Your Predictions for Olympic Hockey

[Tony]

I deleted it

[kimmer]

U said u like north America

[Mike]

U said u like north America

Gold - Canada
Silver - USA
Bronze - Mexico?

[kimmer]

Mike why u delete my thread

[Tony]

I cheer for N.A. in everything other than hockey ... Canada>>> Russia though.

[Tony]

U said u like north America

Gold - Canada
Silver - USA
Bronze - Mexico?

I don't consider Mexico N.A. ...

[Shoalzie]

Gold: Sweden
Silver: Canada
Bronze: USA (over Switzerland)
Tournament MVP: Erik Karlsson

(Sorry Russia)

Looking pretty good...

[Tony]

No kidding

[kyuss]

You guys alive ?
Congrats

Too bad the final was as one sided as expected, even backstrpm out... that play by Nyquist needed to be a goal to make it interesting.

[anton]

people are going to let recent disappointments at the WJC cloud their judgement here...Canada is going to wreck shit.

Gold: Canada
Silver: Sweden

[Nick]

The complete game our dmen play is the difference IMO.

Sweden, USA and the fins have as good or better goaltending

Russia & Sweden have some ultra high ender centres like canada

USA and Russia have some extremely talented offensive wingers

USA and Finland have elite gritty two way wingers

Sweden has some elite offensive dmen

No other country brings it at every position, in every sense of the game, this tournament highlighted the complete zone ownership, and ability to play positional hockey that canada currently has. What a tourney by so many players.

I come away hugely impressed by carter and vlaSic - both belonged 100% - and made a lot of very strong plays .


I still question Kunitz & Marleau - but the proof is in the pudding - 3 goals against, and those guys are more defensive than those who were left home. Duchene was shockingly disappointing IMO.

[Tony]

Dat defense ... remarkable

[Robin Hood]

Man did I have it wrong. This kind of tournament starts and I thought to myself: Defense and goaltending should be fairly close in an elite tournament like this. It will likely come down to offense...

-Our D is so far and away the best in the world, it's not even close <-- something that jumps out at me when I watch the NHL. E.g. I know that Weber, Doughty, Keith, Pietrangelo are 4 of the best 7 d-men in the league. But never did I think the margin between that core and the rest of the teams' cores in the tournament would be that big.
-Getzlaf, Perry, Benn, Toews, Bergeron eat up SO much time in the offensive zone on shifts with their infinite cycle. Even when they don't score, they fuck over the other team territorially by eating time off the clock where the other team just won't score <--- probably the biggest reason why Anaheim is the President's trophy winner nobody predicted.
-Kunitz did not live up to be named to the team, but I'm happy he scored that goal.
-It's unreal that our D is so good that Subban doesn't see a minute of ice time outside of the Austria game, when he'd likely play a lot of minutes on other top teams in the tournament. Also reconfirms my belief that the Norris should have gone to Suter last year.

[Tony]

The reason you won - no Subban

[kimmer]

Talking to the residents of jane and finch about the gold medal team - they weren't too keen on it cuz subban hardly played

[Robin Hood]

Random thoughts: Is our perception of the NHL skewed?

-People talked more about our strength at C with Crosby, Toews, Bergeron, Getzlaf and Taveres
-People talked more about our goaltending
-People talked more about our lack of offense till we beat the US

And now obviously the narrative has changed. Is D deciding most playoff series too?

I think back to when Boston beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs last year in the most convincing series ever (I think it was a sweep?). Before the series started, almost everyone had PIT winning it due to the Crosby factor/the offense of that team.

People always talk about Toews, Kane and Keith in the playoffs. But is the Keith, Seabrook, Oduya, Hjalmmarsson Top 4 (which were all in the gold medal game) the big difference when CHI plays other teams with Top Cs and Ws comparable TOews and Kane?

Also makes me think about what the Leafs really need to take the next step? We are constantly obsessing about the #1 C that we are missing. Is it more about just upgrading our Top 4? Can we be a contender if we get two solid d-men?

[Nick]

As someone smart once said, " it's all relative".

Also worth noting the major difference of a (7 game) series versus a one - and - done.

[Robin Hood]

Price was huge in securing the one and done situation. Made some big saves against Latvia and USA in key moments. Sweden game wasn't scary like those two.

[The BBKL Insider]

Kessel named best forward at Olympics

[Robin Hood]

Kessel named best forward at Olympics

I'm pumped for the Leafs man. Kessel has taken huge steps. Leafs are in good hands. And this tournament has made be believe we are a lot closer to a contender than we as a fan base believe/are able to admit to ourselves. Just need a few smart moves by Nonis & co and we'll get there.