Good Olympic hockey game going on and this would be huge for team USA hopes to reach the gold medal game!!
Misc: Finland and Canada tied 1-1 after 2 periods on USA Network
- Thread starter cyclonefan1983
- Start date
Has been very good the whole way so far. Man Finland has a ton of high quality goalies. Rask is going today and Lehtonen is on bench with Niemi doing who knows what. Finland is strong in net, strong defensively and kinda looked like they were just looking for opportunities to pounce and they did late in 2nd. Really started to stretch Canada there at the end of the 2nd. Can't believe they only had 4 shots got a goal and had 2 other grade A opportunities. 3rd should be very good.
Here are the active Finland Goalies in NHL just sick:
Kari Lehtonen
Niklas Bäckström
Pekka Rinne
Antti Niemi
Tuukka Rask
Karri Rämö
Antti Raanta
Sami Aittokallio
Here are the active Finland Goalies in NHL just sick:
No trip on Sid, Yes Fins escape punishment on cross check to Benn which was bad, but then Canada with a heavy duty slash seconds before that turnover that leads to game winner. officiating was just bad there. to this point hadn't seen that many play ons at all in any game. Lots of stuff let go there towards the end they "Let the Players Settle it" I guess....
Based on the seeding they showed during the broadcast this American fan is happy we are on the top half of the bracket. if seeds hold thru in Prelim round, Quarter Final matchups on bottom of bracket (meant graphic they showed on tv) 3 Canada 6 Swiss 4 Finland 5 Russia OMG! that is rough. USA gets either Czech Republic or Slovakia, hard to tell who wins that game and USA plays that is more than a rivalry...
Sweden is the one and likely to win same with USA, so prob both USA and Sweden thru to Semis.
Edit - Sucks that USA Canada can't play for Gold. But we will probably get USA Canada so that is good...
If Seeds hold Semis look like 1 Sweden vs 4 Finland/ 5 Russia can't pick that one
2 USA vs 3 Canada
Sweden is the one and likely to win same with USA, so prob both USA and Sweden thru to Semis.
Edit - Sucks that USA Canada can't play for Gold. But we will probably get USA Canada so that is good...
If Seeds hold Semis look like 1 Sweden vs 4 Finland/ 5 Russia can't pick that one
2 USA vs 3 Canada
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So here are the final standings. Here are the 5 criteria used to set seeds 1-12. The reason USA - Canada can't happen in finals is because in Olympics you get 3 points for Reg win, 2 points for OT or Shootout win and 1 point for OT or Shootout loss. Because we won in Shootout over Russia we ended with 8. Had we won in Reg we owned Goal Diff and Total Goals and would have been the 1
- higher position in the group
- higher number of points
- better goal difference
- higher number of goals scored for
- better 2013 IIHF World Ranking
| Rank | Team | Group | Pos | GP | Pts | GD | GF | IIHF Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1D | 
| C | 1 | 3 | 9 | +5 | 10 | 1 |
| 2D | 
| A | 1 | 3 | 8 | +11 | 15 | 6 |
| 3D | 
| B | 1 | 3 | 8 | +9 | 11 | 5 |
| 4D | 
| B | 2 | 3 | 7 | +8 | 15 | 2 |
| 5D | 
| A | 2 | 3 | 6 | +3 | 8 | 3 |
| 6D | 
| C | 2 | 3 | 6 | +1 | 2 | 7 |
| 7D | 
| C | 3 | 3 | 3 | –1 | 6 | 4 |
| 8D | 
| A | 3 | 3 | 3 | –5 | 6 | 17 |
| 9D | 
| B | 3 | 3 | 3 | −8 | 7 | 15 |
| 10D | 
| A | 4 | 3 | 1 | −9 | 2 | 8 |
| 11D | 
| C | 4 | 3 | 0 | −5 | 5 | 11 |
| 12D | 
| B | 4 | 3 | 0 | −9 | 3 | 9 |
So here are the final standings. Here are the 5 criteria used to set seeds 1-12. The reason USA - Canada can't happen in finals is because in Olympics you get 3 points for Reg win, 2 points for OT or Shootout win and 1 point for OT or Shootout loss. Because we won in Shootout over Russia we ended with 8. Had we won in Reg we owned Goal Diff and Total Goals and would have been the 1
- higher position in the group
- higher number of points
- better goal difference
- higher number of goals scored for
- better 2013 IIHF World Ranking
Rank Team Group Pos GP Pts GD GF IIHF Rank 1D C 1 3 9 +5 10 1 2D A 1 3 8 +11 15 6 3D B 1 3 8 +9 11 5 4D B 2 3 7 +8 15 2 5D A 2 3 6 +3 8 3 6D C 2 3 6 +1 2 7 7D C 3 3 3 –1 6 4 8D A 3 3 3 –5 6 17 9D B 3 3 3 −8 7 15 10D A 4 3 1 −9 2 8 11D C 4 3 0 −5 5 11 12D B 4 3 0 −9 3 9
Cool chart. What does the quarter final bracket look like? How do they break up this 12?
| Qualification playoffs | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Gold medal game | |||||||||||||||
| 1D |
| |||||||||||||||||
| E4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 8D |
| |||||||||||||||||
| 9D |
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| 4D |
| |||||||||||||||||
| E1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5D |
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| 12D |
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| 3D |
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| E2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 6D |
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| 11D |
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| 2D |
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| E3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 7D |
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| 10D |
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I like that draw for the US. I like Russia and Finland being on the other side so we can dodge them as long as possible.
Our Defense and Goal Tending has been very good so far. Finland Showed today against Canada that with strong Defense and Goal Tending you can stay in the game with Canada. Finland has been hurt by injury especially at Center having to replace Mikko Koivu and Valtteri Filppula from their original roster before tourney and they were already limited (compared to other teams) up front to begin with. I was surprised Canada didn't have even more of an advantage at Center because of the lack of depth for the Fins. We have to go to school on that cause I know Babcock will be working with them to improve.
I would say our biggest weakness and concern is the chemistry on all 4 forward lines. The 3rd player on the Patrick Kane and Ryan Kesler line has been a revolving door so far. Dustin Brown has struggled to say the least. A stark contrast from the best line of the tourney so far for USA Phil Kessel, Joe Pavelski and Jamie Van Riemsdyk.
Power Play also needs to improve. Right now the USA is really inconsistent just entering the Zone on Power Play. Too many times the 5 on the ice aren't on the same page as to whether they should dump the puck and go get it OR skate it/ posses the puck into the zone if the opposition is jamming up the blue line. This confusion has led to multiple "rushes" so to speak stopped before they get started. Once we enter the zone and posses the puck we have been pretty good moving the puck and creating chances. Gotta get better there. Kane, Kesler, Pavelski, Kessel, Jamie Van Riemsdyk, are some of the Forwards that have created offensively on PP and Cam Fowler, Ryan Suter and John Carlson are a couple of the D men that have provided a threat on PP.
With our strong D and GK we will stick around, but they have good D and GK too. If we get more chemistry on the forward lines we will create chances, again so will they. I believe this is the type of game where winning face-offs will be key. We can dictate more of the things we want to do by winning draws. Canada will emphasize this too, Babcock stresses winning face offs. Power Play improvement would really help to lift our efforts as well. We scored 2 PP goals (our only PP goals in the tourney) against Russia but they have a weak D compared to Finland, USA, Canada, Sweden and the Swiss.
Both teams match the other pretty well and it would make for a good game. Both teams have a game before that one though and I believe both Coaching staffs will want to improve before the potential Semi Final game.
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It sounds like USA Hockey is doing pretty well then. I am guilty of not paying much attention to it except for the USA-Russia games a few days ago where they disallowed one of Russia's goals. I'm hoping to catch the USA Hockey games from here on out especially since they are doing well.
In NHL that is a goal.
It is odd to me that there is such a difference in the rules. In the NHL if the net gets just barely knocked off like that and the ref doesn't catch it, play continues and if a puck goes in the goal stands as long as the goal being off didn't create an advantage. However, INT rules are that the goal can't be off at all. (Watching the replay when you know the net is off it is actually surprising the ref below the goal line right there didn't see it and stop the play before any harm). The Russians claimed Quickie did it intentionally and I didn't think he did at all. He slid over to protect his post and just bumped it off it happens.
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It is a little bit tougher for the upcoming elimination games to go to a shootout tho. In group play it is 5 mins, playoff games 10 mins then shootout if still tied.