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2010 men's Olympic hockey tournament
Topic Started: Feb 8 2010, 04:45 PM (2,581 Views)
shelsoccer
Advanced Member
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Thanks, Hobbes, for the retrospective on the 1980 US team and thanks to Ursus for his question about ice size. I'd been wondering about that.

Also, you might be interested to know that Ken Morrow lives here in KC and is an NHL scout, I think for the Islanders.

Hobbes, I'm wondering what the take in Canada is on whether the NHL will release players for the 2014 Olympics. Personally, it'd be shame if the NHL foregoes the Olympics. They caught the perfect storm this time, which is unlikely to happen in Sochi, but I don't see how the NHL can capture a broader audience if it sits out the Olympics.
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ursus arctos
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I found this Eric Duhatschek piece to be quite convincing on why we will see a full complement of NHL stars in Sochi, even if Bettman and the league are not yet ready to commit to making that happen.
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raconteur
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ursus arctos,Mar 3 2010
09:51 AM
I found this Eric Duhatschek piece to be quite convincing on why we will see a full complement of NHL stars in Sochi, even if Bettman and the league are not yet ready to commit to making that happen.

Nice article and it captures some of my feelings, particularly about exposure of NHL players. I rarely watch NHL games and I live in an NHL city but after watching these Olympics, I am now interested in seeing when Miller, Crosby and Ovechkin will play and will make the effort to watch some of their NHL games, especially once the playoffs roll around.

I did notice a comment to the article ursus linked, and it also explains why I prefer Olympic hockey to the NHL brand,

Quote:
 
The olympics hockey was clean, no fights and was really what hockey ought to be. Problem with the NHL, is that its more for the american audience, and they want to see a little blood etc. Me, I quit watching the NHL, yerars ago because it wasn't fun anymore. When you get players using sticks as weapons and taking heads off, it fails to be sport. What ever rule the Olympics uses, should be adopted completely by the NHL....and Bettman need to leave the stage!!!


While I don't think NHL is designed for US audiences who want to see fights, the complete lack of those fights made the Olympic games more enjoyable for me than NHL matches.
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hobbes
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I agree with Ursus about ice size being a big factor in the quality of the games. I prefer big ice for the real elite teams. I prefer the small-ice NHL game to say the European Champions League (though I would love to watch the KHL more consistently to see how I like it). I’m not sure the ice size was a huge factor in who progressed (the US and Canada did fine on big ice in Salt Lake). Good point about ice quality — it was crap. I think it was the number of games more than the temperature. It’s strange what you remember, but I saw the Swedes and Czcehs in the 87 Canada Cup and it had to be about 95 F outside. It might have been the hottest day of the year. It was an odd day to watch hockey, but the ice was fine.

You make a very good point about the revolutionary way the Soviets played. When they were on, I absolutely adored their game. I was spoiled to have com of age during the freewheeling 80s NHL era where a lot of that European flash was making its way into the game and the rigidity of system play wasn’t in place yet.

I got to see the 72 series fairly late on and not only did Kharlamov blow my mind, but I couldn’t get over how fast Yvon Cournoyer was. I guess I’m kind of used to watching greats from older eras in all sports look somewhat less impressive — not as fast, not as big or strong — when you finally get to see them. Cournoyer looked like he might be the fastest player I’d ever seen. But just watching the way the Soviets moved the puck into space and held posession was revelatory — even after their influence had been felt.

shelsoccer> I didn’t know Morrow lived in KC. That’s interesting. He’s head of pro scouting or something with the Isles. Their whole dynasty team seems to still be on the pay roll. I was at their training camp this year and I was thinking there was a better team in the stands watching camp than there was on the ice.

I am of the opinion that Gary Bettman is a secret operative sent from the NBA with the express goal of destroying professional hockey. So yes I do believe it’s possible that the NHL won’t take part in Sochi. It’s so unthinkably stupid it’s possible.

I don’t really think there’s going to be a big carry over as far as American Olympic viewship and interest in the NHL, but it did turn about 10 very good young American players into ‘household names’ in the US. That’s not a bad thing. But even if there isn’t a huge spike in NHL interest it doesn’t hurt to have a lot of people remember that they like hockey.

For me the big thing with Sochi is that if you don’t let the NHLers go, you lose some of your biggest stars right off the hop because the Russians are playing. I won’t even guess the legal ramifications, but the Russian Fed. and the NHL don’t have a transfer agreement, so there have been a few contracts broken on both sides. Guys like Malkin, Datsyuk and especially Ovechkin won’t take much of a cash hit to play in the KHL and they’ll get to play in the Games on home ice. The NHL is already losing good players to the KHL.

I thought a lot of the KHL guys played very well in the preliminary round. Quite a few out-played far bigger names. But as is the knock a lot weren’t able to elevate their game when they going got tough and things got more desperate in the knockout round. Of course the ice plays into that as well.

I’m not sure I agree that fighting is kept in to entice Americans. Barry Melrose argued that they needed to keep fighting in the game in part because the height of popularity in the NHL in the U.S. (ratings wise) was in the late 70s at the height of the goon era.

Personally I think there are a lot of traditionalists who believe hockey should have fighting and I’m one of them. This isn’t a pandering to win people over who don’t really like hockey anyway — I think it’s for the betterment of the sport. Actually what the game really needs is more respect between the players, but there’s also not often physical repurcussions to taking advantage of an opponent. I’d rather see two guys square off and fight than see someone like Ole Tollefson knock Lubos Bartecko out with Bartecko bleeding all over the ice.

There have been so many phenomenally dirty hits this year (and some of the worst have been in junior) that Tollefson’s barely ranks.

I don’t know if it’s all the instigator rule, if it’s a general decrease in fighting or if neither are factors and guys are just taking liberties they never used to (and the players are bigger and the equipment is better), but there have been some filthy hits lately.

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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hobbes
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It was a perfect day for German hockey and I’m wondering how big the impact will be.

The Germans are hosting the World Championships (which are typically a pretty big deal in Europe) and they set a world record attracting a crowd of 77,803 fans.

The match was played in Schalke’s Veltins Arena and not only did they pack the place, but the Germans upset the U.S. 2-1 by scoring the winning goal in overtime. I don’t think you could have scripted it better.

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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ursus arctos
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The only thing better would have been if more of them could see the puck:

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autogol
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Looks like the stadium has a retractable roof. Must have been a great atmosphere but like with NCAA Final Four basketball in the US which also now uses enormous stadiums, fans in far away seats can't really see the action. I guess they are there more for the atmosphere than actually seeing the sporting event.
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