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2018 Olympic hockey
Topic Started: Feb 11 2018, 03:04 AM (659 Views)
hobbes
Advanced Member
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I will have much more to say about the Olympic hockey tournament, but a couple of days into the Games, the women's tournament is off to a fantastic start. I started watching Japan-Sweden because I hadn't looked up long enough to change the channel, but I was on the edge of my seat by the end. The Japanese (who had never won a game and were utterly out-classed in Nagano) out-played the 2006 silver medalists, but ultimately lost 2-1. Japan was a lot of fun to watch.

Tonight, Finland created some really good late chances to tie the game against the United States, before the Americans scored into an empty net to win 3-1.

Both games had a really good tempo and were hotly contested.

In non-hockey news, the pride of south Regina, Mark McMorris won a snowboard bronze medal in slopestyle 11 months after suffering a horrific, near-fatal crash where he ruptured his spleen, broke his ribs and his pelvis while also suffering a collapsed lung.

Also Canada's Ted-Jan Bloeman and Norway's Sverre Lunde Pederson were in the same heat in the 5,000m speed skating and they were 2/1,000th of a second apart for second and third. It was crazy seeing a photo finish after 5k in the same heat. And Sven Kramer blew everyone out of the water and won his third straight 5k gold.

I don't think I've lived through an Olympic Games that has so little hype or interest, but so far I've rather enjoyed PyeongChang.

cheers,
hobbes
Edited by hobbes, Feb 11 2018, 03:38 AM.
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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hobbes
Advanced Member
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The men’s Olympic hockey tournament started bright and early on Valentine’s Day. The NHLers won’t be there, but now that we’re here I’m not going to let that get me down. I haven’t watched a single NHL game this year and I haven’t missed it. But I am excited about what should be a pretty wide open hockey tournament.

I do think the Russians are the overwhelming favourites, but after that there’s probably five other teams that could win or reach the final and maybe even seven teams that have a shot at a medal.

As always I wrote all this as much for myself in gathering info and my thoughts as it is for you. I don’t really expect people to read all of it.

Group A
Canada
It is almost comical how little attention is being paid to the men’s hockey team this year. Obviously it’s not a team full of superstars, but if you pay close attention to the NHL almost every guy here should be someone you’ve heard of.
I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this group. They should have some speed in the forward group and they’ll be a hard-working and physical bunch. I think the goaltending will be very solid, but I’m not sure it’s likely to steal games if needed. The defence is a huge question mark, but this is also a very old team, which should help.
Former LA and Edmonton goalie Ben Scrivens seems the likely starter. He was good enough to be picked for Canada’s world championship team in 2014 with No. 2 Kevin Poulin (Islanders) and Justin Peters (Carolina) both having NHL experience of their own. I met Ben’s wife Jenny at a Kings game I went to in LA. They were both goalies at Cornell and Jenny ended up playing in the NWHL when it formed, but has since retired.
Canada’s best defenceman is probably the most interesting one, Chris Lee. He is 37 and was almost totally unknown. He went from junior B to Division III hockey at SUNY Potsdam. He got to the AHL level before going to Germany, Sweden and now the KHL. At this late stage he is one of the best defencemen in the KHL and played on Canada’s world championship team last year as a late injury replacement. Mat Robinson is a 31-year-old who plays for CSKA Moscow and is only five-foot-nine, but is a dynamic player.
Cody Golobouf and Stefan Elliott were both second round NHL picks, Golobouf won a U20 world title and Elliott was named the Western Hockey League’s (the league I cover) best defenceman. Max Noreau is one of two players from the minor American Hockey League picked by the Canadians.
The Canadians have a lot of very experienced forwards. Rene Bourque, Chris Kelly and Derek Roy have all played more than 700 games in the NHL. Kelly was on Boston’s Cup winner in 2011. Mason Raymond has more than 500 games under his belt and Wojtek Wolski played 450 games. Roy and Bourque also played at a world championship. Kelly is the captain, Roy, Lee and Andrew Ebbett (a small 35-year-old who went to Michigan and spent 5-6 years in the NHL and now is in Switzerland) are the assistants.
Canada’s head coach is Willie Desjardins who was recently the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, but made his name coaching in Medicine Hat in the WHL. There are a lot of pretty good former WHL players that have been called in.
Linden Vey, a fast, defensive-minded forward played for Desjardins in Medicine Hat and in Vancouver (and I still wish the Kings hadn’t traded him away) is there. Former Moose Jaw captain Quinton Howden is a former first round pick who went to the KHL this year (I assume to try to crack the Olympic team, he played in two U20 worlds and has long been a Hockey Canada favourite) after playing five games in the NHL last year and 58 the year before.
Brandon Kozun is one of the smallest players I’ve ever seen. He’s listed as 5-8 and 162 pounds, but when he was 20 (the last time I saw him in person) I doubt he was even 150. He was a great player in the WHL and seems to be doing well in Russia, but I don’t expect him to be asked to fill a big role.
Gilbert Brulé was another WHL star, but unlike Kozun, much was actually expected of him at the pro level. Brulé was a sixth overall NHL pick and he played 300 games or so, but never really contributed much. Brulé is probably most famous now for pulling over to pick up Bono from U2 when he got caught in a downpour. Bono had him as a special guest at a concert and dedicated a song to him. Former Letherbridge player Rob Klinkhammer has also been chosen. I just like saying Klinkhammer.
Christian Thomas is the other AHL player picked. He is the son of former NHLer Steve “Stumpy” Thomas.
I am expecting Roy, Brulé, Bourque and Kelly, Raymond and Thomas to start out on the top two lines. I don’t think there will be a huge difference between first line and fourth line and Canada will try to use their balance and depth up front to their advantage.
I talked to Howden’s parents a week ago (his little brother is now Moose Jaw’s captain and is himself an NHL first round pick) and they said they’ve had trouble finding lodging in Korea given how late they found out that Q made the team. They had to get an Air BnB since all of the hotels are full. Some people are opting for Seoul, but the local start times are fairly late which doesn’t lend itself to train travel.
Canada used five tournaments to look at players once they knew that the NHLers wouldn’t be there and they got a pretty good look at a wide pool of players. The players are playing in nine different countries and there are seven players from the 2017 team that won the Spengler Cup (an annual tournament that features club and national teams that dates back to the 30s. Lately the best European-based Canadian players have formed a team) made the squad.

Czech Republic
The Czechs have an older, experienced team. All eight of their defencemen play in the KHL have a fair bit of size. I don’t think they feel like a real contender, but their goaltending could be the X factor a lot of teams don’t have.
Pavel Francouz from Traktor Chelyabinsk has a .945 save percentage to lead the KHL and if he plays like that the Czechs will be in every game. He and Furch were both at the World Championships last year and are in the KHL. I quite liked the game of former WHL goalie Patrik Bartosak who plays in the Czech league. Bartosak is the kind of guy who can steal a game. Unfortunately he is also the kind of guy who strangles his girlfriend. His North American career ended when he faced 12 domestic violence charges. Francouz got a lot of action last year at the worlds even with Detroit goalie Mrazek there.
Jan Kolar (Amur Khabarovsk) is one of the steadiest defencemen in the KHL and Vojtech Mozik (HC Vityaz) is one of the better offensive defencemen in the K. Ondrej Nemec was a second round pick of Pittsburgh and has played at six world championships. Tomas Kundratek (another former Medicine Hat player) made the Czech team for the worlds last year and has a little NHL experience with Washington. Former Plymouth D-man Michael Jordan is also there.
If the Czechs had a little more up front they would be more legitimate contenders.
They lost forward Milan Gulas to a knee injury just before the tournament which will hurt.
Martin Erat is a holdover from the 2006 Czech bronze medal team, but I think is probably well past his best at 36.
Jan Kovar (pronounced Kovach, not to be confused with defenceman Jan Koval) was a first-team KHL all-star in ’16. Roman Horak (another WHL guy, formerly of Chilliwack) played at the worlds last year. So too did Michal Repik played on the same Vancouver junior team as Brulé and was a key/clutch player then, but never fulfilled his promise with Florida.
Repik, Horak and Kovar are in their mid-20s which should help since the Czechs have seven forwards who are 30+.
Roman Cervenka has a little NHL experience and has been one of the better Czech forwards for a number of years. He’s second in points-per-game in Switzerland, so he can still produce.
Jiri Sekac, 25, who might have more NHL experience than anyone outside of Erat, has blazing speed. He’s having a really solid year in the K and leads Ak Bars Kazan in scoring.

Switzerland
The Swiss have been well organized, tough to beat and fairly boring for years. I eagerly await them taking Canada to overtime once again at a major tournament and inducing plenty of gnashing of teeth from Canadian fans who don’t really pay attention to international hockey.
Without their top players, this Swiss team seems less likely than usual to cause an upset. However, they do have Jonas Hiller in goal and if they can get a lead to protect they might be hard to beat.
I think there’s a real chance that Switzerland will make life very uncomfortable for a heavily favoured team in the quarter-finals. I think they’ll probably finish third in this pool, but I would not want to play them in a one-game elimination.
Hiller is 36, but was an NHL starter three seasons ago, was an NHL all-star in 2011 and had a GAA under one and a save percentage of .971 in Sochi. That was better than any other goalie that didn’t have the Canadian team playing in front of them.
The entire Swiss team is from the Swiss league and looking at the current season is seems possible, the Swiss brass are unconcerned with scoring goals. Roman Wick (who has played in the last two Olympics and is only 32) and Gregory Hofmann each have 20 goals this season to lead all Swiss players. Hofmann is a late injury replacement and Wick isn’t on the roster.
Gaëtan Haas is 26, but in his ninth season as a pro. I think there will be a few players who earn NHL contracts out of this tournament and he could be one of them. He has 40 points in 44 games and is the top Swiss scorer on the team.
Vincent Praplan is having a good goal-scoring season with his club and had four goals and seven points at the worlds last year. The Swiss only managed to score three goals during the entire tournament in Sochi, but Simon Bonderman had one of them. He’s a fairly consistent goal-scorer and has 16 league goals (the same as Haas). Enzo Corvi has 18 goals in the Swiss league. All of these forwards are in their prime which sets them apart from a lot of the other teams in the tournament. The exception is Andrea Ambühl, 34, who will go to his fourth Olympics and has 14 world championships under his belt.
Cody Almond is from Calgary, but has a Swiss granny, but was a very good junior goal-scorer with Kelowna.
The Swiss also have 21-year-old Puis Suter who had a 43-goal season with Guelph in the OHL and could draw some NHL attention with a good tournament. He’s young, but he could be the kind of goal-scorer they desperately need.
The Swiss defence is much better than their forwards. Led by Raphael Diaz, the Swiss have some of their better defencemen. Diaz, 32, is the captain of EV Zug and I assume will captain this team. He’s played more than 400 NHL games and I would expect to log a lot of ice. Phillippe Furrer is another 32-year-old with Olympic experience. Romain Loeffel and Dominik Schlumpf are both back from the world championship team that finished sixth last year.
They’ll miss Roman Josi, one of the best defencemen in the world, but they all come from the same league, almost all of them have international experience and they may have as much chemistry and familiarity as almost any team. Can that overcome lack of talent? Probably not.

South Korea
The hosts have qualified for this year’s IIHF world championships in the spring on merit, so hopefully they won’t be too badly out-classed at the Olympics. They are coached by former Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup winner Jim Paek, and assistant coach Richard Park — the only NHL players of Korean background I think I could name.
The Koreans are bolstered by a number of North Americans with no ties to the country other than the fact that they played their club hockey there. Goalie Matt Dalton back-stopped Bemidji State to the Frozen Four in 2009.
Michael Swift had a 100-point season in the major junior OHL and captained his team. Defenceman Bryan Young won an OHL title with Peterborough in 2006. Eric Regan, another defenceman, captained Oshawa of the OHL for two seasons.
Brock Radunske and Mike Testwuide are six-foot-five forwards.
The team is also a veritable who’s who of awful Edmonton Oilers draft picks. Radunske was a high third-round pick out of Michigan State, Young was a fifth rounder and defenceman Alex Plante went 15th overall to the Oilers.
I actually know Plante a little from his time with the Calgary Hitmen. He’s a six-foot-four defenceman with a huge shot. He scored my favourite junior shootout goal. He slid the puck 20 feet in front of himself and then took a couple of strides before unleashing a slap shot from the hash marks of the face-off circle. I would say it’s the hardest shot I’ve ever seen in person, but I didn’t see it. I heard it leave the stick and then I heard it hit the back bar of the net. The goalie didn’t move. It was like someone doing the NHL’s hardest shot competition on all-star weekend with a goalie in the net.
Most of these guys were already in Europe when they got lured to the Asian League to play for Korean teams and get fast-tracked for citizenship. The IIHF told Korea they would have to improve if they wanted an automatic berth and with only 130-some adult men hockey players, this was probably a necessary evil. Having been to Korean in the winter I don’t know why they haven’t taken to hockey a little more. It’s cold, plenty of people know how to skate (they seem rather fond of short-track speed skating), maybe the Olympics will spark some interest. I am definitely curious to see how the domestic-born members of their team look. Apparently they are icing a few players who are enlisted in the army still, so it could be a pretty massive drop off for them in terms of depth.

Group B
Slovakia
Slovakia were fifth in 2006 and fourth in 2010, but fell to 10th in 2014 and I feel like they’re going to do well to get into the quarter-finals.
Jan Laco will probably start in goal. He played ahead of Halak and Budaj in Sochi in the Slovaks best game of the tournament and out-played the two NHLers four years ago. All three goalies play in the Czech league, but I’ve never heard of the other two. Laco is the only goalie with world championship experience, but is 36.
Tomas Starosta is also 36 and was on the silver medal team from the 2012 worlds and is one of the few holdovers from the 2014 Sochi team. Ivan Baranka, another defenceman, was also on the Sochi team. They were both in the KHL four years ago, but are playing in Czech Rep. and Slovakia respectively. Incredibly there is only one Slovak from the KHL this time around — defenceman Michal Cajkowsky from Avtomobilist Yekaterinaburg.
They also have six-foot-eight defenceman Juraj Valach (there are two Slovak defencemen named Juraj Valachs) who bounced around the WHL with four teams in two years.
Cajkovsky also played in the OHL and had some good years with Ottawa. Peter Ceresnak, who will likely be his D partner, played with Peterborough in the O after being a late round NHL pick. Another defenceman, Marek Daloga, is six-foot-four, has spent the last three years in the KHL and can apparently absolutely fly. I’m looking forward to seeing him.
The Slovak defence is nothing special, but it might be the strength of the team. Their forward group is old and inexperienced and anonymous.
Incredibly 38-year-old Ladislav Nagy is making his Olympic debut. That says more about the relative depth of the Slovak forward group four and eight years ago than anything else. Tomas Surovy is 36 and in his third Olympics.
Peter Olvecky is 32 and is the other holdover from Sochi. I don’t think he even played much and he went from the NHL to the KHL to the Czech league to the Slovak league… which probably speaks to where he is in his career.
Marek Bakos is with Liberec in the Czech league and with them, he led the Champions League in scoring this year with 10 goals in 10 matches.
Kudrna, Hascak and Cingel are the only other players who were on the last world championship team.
They will want to avenge their loss to Slovenia from four years ago, and they probably should, but it’s hardly a given.
They’re coached by Craig Ramsey who has coached in the NHL with three different teams and only had one full season. He also has been an assistant on some horrible NHL teams lately. His former Buffalo player Miro Satan called him and asked him to help revamp the program and beyond looking to have a good tournament he is trying to change the way they play.

Slovenia
One of the best stories of the Sochi tournament, Slovenia did well to qualify again, but it doesn’t look like they have the horses this time around, even in a weakened field.
They draw players from nine different countries, but they should be very familiar with each other, which should help.
In goal they won’t have Robert Kristan who played well four years ago. Instead I expect them to turn to Gasper Kroselj who played in the qualifiers and plays in Denmark. Luca Gracnar from Red Bull Salzburg was a back-up at the last Olympics.
Of their eight defencemen, four play in the Czech second division, one is in the Germany second division and another plays in Hungary. Still, they have five returning players from the last Olympics and Sabahudin Kovacevic had a really good tournament. Blaz Gregorc is still in the top Czech league, but struggled four years ago and Mijta Robar is in Austria. Ziga Pavlin and Matic Podlipnik are also back.
There is a glaring, Anze Kopitar-sized hole up front, but the Slovenians have plenty of the strong forward group that got them into the quarter-finals in Sochi.
Rok Ticar was my favourite of the bunch. I was hoping he would get an NHL shot, but he ended up in he KHL and that’s pretty good. Jan Mursak is with Swedish giants Frolunda and is another key player. Ziga Jeglic led them in scoring four years ago and is also in the KHL. So too is Robert Sabolic. David Rodman and Marcel Rodman are both back. David could be the captain this time around, but is playing in France. Which strikes me as odd. He’s on the same team as Bostjan Golicic who played junior in Calgary and is a solid player, so maybe there’s a reason (ie. money) why they’re both in the French league. Jan Urbas, a long-time German league campaigner, will be another veteran forward.
Their top two lines should be quite decent, but I don’t think their defence is anywhere near good enough. If they can keep the goals against down, they’ll have a shot of repeating their achievement from Sochi, but I think it will be beyond them.

The Unified Team of Olympic Athletes from the Independent Union of a former Soviet State
Let’s be honest, if the Russians don’t win it will be the grandest failure in two decades of grand failures.
This team is loaded and has more talent and depth than anyone else in the field. Still, the games on international ice tend to be lower scoring and the semifinals four years ago were 2-1 and 1-0 and the medal games were both shutouts. So the margin probably won’t be huge even if they’re the better team.
The Russian team is perplexing though. They have 15 players from SKA Saint Petersburg and eight from CSKA Moscow. Now SKA has four regulation losses in 54 games and has out-scored their opponents 223-92, while CSKA has only given up 83 goals and has 43 wins and 10 losses… so they are dominant, but it is quite unusual. Or it would be since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Do we want to draw any conclusions from the two army teams sending 22 of the 24 players like it’s 1972?
In goal, Igor Shestyorkin from SKA and Ilya Sorokin from CSKA are both 22 and both were on the world championship team from a year ago. Neither are very well known on the international stage yet, but both are having a better year statistically in the KHL than Canadian starter Ben Scrivens (for example). Sorokin was the only one to get action at the worlds last year and posted a shutout. For whatever that’s worth. Their other goalie is six-foot-seven Vasily Koshechkin was No. 4 in Sochi and the 34-year-old has more international experience than the other two combined.
Koshechkin is from Metallurg Magnitogorsk and so is forward Sergei Mozyakin, the only skater not from the two big clubs.
Their best known defenceman is Slava Voynov who was a big part of the LA Kings Cup wins, but returned home after facing domestic abuse charges.
This method is crazy though, Artyom Zub from SKA was on the worlds team last year, but he’s 10th in minutes and points amongst defencemen. Granted he’s a defensive defenceman, but they’re taking a guy to the Olympics who barely plays for his club team. But there’s five SKA defencemen on the roster. CSKA’s Nikita Nesterov and Alexey Marchenko both played in the NHL last year and returned home. Both have world championship experience. They also have Bogdan Kiselevich whom I covered as a 15 year old when he was with Severstal Cherepovets’ youth team (sadly Max Chudinov who was a better player then in the Severstal youth system and was on the Russian worlds team last year didn’t make it. I liked Chudinov, he was an interesting kid). Kisselich is apparently 27 now and I am very, very old.
Up front is where the Russians should be scary. They have the two biggest names in the tournament — Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk from SKA. Datsyuk is 39, but is SKA’s captain, while Kovalchuk (who is somehow only 34) leads the KHL in scoring. They are both still dynamic players and I expect both will make a huge impact.
The players that may be even more exciting are Nikita Gusev and Vadim Shipachyov. Gusev is a point behind Kovalchuk in the scoring race and Shipachyov started the year in Vegas in the NHL, but refused to report to the minors, went back to SKA and had his contract voided. Last year Mozyakin (the lone man from Magnitogorsk) won the scoring title and scored 40 goals in the process. Kovalchuk, Shipachov and Gusev were right behind him 2-3-4. Gusev was fifth in scoring at the worlds and Shipachyov was sixth last year. They would be on the top two lines if the Russians had Malkin and Ovechkin at their disposal. Right there it is possible Russia has the five-best forwards in the tournament.
I haven’t even talked about Mikhail Grigorenko a former 12th overall NHL pick who played in the NHL last year and is only 23. Sergey Kalinin played for the Devils last year and is 26.
If these guys play the way they can and use their familiarity with each other as teammates they should be remarkably hard to beat.

United States
The joke after the Canadian team was announced was that no one knew who those guys were. It’s lame because if you don’t know at least half of the Canadian team, you’re just not a hockey fan. Half of them were regular NHLers and half of the rest were junior stars.
I don’t know who half of these Americans are. Maybe that says something about how much I pay attention to the NCAA, but… yeah… this is not an inspiring group. The Miracle on Ice team would wax these guys.
They will, however, be fast. It feels like the U.S. picked the fastest team they could possibly ice, if not necessarily the most talented.
I don’t follow the NCAA all that closely, but the college players they chose struck me as odd. None of them are real high-end blue chip guys. Most were second or third-round NHL picks. Jordan Greenway is a veteran of the U.S. development program and the U20s, but I don’t think Donato or Borgen have ever played for the U.S. at youth level. And while the U.S. has a lot of smaller guys, Greenway is a six-foot-six winger (that I actually quite like). Ryan Donato’s dad Ted Donato had a long NHL career and was also an Olympian in the pre-professional era. Ryan attends Harvard.
In 2006 the Vancouver Giants beat Moose Jaw to win the Western Hockey League title. Jon Blum was a big part of that Vancouver team. A year later he was a first round NHL pick of Nashville’s and he was named the best defenceman in junior hockey the year after that. I’m not sure what happened to Blum, but he never made it. I always liked his game. His twin sister died in a house fire when he was 15. It happened shortly before he came up here to play. He’s from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. Moose Jaw’s goalie in that final series was from ever farther south in San Juan Capistrano.
Joining Blum on D is Matt Gilroy from Jokerit, the top team in Finland who now play in Russia’s KHL (and they have a joker on their jerseys, so that’s fun). Gilroy is one of the best defencemen in the KHL and has been for a few years.
James Wisniewski is still only 33 and had a long and fairly successful NHL career before going to the K last year. This year he’s with a German second division team which seems really odd. Bobby Saguinetti was a real offensive-minded defenceman who was a first round bust in the NHL and is now with Lugano in Switzerland. I don’t know if they can ride Blum, Saguinetti, Gilroy and Wisniewski all tournament (and maybe one of the guys playing in Sweden or Borgen will be all right), but in a knockout game, that’s not a terrible four-man unit to lean on for some big minutes.
The U.S. have some big names up front. Brian Gionta turned down NHL offers this year to be eligible for the games. He captained Buffalo last year and Montreal before that. He was a star with New Jersey, but has been in decline of late. Still, it’s expected that an NHL team will sign him for the stretch run after the Olympics.
I was never crazy about Jim Slater in his prime, but the 35 year old has nearly 500 NHL game to his credit. Chris Bourque (son of Ray) is a small, skilled player who never managed to make an impact in the NHL, but could find the extra space to his liking. You could say the same about Mark Arcobello who is also small, but did play at the worlds with the U.S. in 2015 and is putting up some good points in Switzerland after leaving the NHL.
Ryan Stoa had a really good season in the KHL last year and has some size — which a lot of the high-end American forwards don’t have.
And I don’t really know who is all out there for the U.S., but they have guys like Chad Rau and Dan Sexton who were both KHL all-stars last year and are in their prime and have some offensive talent. Sexton is seventh in points this season in the KHL. Casey Wellman is also having a decent season in terms of point production in Russia. You would think they would be able to contribute, instead there’s some college guys and guys who play in Germany and Switzerland (which are decent leagues, but not the KHL).
Terry, the NCAA player for Denver, is a penalty shot specialist (in international hockey you can have one guy take more than one penalty and Terry scored three shootout goals against Russia at the 2017 U20 world juniors). It’s possible that’s the main reason he’s there.
David Leggio is the only American goalie I’ve heard of. Apparently Brandon Maxwell played some junior hockey in Ontario and then played Canadian college hockey. Which is unusual. He is also from Florida. Which is also unusual. Leggio has been the back-up or No. 3 for the U.S. at the world championships. His claim to fame is the David Leggio rule… in the American Hockey League (one rung below the NHL) he was facing a 2-on-0 break. So he turned around and knocked the net off, giving away a penalty shot. His (sound) logic was that facing a penalty shot was better than a 2-on-0 chance. The league changed the rule and now a goalie is ejected for intentionally dislodging the net. Leggio did it again in Germany and they also changed their rule and said the attacking team is awarded a goal in that situation now. He is travelling the world, re-writing the rule book.

Group C
Finland
Finland has won a medal at three straight Olympics and logic makes me think that should probably end, but they’re good enough I don’t really think I’m going to bet against them. They should certainly be in the mix.
Mikko Koskinen is six-foot-seven and is the starter for the powerhouse SKA St. Petersburg team and I presume will start. I have a big soft spot for Juha Metsola, a tiny goalie who played junior in Lethbridge and stood on his head for two months on a magical Cinderella run to a league final. He’s still a folk hero in Lethbridge. The fans chanted You-ha! after every save he made. So I would love to see Metsola in the tournament, but I’m not expecting it. They could also start Karri Ramo who played a lot of games for Calgary in the last few years and is with Jokerit in the KHL. The Finns are always sound in goal and this should be no different.
On paper their defence doesn’t blow me away, but there’s three guys from the last world championship and two more NHL veterans, so that’s pretty good.
Sami Lepisto mostly played in Pheonix and is now a pretty solid offensive defenceman in the KHL. Lasse Kukkonen had a similar career in the NHL to Lepisto (albeit mostly in Philadelphia) and played in the Sochi final. He’s also the Finnish captain.
Jusso Hietanen (Dynamo Moscow) was also on the team in Sochi. He and Atte Ohtamaa (Ak Bars Kazan) are both in the KHL and both played at the worlds last year. Former Red Deer Rebel Tommi Kivisto is also a pretty solid offensive defenceman.
It’s a good thing they have a lot of offence from the blue line because I’m not sure how potent they’re going to be up front.
This tournament seems to be loaded with Edmonton Oilers cast-offs, but Teemu Hartikainen has been having a successful career with Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the KHL. He has 20 goals and 39 points so far this season. His Ufa teammate Joonas Kemppainen has 15 goals and 36 points.
There are a lot of really talented young Finnish forwards — they’re just all in the NHL. The exception is Eeli Tolvanen who is 18 and was a first round pick in last year’s NHL draft. He has 17 goals and 34 points and is already one of Jokerit’s top players.
Petri Kontiola is a veteran with a lot of experience who was a depth player in Sochi. Savainen and Pyorala both were on the world championship team a year ago (and are 32 and 36 respectively). The Finns have 10 players from the KHL and the rest are with top teams at home or in Switzerland, so the pedigree is there even if there aren’t many names in this forward group.

Germany
Germany picked an entire domestic-based lineup which is a little surprising and outside of South Korea, they also the most naturalized players of any team in the tournament.
The Germans didn’t qualify for Sochi and have some decent high-end players in the NHL, but I’m not sure how much quality they have in depth.
They will miss Greiss and Grubauer in goal. Danny aus den Birken was on the world’s team last year and I presume the likely starter.
Defenceman Christian Ehrhoff has the distinction of playing nearly 800 NHL games and putting up more than 350 points, but also of being the only person from the abomination that was Team Europe at the 2016 World Cup who will play in the Olympics (Europe, of course, reached the final of the World Cup. Tragically “The Final Countdown” was not played in lieu of an anthem after wins).
I am excited to see Yannic Seidenberg. He played one year in the WHL and scored a point-per-game as a winger (most first-year imports struggle to adapt in their first year, but Seidenberg didn’t) with Medicine Hat and won a title. He was also fourth in scoring at the Memorial Cup. And then he changed his position and never really got a shot in NA. He’s 34 now and has spent his entire career in Germany. This is his Olympic debut.
Speaking of the WHL, Daryl Boyle captained the Brandon Wheat Kings
and is now a German citizen. That was a good Wheaties team with two lottery picks and five future NHL players and I think Boyle will help them.
Franz Hordler, Denis Reul and Maritz Muller were on last year’s world’s team that only lost 2-1 to Canada after reaching the quarter-finals.
Uwe Krupp’s kid Bjorn plays for the Wolfsburg Grizzlys (formerly the Grizzly Adams).
Up front, Marcel Goc has never been a big goal-scorer, but he is a really solid defensive forward and is a good centre. He is also a former NHL first round pick who played 600+ games in the league and has played in two Olympics.
Felix Schütz scored four goals in three games in qualifying to help them get to the games. A former mid-round pick, he’s bounced around the KHL before landing in Sweden. It’s his first year back in Germany. Patrick Hager is another consistent international goal-scorer for Germany of late.
Marcel Noebels played in Seattle and Portland in the WHL and was a solid goal-scorer. He was a mid-round NHL pick, but never got past the AHL. He hasn’t produced much in the German league since returning.
Brooks Macek was a really hard-working two-player who could score a little in his time in the WHL with Tri-City and Calgary. His dad is German and despite being a Red Wings pick, he went to Germany as soon as his junior career was over.
They should have enough quality to beat Norway and that could earn them a decent match-up to try to play their way into a quarter-final, but I don’t think they’re one of the eight-best teams in the tournament.

Norway
Norway has 13 players back from their Sochi team. Whether that experience or continuity will do them much good is hard to say. It can’t hurt, but I don’t think it does more than keep them competitive.
Norway is led by Patrick Thoresen, the 19th player from SKA St. Petersburg that will compete in PeyongChang. He was good for a point-per-game at the worlds last year.
His brother Steffan is also on the team and their father Petter Thoresen is the head coach. Petter played in five straight Olympics from 1980-94.
Goalie Lars Haugen from Farjestad in Sweden had a solid world championships last year. Haugen also started in qualifying, but Henrik Haukeland (who is also in Sweden, with Timra) got a shutout in qualifying in his lone start.
Jonas Holos is their defenceman and even played half a season in Colorado in the NHL. He is one of four Sochi holdovers on the blue line. Sorvik plays for stodied Czech club Litvinov and Bonsaksen is in Germany.
Their forward group is pretty old. Andreas Martinsen should be their second-best forward. He’s 27 and spent two years in the NHL (with Colorado). Unfortunately he’s sort of a big power-forward type and not the kind of dynamic game changer you would ideally want one of your best players to be.
Mathis Olimb is better than his brother Ken André Olimb, but is 32 now and I think past his best. Bastiansen was a solid pro in the Swedish league, but is 37 and has returned to Norway. He does have a pretty impressive 80 games of experience at the world championships. Niklas Roest is another Sochi holdover and small and quick.
Ludvig Hoff is another NCAA player (with the North Dakota Boys No Longer Named Sioux) and I’m curious to see him at this level.
Most of the Olympic jerseys are quasi tragic this year (Finland’s white jerseys a notable exception), but the Norwegian federation has a polar bear on it. I know the IOC has banned those logos, but if Canada can dump a different leaf on their sweaters, how is there not a polar bear on those Norway uniforms. Instead we get Norge written across. Totally unacceptable Nike.

Sweden
I don’t know where the goals are going to come from (maybe the blue line), but Sweden are probably my pick to reach the final. They may get as far as their power play can take them.
Interestingly they are one of three teams without a single game of previous Olympic experience (the other two are South Korea and Canada). That's a detriment, but in a forgiving format like this, I don't think a big one and you know that there will be no shortage of motivation or desire.
Staffan Kronwall is arguably the best defenceman in the KHL. He’s second in scoring by defencemen and logs a ton of minutes for Lokomotiv. He’s the younger brother of Niklas Kronwall. He never really settled in the NHL, but at six-foot-five he’s a presence and has lots of international experience. He was on Sweden’s 2013 world championship winners.
Patrik Hersley has 13 goals in 41 games this season and is arguably SKA St. Petersburg’s best defenceman. Which is saying something considering there are five SKA defencemen on the Russian team.
Jonas Ahnelov is with Avangard Omsk of the KHL and also has worlds experience. Johan Fransson was drafted 34th overall in the NHL and teams keep trading for him, but he’s never come to North America. He’s been to three world championships and won one and should be a solid defenceman.
The most interesting player in the tournament could well be Rasmus Dahlin. He’s six-foot-two and he’s 17 years old (yes he was born in 2000, ugh). He is almost a lock to go first overall in the NHL draft and he is really good and really smart.
The Swedes should be fine in goal, but they’re going to need someone to elevate their game. Viktor Fasth had a couple of lousy seasons on some bad Edmonton teams. He was with CSKA, but this season returned to Sweden.
I expect another former NHL goalie, Jhonas Enroth, to start. Enroth was the starter on the 13 world championship team. Two years ago he was an excellent back up in Los Angeles, but he didn’t fare well last season and is with Dinamo Minsk in the K. Magnus Hellberg is six-foot-five and played a couple of games with the Rangers last year, but is with the Chinese team in the K. He’s fairly young and was once considered a top prospect.
Victor Stallberg is a big forward with 500 games in the NHL, but doesn’t seem likely to offer any offence. Joel Lundqvist (twin brother of New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist) has loads of experience. He’s played at seven world championships and won titles in 2006, 13 and last year in 17.
Anton Lander was a promising player for Edmonton that never reached his potential. The same could be said for Carl Klingberg, though he won a world championship a year ago. Oscar Moeller was a good goal scorer with Chilliwack in junior, he got to the NHL, but quickly returned to Sweden and has been a consistent scorer there and in the KHL.
Linus Omark was another Edmonton player who didn’t pan out, but he’s been a solid KHL player and I think he has some potential to be an offensive contributor.
Two players I really want to see are KHL linemates Patrik Zackrisson and Alex Bergstrom. They’re both high-end offensive players in the KHL who are new to that league. Zackrisson has 42 points and is 11th in scoring with Novosibirsk. Bergstrom’s 21 goals are near the top in the league. I don’t think there’s going to be much talk about them pre-tournament, but this line could be the key for the Swedes.

I think Russia are the overwhelming favourites and Canada, Sweden and Finland are the likeliest other semifinalists. I think the Czechs, Americans and Swiss (in that order) have the best shot of getting into the semis and playing for a medal. Either Germany and Slovakia should be the other quarter-finalists, but we’ll wait to see the match ups.

cheers,
hobbes
Edited by hobbes, Feb 15 2018, 01:46 AM.
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ursus arctos
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And we start with Slovakia beating the OAR and Slovenia beating the US

This is going to be good
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hobbes
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I wasn't sure where you would land on that Slovenia-U.S. result Ursus.

Wojtek Wolski, who broke his neck 16 months ago, scored twice for Canada today and the first was an absolute beauty. Very good win for Canada, though I thought Scrivens was a little shaky in goal.

cheers,
hobbes
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ursus arctos
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Ah, we pretty much never support the US in international competition, so it wasn’t hard at all

And since I’m half Slovak, it was a pretty good day
Edited by ursus arctos, Feb 15 2018, 06:42 AM.
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ursus arctos
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Good start by Hobbes’ guys and by the Swedes and Finns
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Yogi
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Great write up hobbes. The best preview of the Olympic hockey tournament I have read.

I honestly have not been paying much attention to the hockey tournament in specific or the entire Winter Olympics in general but once the knockout stage of the hockey tournament begins I will start watching and hobbes preview will be invaluable.

I did not know Ray Bourque's son is playing for the US or that Slava Voynov is in this competition (I had forgotten he left the NHL.) Basically this competition has become a showpiece for the KHL not the NHL as in the most recent Olympics.
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The women’s tournament has been pretty fun and even the games between lower teams have been good and hotly contested.
The Korean experiment ended yesterday with a loss to Japan.
Sarah Murray, the daughter of former NHL coach Andy Murray, is coaching Korea and has been working for three years to build the team. When Murray first got there she had players who didn’t know how to go over the boards without going through the door.
Then on Jan. 15 she was told she had to add 12 North Korean players. At the time she said felt the team had been used politically. The 12 PRK players came over 10 days before the games and three of them have to play in each game.
They have to translate everything twice, from English to South Korean and then to North Korean (which unbeknownst to me, and apparently Murray, is significantly different)…
Murray said, oddly, one of their biggest issues has been equipment. The South Koreans had been outfitted by Nike, but none of the North Koreans could wear American-made equipment or uniforms, so they had to switch all of the gear over to CCM. Which is ironic since two of the Korean players are actually American born and bred.
Murray did say the North Koreans are really coachable and have been great to work with.
Randi Griffin, from Apex, N.C., scored the first goal in Korean Olympic history. There’s two American-born and two Canadian-born Koreans in the team and Griffin actually played for Harvard, so that’s a pretty good level. I was pretty impressed by Marissa Brandt (who is being called Yoon Jung Park, or Marissa Park at times) on the Korean D. Her sister Hannah Brandt (Marissa was adopted) is on the U.S. women’s team.

The Korean men had a lead on goal by Min-ho Cho, but lost 2-1 to the Czechs. I didn’t see much of the game, but the Koreans were in it until the end, though they were leaning pretty hard on Matt Dalton in goal, which is to be expected.

As much as I’ve enjoyed the start of the men’s tournament, the officiating is the worst I’ve ever seen at a tournament at any level. There have been a handful of quite shocking non-calls, some errors in the interpretation of the rules. I don’t know if it’s nerves for some of these guys, but it has to get better.

cheers,
hobbes
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raconteur
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I have not yet watched the hockey tournament yet either but really appreciate the detailed reports hobbes is providing us.

So if officiating has been a problem are not the typical international ice hockey federation officials being used? You know the ones who officiate the world championships, the age group tournaments, the World Cup and the last Olympic tournament? If, as I suspect they are, as each sport's federation belongs to the IOC and designates officials, then why has officiating been such a problem here?

Or is it in something in the water in Korea which affects officials, I am thinking about how Roy Jones, was robbed in boxing at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics and don't get any Italy or Spain fan started on officiating at Japan/Korea 2002!
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Bryan Moreno flashback, man

Should have put a Trigger Warning in that post
Edited by ursus arctos, Feb 16 2018, 04:18 AM.
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raconteur
Feb 15 2018, 06:54 PM
So if officiating has been a problem are not the typical international ice hockey federation officials being used? You know the ones who officiate the world championships, the age group tournaments, the World Cup and the last Olympic tournament? If, as I suspect they are, as each sport's federation belongs to the IOC and designates officials, then why has officiating been such a problem here?
Yeah they are. Typically they use NHL officials in the Olympics recently, but these guys all work the world championships. So I have no idea.

Last night there was a double-minor high sticking call where there was no high stick, a tripping call when another player tripped over his teammates' stick. There were three no-calls in Norway-Sweden that might have been suspension-worthy in the NHL. In Russia's loss they were short-handed, but pulled their goalie and they sent a long pass down the ice and were going to be first to the puck and gain the zone and that was called icing. Which obviously is not a call that is possible when you're short-handed. That's a call that doesn't get missed in Atom house league. And the Russians never really did get set up after that blown call. And there are plenty of other borderline things you can argue about, but a cross-check head-first into the boards, blind-side elbow to the head... there are some crazy calls that are being missed (and then they trolled us, by calling too-many men on a dodgy line change with four seconds left).

They are off to a good start in the U.S.-Slovakia came, so hopefully they're settling down. The NCAA kids are playing really well, they maybe should have brought more of them.

cheers,
hobbes
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No surprise to me, but the Russians woke up Thursday in the middle of the night.

They juggled their lines, split up Kovalchuk and Datsyuk and benched Shipachyov. I wasn't expecting 20-year-old Kirill Kaprizov to get much of a role. But he tore up the world juniors two years ago, found himself on a line with Guzev and Datsyuk and scored a hat trick. Kovalchuk looked like he was really feeling it and scored twice. Russia won 8-2 and it probably could have been worse. Though they were clearly trying to keep the pedal down and now look well poised to get a bye to the quarters with a strong goal differential.

In the opener, I thought their huge goalie Vasily Koshechkin probably cost the Russians the game (that and a pair of unlucky delay of game penalties), but they went back to Koshechkin and I wasn't overly impressed again. I thought he gave up a soft goal. They made the odd move to put Ilya Sorokin in for the this period (I cover a team that has done this all, they throw their rookie in late once they have a comfortable lead). It took 15 minutes before Sorokin even had a shot, but he was pretty solid, but then gave up a late goal. I still think they should start Sorokin against the U.S. For much of the third period, the Russians had eight goals and the Slovenians had eight shots.

cheers,
hobbes
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ursus arctos
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It would be rather Slovene for the guys to have had a beer or three after the huge win, which obviously wouldn’t help.

The Slovaks got killed by penalties. Both US goals came on he power play.
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Strong showing from the Germans, who only lose to World Champions Sweden 1-0, and came very close to tying it in the last minute.
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I was impressed by the Germans, but I think Sweden's strong defence and lack of offence is going to keep teams in games. The Germans had some really good power play chances, but couldn't solve Enroth. Norway did a nice job of hanging around against Finland too and actually led 1-0. Norway's top line of the Olimb brothers and Thoreson have been able to tilt the ice when they've been out there.

In a tournament full of old players, it's really interesting to me that the young players have been the stars of the tournament so far. Kaprizov, 20, gets a hat trick. Donato, 21, scored twice for the U.S. (and Greenway, who is just a beast, and Troy Terry, 20, has been dynamic and combined really well with Donato) and Eli Tolvanen, 18, scored twice for Finland and has three in the tournament and Miro Heiskanen, another 18 year old, was outstanding. Even Dahlin for Sweden got some ice time and started on the power play.

I haven't figured out the goaltending where teams keep changing goalies after good performances and/or stay with their starter after a poor outing. And there were some strange starting decisions as well, with Genoni for Switzerland starting ahead of Hiller being on top of that list. I'm not sure I'm sold on Zapolski the American, either, but I have no idea if they have anyone better.

cheers,
hobbes
Edited by hobbes, Feb 16 2018, 02:04 PM.
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