The Official Olympics Hockey Thread

[McQwak]

JAgr was outstanding. Would still be an NHL star if he played the way he did in the first two periods. He was very quiet in P3. But again...I have never siad he was done. I said I needed to see what he could do.

I know. That's why I asked you now

Last night he looked good for the first half, and then looked tired. Conditioning (by the looks of him) appeared to be a bit of an issue. But he still has the skill set. Defensively..horrid. But he always was.

Jagr got injured in wrist after some slash, but nothing big and noticable. He just relaxed the arm in 3rd period when it came defensive style time.

Hits? not the style of those two teams. Only Chara, and he was not moving his feet last night...struggled alot actually. Looked like Sleepy Chara last night. B72 will know what I mean. Some days he is the best player ever, others not so much.

Chara disappointed me, too. Not good game for him although logging 23 minutes. Funny was his brawl with Krejci - two Bruins

[gibson41]

I say the two teams were even this game. We even outshoot you, but the problem was that our playes couldn't aim except Gabby and Hossa. They always shot it in Vokoun's chest. Have that ever worked out? Especially with a guy who's used to 40 shots per game. Czechs were much better in terms of passing and combination hockey, Halak made some good saves. The ending of second period was crushing, I thought we were pretty dominating the game at that stage, but those two goals really put us behind. With such a sloppy offense that reminded me of Rangers, and with no Nagy on board to score even a fake goal (vs. Hungary 2009), I don't see our chances bright against Russia.

[batdad]

Slovaks lost the game because their down low d-coverage was terrible. Easy access to the net and rebounds were available all over the place. Oh,and Kopecky...HORRIBLE. Even in his limited ice time he just stood out to me as a guy who is not a good enough player for the level he has to play at. Stumpel gets one funny look on his face when he knows body contact is coming.

[batdad]

And..yeah the Czechs sat back. But with my close up view (row 2 behind net) you could see Jagr huffing and puffing and hunching over trying to catch his breath as early as 10 minutes into 2nd period. He was tired. Very tired.

[philou21]

Does he got the same problem back in the NHL?? At his age, he is maybe too fat now.

[DJP19]

Jagr played exeptionally well. Elias also had some bright spots. I agree that a NHL player should be moved up to Jagr's line because three times he set up cervnek and cajanek and they couldn't even get off a decent shot.

[philou21]

What a game between the Canadian and Switzerland!! Jonas Hiller was INCREDIBLE, i knew that team Canada will not have it easy against them, good game!







Edit: Just for you Getz.

[getzlaf15]

What a game between the Canadian and Switzerland!! Jonas Hiller was pretty good, i knew that team Canada will not have it easy against them, good game!

I can't believe you've just called Jonas Hiller "pretty good"!? He was incredible!

EDIT: That's more like it!

[The Hutch]

Long gone are the days when the Swiss can be taken lightly. Anyone who expected an easy game haven't been paying attention. Hiller did an amazing job and the Swiss forechecking was top notch as well.

That being said, Canada had way too many opportunities where they held onto the puck too long or tried to look nice and dangle the puck around. Rick Nash is one of the players that I wish was in a better hockey market. His combination of size and agility is fantastic.

[DJP19]

Canada really left it to the very end. THey only got two points though. Canada vs. USA will very entertaining.

[Alessandro]

Bad everything tonight for Russia. We lost 2-1 after the shootout
http://www.russianhockeyfans.com/team-r ... 2-145.html

[eme]

Rather interesting results last night in ze olympics. Switzerland almost repeated the trick they did in Turin four years ago. This shows that Canada and Russia, although still the two favourite teams to meet up in the finals, are beatable by other countries as well.

Then again this might be a wake up call for these two teams, that they have to play to the best of their abilities during the whole tournament. Lets hope for the first option =p

[batdad]

Wow..Slovakia Russia. What a game.

Comments:

1. Ray Ferraro and Gord Miller mentioned the tendency of the Russians to play like individuals when they got down. Boy did they ever. Each and every one of them was trying to dangle 1 or 2 too many Slovaks when they had the puck. Passing was almost non existent.

2. Chara--Boy did he rebound from a bad game 1. That was the Norris Trophy guy out there. He was outstanding.

3. Lubomir Visnovsky--Where has that guy been all season in Deadmonton? Who was that all star on the ice. Wow....what a game.

4. HOSSA HOSSA HOSSA.

5. Pavol Demitra--If the Canucks get back 1/2 of what he is playing like right now for his country...whoa. He was flying last night. And involved. Wow.

6. Ovenchicken--Looked like a slob, played like a slob.

7. Bryzgalov--Looked shaky at times and all world at times.

8. Switzerland--That game had me scared. Very scared, before it even happened. That team really plays hard, Really competes. Great that Canada got to play them before the big game with USA. Shows what they need to be doing. Dig dig dig. Shoot shoot shoot. Canada managed to find Hiller's body alot, but he sure listened to the scout reports against him...his glove was outstanding.

9. I am really starting to like Mats Zuccarello-Aasen. He can fly and is a real pest.

[gibson41]

Wow..Slovakia Russia. What a game.

2. Chara--Boy did he rebound from a bad game 1. That was the Norris Trophy guy out there. He was outstanding.

4. HOSSA HOSSA HOSSA.

5. Pavol Demitra--If the Canucks get back 1/2 of what he is playing like right now for his country...whoa. He was flying last night. And involved. Wow.

6. Ovenchicken--Looked like a slob, played like a slob.

2.Lol, I wouldn't expect a praise from you after I critised him for being crushed by Ovechkin several times, that just shouldn't happen.

4. HO HO HOSSA

5. Demitra is doing surprisingly well after a slump comeback from injury. He seemed tired to me at moments, but he did play well, and oh what a goal in shootout!

6. Yeah, in better case I was expecting a 2-4 loss or something, I wouldn't expect two greatest snipers to fail like that, Kovalchuk even missed the net during shootout :-/.

I think you forgot to mention Halak, I honestly think he stood behind our victory, he made some tremendous saves especially the one when Kovy was actually raising his hands to celebrate, lol, that was awesome.

[batdad]

Halak was good...but that defense cleared out the rebounds he was leaving all over the place real well. He has real rebound control issues. The Russians did not get on them well enough (noone going to net, especially on PP). But yeah he made a few amazing stops.

Chara--Getting hit by Ovi is fine. IT happens some times and has nothing to do with whether he not he played well. In fact he pretty much (With Meszaros) dominated Ovenchicken and Semin last night.

[Círyatan]

6. Ovenchicken--Looked like a slob, played like a slob.

The Little Sheepie said after the game that the ice was not good. Wonder what that means.

[batdad]

It means he was whining. It was naff for all players and you cannot tell me that Slovakia is a hack and whack team. They are all skill players. Puck was bouncing all over the place and ice was soft and slushy. Same for everyone. Ovenchicken just had a bad bad day.

[djskek]

I just watched the game between Sweden and Belarus. Again a poor performance of Sweden. It had become apparent already in the game against our German team. Even Canada and the United States convince me not really. The output of the tournament is completely open for me. In the end, perhaps wins our German team or Norway!

[batdad]

International hockey is really boring me. Too much sitting back and waiting. I am thinking this will change Sunday, at least in Canada-USA game. Not sure about the other two (Czech-Russ, Fin-Swe)

Oh, I forgot to mention about yesterday. Canada better get some better play from D-men. Pronger being stupid directly caused 2nd Swiss goal. Also he was horrible in the game.

Doughty, Keith, Seabrook, Boyle--Between them I feel like they turned over the puck 50 times just being dumb. Especailly Boyle. He kept shooting right into Swiss players...noone was moving their feet or walking the line. Just ick.

[philou21]

Yes Pronger was really stupid on the second goal, when i saw this , i think about you. Really that was dump, it's like he was attrack by just the player who widdled him off and didn't stop following and he forgot the game.

[DJP19]

9. I am really starting to like Mats Zuccarello-Aasen. He can fly and is a real pest.

I agree. he is really good. Has nice stats in EHM aswell. Thinking of signing him,.

[getzlaf15]

Latvia holding their own against the Czechs.

[The Hutch]

I hope we haven't seen the one and only upset (Slovakia beating Russia) as this tournament has just been too close to wind up going down as expected.

Finland vs Germany in just under two hours! My girlfriend's family is German so they have my secondary support in these games. I think I cheer for them more than my girlfriend does

[DJP19]

Latvia holding their own against the Czechs.

Ended up loosing 5-2. Vladimir Ruzicka really should have run up the score like the Russians did. Putting the fourth line on the powerplay.Jeeze.

[visualdarkness]

3. Lubomir Visnovsky--Where has that guy been all season in Edmonton? Who was that all star on the ice. Wow....what a game.

He has been one of veeeery few bright spot for us Oilers fans. He is one of the bes (top 10) 2-way D-men in the league and Oilers would be worse without him, how now that's supposed to happen...