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| 2018 Olympic hockey | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 11 2018, 03:04 AM (663 Views) | |
| hobbes | Feb 23 2018, 06:45 AM Post #46 |
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Puck don't lie. Congrats to the Germans. They were good. We sucked. And we sucked with stupidity. Not a good combination. Russia 3 Czech Rep. 0 Germany 4 Canada 3 I figured in the first semi it would be about possession, if the Czechs could grind away on the forecheck and tax the Russian defence it would do their chances wonders. On the other hand if the Russians transition game got going against the big, but relatively slow Czech defence it was going to be a long night. Well it started out well for the Czechs and for 28 minutes they were able to establish some zone time and forced Russia to try to beat them off the cycle instead of off the rush. Francouz looked sharp, all seemed well. And then Pavel Datsyuk happened. He made a great cross-ice pass to Gusev and the sniper had a ton of space to beat Francouz who was dealing with Kirill Kaprizov in his kitchen anyway. Gusev has been more of a provider than I expected, but he showed why he is one of the best natural goal-scorers in the tournament. And then 27 seconds later, defenceman Vladislav Gavrikov out-raced two Czechs from his own blue line to get on the end of some great backhand sauce from Telegin and finish a 2-on-1 that never should have been a 2-on-1. Great goal from Gavriov who is six-foot-three and can really skate. He’s only 22. He looks like he is going to be a really good one for them for years to come. Kovalchuk was maybe a little lucky to only get two minutes for kneeing Jan Kolar, the talented Czech defenceman. Kovalchuk was square to him and didn’t stick a leg out or anything, it was Kolar’s movement that was the problem, but it was ugly. Luckily Kolar came back. I thought it was five for sure. The Czechs did create some incredible chances, but Ruzicka missed the net twice and failed to score from the slot. His second missed net was a glorious chance, he had half of the net to hit on a chance that was almost identical to Gusev’s opener. The Russians were trapped out there for the whole kill and then Kovalchuk took a slashing penalty as soon as he came out of the box trying to clear his zone. He did score into an empty net late to ice it. The Czechs had a tough time gaining the zone in the third period, but when the did, they caused the Russians some real problems. Zohorna got a great chance that forced Koshechkin into a toe save. It was only Zohorna’s second shift of the game. The Czechs gave a really good push in the last 10 minutes, but they couldn’t solve Koshechkin who made 31 saves to earn the shutout. Koshechkin made 15 saves in the second period and played very well, but I still think there’s holes in the big man if you get him moving laterally. The Czechs had the looks to beat him, they just missed the net. I don’t quite know what to say about the Canadian performance except that it was flat and completely abject in the first period, it was petulant, undisciplined and awful in the second and in the third we were mostly great. Full credit to the Germans who clogged lanes, played smart assignment hockey and were very sharp around the net – for two periods. They also took some really bad penalties and the game was a total mess generally, but they deserved it. Max Noreau got cut on a check-from-behind when he hit the dasher, but I felt for Schutz the German a little because Noreau turned away from Schutz and turned back and stopped right into the check. I think he was trying to draw a checking from behind call and nearly got himself knocked unconscious. You have to protect yourself and use some common sense. The Canadian bench wanted a major, but that was Noreau’s fault as much as it was Schutz. There was some peak Don Cherry yelling at the Canadian trainer for cleaning up Noreau’s blood and not “squeezing it out” to make it look worse. And then we took a penalty on the power play and then we took a really dumb face-off violation penalty. I knew one of those were coming. I guess I should have guessed that we would get it too. It was our controversial anglo-named duo of Bourque after Roy got kicked out. That lead to a 45-second 5-on-3 and Brooks Macek of Winnipeg beat Poulin and Canada trailed for the first time all tournament. Poulin stopped 99 of 102 shots he faced at the Spengler Cup. Since then in a pre-comp start against Belarus, a period of pre-comp against Sweden and then v South Korea and Finland at the Games he hadn’t allowed a goal. He had stopped 76 of 76 shots since they began their training camp. That’s a .983 save percentage since Christmas with the national team. Bourque turned a puck over at the German blue line and it led to a 3-on-2 break and Hagen made a nice pass to Plactha for 2-0. Another terrible turnover at the offensive blue line turns into an odd-man rush, good job by Wolf to track his man and then spring Goc who fed Mauer who scored between his legs and slid it under Poulin. It wasn’t Poulin’s fault, but he could have stopped that with better pad position. The Germans took two too-many men penalties and they also took terrible penalty by Seidenberg who retaliated and punched Kozun. Brulé made a great hit on the forecheck on the ensuing power play and then Lee teed him up for a one-timer to cut the lead to 3-1. The Germans restored their three goal lead when a shot going 10 feet wide, hits Hauger and goes five-hole three seconds into a power play. That was followed by Brulé taking an idiotic penalty for running David Wolf. Awful elbow to the face. He got a major and an ejection. I was shocked that Wolf returned, but I guess that’s a good thing. Hopefully. The Canadians actually had a good kill going, but the Germans hit the post, Poulin nearly put a rebound into his own net and then he had to absolutely rob Reimer with his best save of the night. Seidenberg hit the crossbar at the second period buzzer. We took an old team that wasn’t offensively gifted or blazingly fast, but I thought we would have composure. It was those guys that were our worst guys. Roy kept panicking with the puck and giving it away cheaply, especially on the power play. He also got kicked out of half the draws he took. Bourque made bad decisions all night and kept turning the puck over. Brulé was supposed to be a great player, showed flashes and never did it. Today was his whole career in 30 minutes of hockey. Kelly was invisible. Wolski was more invisible. Mason Raymond was slightly better, but didn’t offer much. I love Linden Vey, but he was terrible. Max Lapierre at least had some hustle, but was whining and bitching all night. Instead it was Lee, Robinson and Noreau on the blue line, O’Dell again, Thomas, Kozun and Klinkhammer, those were the guys who were going. The D really led the way. Robinson scored 2:42 into the third on a great read and hustle play and a nice pass from Thomas. He finished really well. Right after the 4-2 goal, Goloubef made a horrific giveaway and then got beaten down the ice by Kohun and drew a fairly soft penalty shot. And Poulin stopped it. I can’t believe how bad Goloubef has been. I also can’t believe they keep playing him. He would have been in the stands and Gragnani would have been benched and Elliott and Stollery would have taken their ice time. Roy threw a puck at the net from a terrible angle and instead of it resulting in the fifth odd-man rush he capitulated, he banked it off of Krupp and in for a power play goal with 10:18 left. We had so many good looks and didn’t get anything resembling a good shot at various points in the game. Roy had a chance early when it was 0-0 that he should have scored on and then Kozun had a great look at 3-1. Mason Raymond had a great chance. Lapierre was in clean short-handed and at least that was a good save by auf den Bergen. We out-shot them 15-1 in the third, but we didn’t capitalize on enough power plays and we had the same guys that showed no composure around the net all night out there late and we never got much of a look with the net empty. If we played like that against the Russians and didn’t skate and turned the puck over for 20 minutes and then took a ton of a penalties, we might have been losing 8-0 after two periods, so at least we won’t be embarrassed in the gold medal game. I hope the Germans put a good foot forward and give the Russians a game. I felt for Lee and Robinson who are career Euro players and played their hearts out. They were excellent. cheers, hobbes Edited by hobbes, Feb 23 2018, 07:19 AM.
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| ursus arctos | Feb 23 2018, 07:22 AM Post #47 |
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Great report on the whistle. I agree with every word. Is Marco Sturm a great coach, or does he just have a team who have completely bought in to his methods? Edited by ursus arctos, Feb 23 2018, 07:23 AM.
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| shelsoccer | Feb 23 2018, 11:48 AM Post #48 |
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Whaterver. You can "manufacture" snow. I noted that New Zealand won medals yesterday (or the day before) in snowboarding and freestyle skiing. |
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| Sporting | Feb 23 2018, 12:32 PM Post #49 |
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I'm only going on a couple of websites I looked at, so it's more than possible that I could be wrong. Or maybe it's the wrong kind of snow! Or maybe I was talking out of my arse! |
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| Rufus T. Firefly | Feb 23 2018, 01:19 PM Post #50 |
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Wow, Canada losing at hockey creates the same national state of angst as Brazil losing at football. hobbes you are handling it well. Excellent, well thought out analysis. I did not see either game but felt like I did after reading hobbes' post. Speaking of Germany's Marco Sturm, any chance a NHL club would hire him, or any non North American coach? Have any non North Americans coached in the NHL? |
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| ursus arctos | Feb 23 2018, 03:56 PM Post #51 |
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Around 2000, Pittsburgh hired Czech legend Ivan Hlinka and Chicago hired Finland’s Alpo Suhonen. Hlinka had led the Czech Republic to the gold medal in Nagano, and got the Penguins to the conference finals, but was fired four games into his second season. Suhonen lasted a single season with the Black Hawks. Since then, no team in the very conservative NHL has been willing to try a European head coach. That said, the fact that Sturm played almost 1,000 games in the league and is very comfortable in English makes him a more likely candidate than all of his peers, though I would expect that he would have to do an apprenticeship of several years as an assistant and/or minor league head coach before he would be given a chance. Edited by ursus arctos, Feb 23 2018, 03:57 PM.
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| hobbes | Feb 23 2018, 03:58 PM Post #52 |
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There were a couple recently. Alpo Suhonen is an interesting guy, but he didn't last a year in Chicago in 2000. Ivan Hlinka also was hired in 2000 and he was fired before two years were complete in Pittsburgh. They were the first European-born NHL coaches since Johnny Gottselig who was born in Ukraine (technically the Russian Empire), but grew up in Regina and captained the Black Hawks to the 38 Cup and then coached them after the war. He also apparently coached the Racine Belles of the All-American Girls Baseball League of League of Their Own fame. If Gottselig gets an asterisk, so too should Ralph Krueger — the other way. Krueger is from Winnipeg, but went to Germany to begin his pro career and never left. He coached in Germany and then the Swiss national team at three straight Olympics. That earned him the head coaching job in Edmonton in 2012 and like many others before him he couldn't do much to save that disaster. So while Krueger is Canadian, he is a European coach. He is now chairman of Southampton, is involved in the World Economic Forum and coached Europe to the final of last year's World Cup of Hockey. So it's probably best he got out of Edmonton. It's a good question about Sturm, Ursus. I don't know. You have to give him a lot of credit. Germany has been tactically sound and well-drilled. Today's third goal was a textbook example of David Wolf being exactly where he was supposed to be on the back check, but on a play where most of the time that guy doesn't get back there. They have been working hard for him and doing little things well. They also can't seem to make a line change and have taken some dumb penalties. So how much of that is Sturm's fault? I don't know. He has plenty of NHL experience, lots of contacts in the league and his English is fluent. I am a little surprised it doesn't happen more often, but on the other hand it's pretty rare that a new coach makes the jump to the NHL. And it is probably more tempting (and probably more lucrative) to coach your national team than it is to coach the Rockford Ice Hogs. You have to really set the goal of coaching in the NHL and commit to it. I think most people are brushing this off since it wasn't best-on-best, same as we did for 40 years during the Cold War. But it's embarrassing to lose to Germany, no doubt. The fact that half of the country didn't get up at 4 or 5 a.m. to watch probably also helps. I sense much more angst about being shut out of the curling medals. [edit] beat me to it Ursus. I also forgot to mention Jarmo Kekalainen, who is the general manager in Columbus and doing a pretty good job (though the Jackets are having a bad year and they might clean house). He worked his way up through scouting and then as an assistant GM in the NHL. But I think having a European GM is more surprising than having a European head coach and yet Kekalainen has lasted the longest. Speaking of Hlinka (he's No. 10 in white, seen briefly) I found this footage last night of the an old 70s world championship final: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2c0fLOOSYE That really was a phenomenal Czech team that doesn't really get talked about much but they were right there with the Soviets and Canada. Also I love seeing Dzurilla wearing No. 2 in goal. cheers, hobbes Edited by hobbes, Feb 23 2018, 04:13 PM.
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| ursus arctos | Feb 23 2018, 04:21 PM Post #53 |
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And I was going to mention Krueger and Kekalainen . . . |
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| Sammy Maudlin | Feb 24 2018, 12:00 PM Post #54 |
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Ester Ledecka did it again, winning another gold, but this time in her snowboarding specialty. She became the first female and just the third Olympian ever ( and first in more than half a century) to win 2 gold medals in 2 separate sports in a Winter Olympics. Bravo Ester! Sorry hobbes about Canada's defeat, curiously Canada is doing quite well in these games but lost out on golds in men's and women's hockey and in team curling. |
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| hobbes | Feb 25 2018, 10:33 AM Post #55 |
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One of the things I enjoy the most about the Winter Olympics is that every four years they arrive, mess up my sleep patterns and kill off most of the dead of winter in deepest, darkest February. At the start of the Games I thought I was living on Hoth, today it was quite nice out and it feels like spring is near. MLS starts next week. Thanks Olympics. It was a mostly excellent Games for Canada. We broke our record medal total (though it feels like there are more and more events every time) and had some really feel-good stories on the podium. Kim Boutin won three short track medals while getting death threats from some overzealous South Korea fans and of course our national obsession with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir only got worse. Of course, this is us, so nothing ever quite goes perfectly. Losing in women’s hockey hurt, losing in men’s and women’s curling was almost as bad and losing to Germany brought out some sizzling hot takes. Worst of all, 35-year-old ski crosser and first-time Olympian Dave Duncan, his wife and Alpine Canada’s athletic director Willy Raine got loaded, decided they were cold and tired of walking, stole a Hummer and got arrested. Raine is the son of Nancy Greene who was voted top Canada’s female athlete of the 20th century and is a sitting Conservative senator. I am somewhat surprised by our success, but totally floored by Norway’s dominance of the medal standings. They still excel in some of the less exotic Games sports, but they won medals all over the place and is a testament to their program Onto hockey, it was an absolute classic of a gold-medal final. Russia won 4-3 over the Germans in overtime after an utterly insane third period. Voynov opened the scoring with a second left in the first period and Germany tied it on a horrible goal by Schutz. Schutz was just shovelling a shot at the net as he went past the goal and Koshechkin had it hit his thigh, his inner arm and then go in. I was thinking that the Russians maybe could have used Shipyachov — one of their best pure goal-scorers — who has been benched after being on their second line in the opening game. And then their other young SKA St. Petersburg sniper Nikita Gusev found the inches over auf den Birken who went down to early to give Russia a 2-1 lead. Classic Datsyuk back check to steal the puck when the Germans were leaving their zone and then he stole it from Wolfe behind the net. There was 6:39 left and I figured that was probably enough to finish off the Germans. Apparently so did Russia who gave up the tying goal 10 seconds later. Dominic Kahun (who has maybe been Germany’s best player, though he had some issues in his own zone in the final) was left all alone in front and they tied it up. With 3:16 left Jonas Mueller, a 22-year-old defenceman, playing his first international tournament for Germany, who was healthy scratched early in the tournament out-waits Datsyuk, goes around him waits for Koshechkin to move laterally and shot through the gaping hole between his legs to give Germany a 3-2 lead. I can’t imagine a less likely goal-scorer, but it was a good finish. Kalinin with his first shift after hurting his arm, took a tripping penalty with 2:11. That should have been it, you don’t need to shoot the puck. Just hold it. Play four corners. Don’t let Russia touch it and if you hold their zone, they can’t pull their goalie. Well Germany lost possession, Russia got the goalie out and with 55 seconds left Gusev, who else, ripped a back hand chip over auf den Birken to tie the game with a short-handed goal. The Russians dominated overtime (which was four-on-four and all of the open space resulted in exactly two shots on goal in the first eight minutes of OT). Kovalchuk nearly won it with a sensational individual rush. It would have been one of the all-time great goals, but he just couldn’t get it over auf den Birken’s pad when he had him dead to rights. Russia got a power play when Reimer’s stick rode up and hit the side of Datsyuk’s helmet. I wasn’t at all surprised about the call, but that’s not the kind of call you would get in the overtime of an NHL playoff game. It was unlucky and a tough way to lose. I felt bad for Reimer, the OT hero against the Swedes. The Russians won the draw, Datsyuk hit the bar and Kaprizov one-timed a cross-seam pass from Gusev in. It was a 4-on-3 power play clinic. Guzev and Kaprizov both had four-point nights. The craziest thing for me about this German run is that their goalie, auf den Birken has been fine, but nothing special. He hasn’t stolen a game. He has been basically average. The fact that they’re doing this with replacement level goaltending boggles my mind. After the game Kovalchuk said the Stanley Cup is nice, but they give it out every year. The Olympics are “the main event.” Couldn’t agree more Ilya. A beat writer from Winnipeg tweeted after the game that the Russians “could still piss this away.” which I thought was pretty hilarious. Canada was able to shake off their disappointment over losing the semifinal and scored three first period goals, grabbed an early lead on the Czechs and were able to hang on 6-4 after building a comfortable 6-2 lead. A lot of the guys who didn’t do much in the semis had a good bronze medal game. Kelly and Ebbett each scored twice and Roy was much better. It’s not easy to score six goals against Francouz and a stingy Czech D. Who says Canada winning a bronze medal is a disgrace? Linden Vey, our man from Wakaw, Sask. and former Moose Jaw Warrior star Quinton Howden seem pretty happy with theirs. Though I’m gonna bet that wasn’t Q’s first post-game tallboy. ![]() Thanks for entertaining my nonsense. cheers, hobbes Edited by hobbes, Feb 25 2018, 10:33 AM.
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| Merengue | Feb 25 2018, 02:08 PM Post #56 |
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Top notch work hobbes. I think we all appreciate the insight you brought on the Winter Olympics in general but the hockey tournament in particular. I caught the very end of regulation and all of the overtime of the Gold Medal match. it was thrilling. I had to ask hobbes on twitter about the rule, which I did not know, of withdrawing a player per team in overtime. It really does open up the game. Russia were on the ropes until their late equalizer but they did, as hobbes pointed out, dominate the extra period. That play by Kovalchuk that the German goalie saved was an incredible individual play by the Russian, he looked like Messi or Ronaldinho getting past a defender and then rounded the goalie but his padded leg saved the shot. What a run by Germany who were one minute from the gold medal but in the end logic won out and Russia won the gold. I'm curious other than the held every year "world championship" what is the next major international hockey tournament? |
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| ursus arctos | Feb 25 2018, 02:20 PM Post #57 |
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The NHL plans to have another “World Cup” in 2020. |
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| shelsoccer | Feb 25 2018, 07:17 PM Post #58 |
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I had a hard time getting into these Olympics. I watched a fair amount but never went out of my way to watch. Part of it, I'm sure, was the time difference. I'm not as interested in winter sports as I am the summer games. I also prefer team sports to individual sports and don't like sports that are judged to determine a winner. The Winter Olympics are heavy on both of those The absence of NHL players dampened my interest in hockey. And, being an old fart, the introduction of X Games sports doesn't particularly appeal to me. |
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| raconteur | Feb 25 2018, 10:00 PM Post #59 |
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Ditto for me too shelsoccer. But with better viewing hours I would have watched more hockey as I do enjoy watching the international version of the sport. I see the KHL is available on Eleven Sports network which I receive, I'm going to look to see some of their league games when I can. |
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| ursus arctos | Feb 26 2018, 06:35 AM Post #60 |
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Given the last two posts, I will just say that I enjoyed this Olympics more than any since we moved back to the US in 2010, and the primary reason for that was that I watched none of NBC's coverage, subsisting entirely on live streams from German and French television and Eurosport. Virtually everything was live, there was much coverage of actual competition, and the navel-gazing jingoism was a fraction of what one gets on NBC (even though the German team was much more successful than that of the US). |
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Or maybe I was talking out of my arse!
6:23 AM Jul 11