I have Canada and one other guy has Finland, Slovakia, and USA. Ouch. I honestly think Canada is the favorite at this point though.

Canada has so much talent. Seems like they are finally playing well together. Toews has looked good. Paired with Nash and Roberts. They have been steady. Toews got the tough assignment of playing against Ovechkin.

He is a great two way player.

Well here's to hoping for a USA-Canada rematch.

hope everybody is watching this. 6-0 USA with 7 minutes left in first period. pure insanity.

(02-26-2010 03:32 PM)armour248 Wrote:  hope everybody is watching this. 6-0 USA with 7 minutes left in first period. pure insanity.

USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA! :patriot: USA!

Well, Sunday is it. USA vs. Canada (or as others like to call it USA-lite, USAjr. America's hat, attic, favorite national park, the 51st state, etc...). Can the US shock Canada again? It will be tough. The Canadians will be out for revenge. Watch for the Canadians to put up a furious opening minutes in the first period. Miller will have to have another great game and Kane better show up like he did today.

The pressure is on the Canadians to win. We have no pressure since no one expected this young team to make it this far. As the top seed, we have the last line change which will help.

Should the US win, expect mass suicides in Canada which means lots of land available real cheap. I'll take Vancouver and Moose Jaw!

GO USA!!:patriot:

(02-27-2010 02:44 AM)Spudskie Wrote:  Well, Sunday is it. USA vs. Canada (or as others like to call it USA-lite, USAjr. America's hat, attic, favorite national park, the 51st state, etc...). Can the US shock Canada again? It will be tough. The Canadians will be out for revenge. Watch for the Canadians to put up a furious opening minutes in the first period. Miller will have to have another great game and Kane better show up like he did today.

The pressure is on the Canadians to win. We have no pressure since no one expected this young team to make it this far. As the top seed, we have the last line change which will help.

Should the US win, expect mass suicides in Canada which means lots of land available real cheap. I'll take Vancouver and Moose Jaw!

GO USA!!:patriot:

The first game was a classic, and hopefully tomorrow's game is as well. Although the revenge factor scares me, the fact that we beat them might put a shadow of doubt into the minds of the Canadians. We need to get the lead (The US has never trailed the entire tournament) and put Canada on its heels.

GAMETIME!!!! USA! USA! USA!
:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

OT BABY!!!!

It sucks the US lost, but that was a great game and a terrific hockey tournament. Gary Bettman is a complete idiot if he doesn't let the players participate going forward, it was obvious watching these games how much it means to them. The effort put forth today by both teams was outstanding.

Hockey is a great, great sport when there aren't fights every 10 minutes, there aren't penalties every 5 minutes, and the game is allowed to flow. That was loads of fun. What a terrific run by the US, and their effort today was incredible...just came up one goal short.

Great game but I am still mad that we lost, especially with Crosby scoring the winning goal. On the other hand, no one expected the US to be this good (kinda like the Hawks). We did beat Canada to win the World Juniors and the under-18 tournament. The gap between Canada and the US has closed considerably to the point where Canada may hold a slight edge at best. The future of US hockey is bright and hopefully this game today will help to grow interest in hockey here in the US.

According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, Canada has nearly 500K registered players (1.50% of their population--I thought they would have a much higher number!)and the US has nearly 466K (just 0.15% of the US population). If hockey can grow and with a population 10x that of Canada, I think we will see the day where more Americans play the game than Canadians. Imagine if just .5% of Americans played, that would be roughly 1.5 million!

Now lets grow the sport of hockey even further here in Illinois. Would love to see NIU field a D-1 hockey team someday. If I had the cash, I would donate to start one up. Imagine Bill Baker calling a Huskie hockey game!

Good job and congrats on the silver!! Now let's get the gold in Sochi in 2014!!

(01-19-2010 06:04 PM)NIUHuskies09 Wrote:  Canada is the clear favorite. If they could enter a 2nd team they'd be ranked number 2. But they have gone without a medal in 2 of the last 3 olympics.

The US I think is the 2nd best team simply due to their depth across the board. You cannot discount the importance of goaltending in a short tournament like this. Having the current Vezina winner as your backup really speaks to the US ability to steal a game or two.

Russia has the best group of forwards outside of Canada, but the depth at the blueline and the history of Nabokov in pressure games could lead to Bryzgalov, who doesn't have the experience.

Sweden is much like Russia with great forwards and an aging blue line. Also Henrik Lundvqist will have to play every game.

Finland is a team that I don't think can do anything well to beat a top tier team. They have always found a way to do well though. The Czechs are in even worse shape. The old guard is the only real talent they have and this is their last chance for a medal for a decade or two.

My two darkhorse teams are Slovakia because their top lines can compete with any team and if you want a real longhshot I'd take the Swiss.

yes I will keep tooting my own horn. My preview reads a lot like a recap of the tourney. Sportsbook.com is not happy with some of my parlays.

(03-01-2010 02:11 AM)Spudskie Wrote:  Great game but I am still mad that we lost, especially with Crosby scoring the winning goal. On the other hand, no one expected the US to be this good (kinda like the Hawks). We did beat Canada to win the World Juniors and the under-18 tournament. The gap between Canada and the US has closed considerably to the point where Canada may hold a slight edge at best. The future of US hockey is bright and hopefully this game today will help to grow interest in hockey here in the US.

According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, Canada has nearly 500K registered players (1.50% of their population--I thought they would have a much higher number!)and the US has nearly 466K (just 0.15% of the US population). If hockey can grow and with a population 10x that of Canada, I think we will see the day where more Americans play the game than Canadians. Imagine if just .5% of Americans played, that would be roughly 1.5 million!

Now lets grow the sport of hockey even further here in Illinois. Would love to see NIU field a D-1 hockey team someday. If I had the cash, I would donate to start one up. Imagine Bill Baker calling a Huskie hockey game!

Good job and congrats on the silver!! Now let's get the gold in Sochi in 2014!!

Same here. Other MAC schools have hockey teams, so that would make immediate rivalries.

I am still heartbroken over the US team.