moving on.

Couldn't have made less of a point if you tried.

 

[hockeyfan1]

Congratulations to Teemu Selanne and Team Finland on winning the bronze medal in their Men's Ice Hockey matchup against Team USA, a 5-0 drubbing of the US.

Since NHLers began representing their respective countries', Finland has won the most medals (four out of five Winter Olympics in Men's Ice Hockey).

As for the USA, they played well throughout winning all of their games leading offensively.  Their loss to Team Canada in the Semi-Finals relegated them to playing in this bronze medal game against Finland.
The American men's team churned out a huge disappointment for USA fans in coming out empty-handed at this event.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/selanne-scores-2-vs-u-s-for-finland-bronze/

 

[Stickytape]

Man, I really hoped Kessel and JVR would come home with medals.  Crazy.

 

[Redleaf]

So, having said that, were the Americans the 2nd or 3rd best team in this tournament? Or did they end up where they should have been, in 4th?

If we're just talking about on paper, given the injuries Sweden and Finland had before and during the Olympics (Sedin, Zetterberg, Franzen, Koivu, Filpulla, Barkov), I think the US were the 2nd best team behind Canada. Although even without the injuries I would have put them ahead of Finland.

Agreed. I think if the format were different, (or rather the divisions), Canada would have faced the US again in the gold medal game, and the US would have come home with the silver again.

 

[2badknees]

Not particularly surprised. Canada dominated both games against Finland and the U.S., but Finland had much more structured D and collapsed well into that 5 man box that eliminates chances in the preliminary rounds.

Kessel and JVR are good players, no doubt, but neither showed much against two games with truly solid defencemen.

 

[Stebro]

I'm bored, so here's the deal, if Canada win, I'll post a picture with me holding up a sign saying Canada owns.

 

[Jalili]

Quite clear that the Finns showed up for today's game while the Americans couldn't muster up the same effort. Bronze for the Finns is a major accomplishment, for the Americans it means comparatively little.

But I'll give the Finns credit, they played a strong tournament and as a hockey nation have actually seen something of a resurgence in producing top prospects in recent years after a period of very little development.

With Barkov, Granlund, Maatta, Ristolainen, Teravainen, Vatanen, etc. they'll likely be a much more talented team in 2018.

 

[Jalili]

Shutout in the final 2 games against the only real medal contenders that they faced? Hmm, I wonder if the 3rd highest scoring American this season could have helped. Or the two highest scoring American defencemen this season. Or the 2nd highest scoring American since 08/09.

With that said, the blame shouldn't be entirely on the management team. I've only caught the 3rd period of this game and nobody in blue has really stood out. But against Canada I said Kessel and Kane were really the only dangerous players offensively. And they did play two teams that played very well defensively.

Orpik stands out as the biggest mistake they made in the selections. Even if they didn't want to gamble on Yandle, at least E Johnson would have been a big upgrade. Orpik was so obviously the coaches pick... had no business being there.

And as predicted it cost them to not bring at least 1 or 2 of Ryan, Saad or Okposo. Saad was the exact type of player they needed to go up against Canada.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

With Barkov, Granlund, Maatta, Ristolainen, Teravainen, Vatanen, etc. they'll likely be a much more talented team in 2018.

Yeah the Finns have some good young blood coming up.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Orpik stands out as the biggest mistake they made in the selections. Even if they didn't want to gamble on Yandle, at least E Johnson would have been a big upgrade. Orpik was so obviously the coaches pick... had no business being there.

He's America's Eric Brewer.

 

[Rick C.]

I wonder if Kessel's sister will let him touch her silver medal?

 

[Rick C.]

I wonder if Kessel's sister will let him touch her silver medal?

 

[Kessel Run]

Not particularly surprised. Canada dominated both games against Finland and the U.S., but Finland had much more structured D and collapsed well into that 5 man box that eliminates chances in the preliminary rounds.

Kessel and JVR are good players, no doubt, but neither showed much against two games with truly solid defencemen.

It wasn't just those two...