good job by the women, another medal for the Canadians...I can see the mens team losing to the Czechs, getting the Slovaks in the quarters and than totally controlling them. Don't know why, just feel that'll happen.
This is ridiculous... Sportsnet has learned the coach of the Swedish Olympic men's hockey team, Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, is seriously considering having his squad "throw" their final preliminary-round game, Tuesday against Slovakia, in order to have a more favorable opponent to start the quarter-finals. Sweden has already clinched a spot in the quarters, but if they win Tuesday's game, they will face either Canada or the Czech Republic, both very strong teams, pending the outcome of the game between those two nations. However, if Sweden loses against Slovakia, they will face the Swiss team, which has been surprisingly strong thus far with upset wins over said Canadian and Czech teams but is not really considered a medal contender. According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet (www.aftonbladet.se), Gustafsson was asked on Swedish state TV what he thought about playing Slovakia, to which he responded: "We are discussing inside our group what is good and not good to do: Should you try to choose opponents, or should you do whatever you can to win and take the opponent that comes with that? ... It's tough to say. "We are trying to handle this in a professional manner, and hopefully make the right decision."
no way. the 72 team was the best. the players were probably not actually better than the 76 or 87 teams. they had esposito, dryden, conyouer, park, the mahovolich brothers, cashman, just to name a few- but the fact is that the 72 team had the toughest task of all.they had to play the ussr at the height of its power for 8 games, 4 of those in moscow. the 76, 84, 87 and 91 victorious canada cup teams and the 04 world cup of hockey winners played all of their games in canada.
"trying" and "hopefully"? If that quote is accurate, that is indeed ridiculous--and the kind of thing that many sports governing bodies would suspend a coach for.
Again, any ideas on tiebreakers? With Switzerland tying Italy this morning, they end the group stage with 6 points. So long as Canada and Czech Republic don't tie this afternoon, one of them will have 6 points, too. But that team will have 3 wins while the Swiss will have 2 wins. Then again, the Swiss will have won head-to-head over either team. Is head-to-head the first tiebreaker, or wins?
The tie breaker is goal differential. If either Canada or Czech win this game they would finish 2nd in the group and the loser finishes 4th. A tie would mean Swiss 2nd, Canada 3rd and Czech 4th. Switzerland has not secured 2nd in the group....
But the 72 team was missing the greatest Defenceman of all time, Bobby Orr. Some of the players you mention from 72 were also on the 76 team...and the 72 team was hit with a lot of injuries, that's why Paul Henderson was on the team...either way, it's like deciding between lobster tails and crab legs, just depends on your taste
Richards scores!!! 1-0 Canada BTW earlier today: ITA 3-3 SUI, KAZ 5-2 LAT It was also FIN 1-0 GER last i saw....
maybe that is why 72 was so great. first of all they were blindisded in the first game by how good the russians were. they had not expected that and yet they were able to recover from that to win game 2. and even after that they only gained a draw over the next 3 games. so the fact that they on the series by winning three straight games in moscow was amazing. they didn't have orr as you said and they also didn't have bobby hull becuase of the wha thing. can you imagine the 87 team without gretzky and coffey for example? those guys from 72 were heroic.
No doubt about that, they were heroic. they were also out of shape from drinking beer, bbq-ing and smoking cigarettes all summer But they were a great team, and so were alot of those other Canada Cup teams. In fact, they were all great in my opinion! 2-0 Canada!! St. Louis scores on the PP
whoa, i'm confused now. They just said the Swiss have locked up 2nd in the group. Then again, this is Bob Cole and Harry Neale and they usually have no clue what they're talking about...i watched a 5 minute segment on the The Score prior to the game and they explained it in detail...we'll have to wait and see...i bet Cole doesn't even know the Swiss tied the Italians
3-0 Canada! Pronger scores with 36 seconds left in the 1st Edit: Vokoun was pulled during intermission
Standing by my prediction that we're currently watching a preview of the gold medal game. (of course, depending on the outcome and tiebreakers, if they finish #2 and #4 in Group B, that might not be possible..)
You'll be lucky if canada makes it past Russia. Remember that Canada is not used to playing on a big rink, and has a poor coaching staff. Keep dreaming though.
Now i know you're just talking smack. Final score 3-2 Canada over the Czechs USA - RUS coming up at 2:30ET...maybe you 2 (MassRef & ForzaMoscow) should make a bet or something?
This is good for olympic hockey all the teams fighting and clawing for the elusive Gold. Finland is still my pick
exciting end to the US/Russia game...quarters are set: FIN/USA RUS/CAN SVK/CZE SUI/SWE Even though the US lost, I think that both North American teams finally woke up today. The Finland/USA battle is interesting, because Finland's goaltending/defense has been amazing, consider Kiprusoff and Lehtonen aren't there. Can they hold for another game, or are they ripe for a letdown against a US team that's catching it's stride at the perfect time? Russia/Canada is another stellar matchup. Russia has looked very impressive, save for its defense. If Canada's goaltending gets hot in this game, it could be an unfortunately early exit for one of the more exciting teams. I honestly have no idea what to expect in Slovakia/Czech Republic. I assume the Czechs will step in up, given this derby. But the Slovaks have been very impressive and given the way both teams have played, I think the Slovaks are favored. And, on account of the Swedish coaches comments and today's results, I don't care if was on purpose or not--I want Switzerland to clean Sweden's clock. Predictions/hopes: USA defeats Finland 4-3 CANADA defeats Russian Federation 5-2 SLOVAKIA defeats Czech Republic 3-2 SWITZERLAND defeats Sweden 3-1 For reference, and mostly to show that I've never really had faith in this US team (and that I liked Slovakia), my original predictions, which are now out the window:
OK, here are my boring "predictions": USA def. FIN CAN def. RUS SWE def. SUI CZE def. SVK CAN def. USA CZE def. SWE CAN def. CZE for Gold.
Quarterfinals predictions: Sweden def. Suisse 4-1 USA def. Finland 3-2 Canada def. Russia 5-3 Slovakia def. Czech Rep 4-3 (ot)
]Quarterfinals predictions: Sweden def. Suisse 3-0 Finland def. USA 3-1 Russia def. Canada 6-4 Slovakia def. Czech Rep 5-3
My predictions... (and what a day for TIVO today, ladies and gents) Swiss 2 - Sweden 1 Canada 4- Russia 3 Finland 5- USA 2 Slovakia 4- Czech 3 oh, yeah, there's that Champs League thing today...... the key is how well Messi does - Ronaldinho and Eto'o will be too keyed-up, psyching themselves out....and sorry, Rijkaaard is NO match for Mourinho.