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Freakin Jagr. Dude is an ageless wonder
OFFICIAL HOCKEY THREAD: NHL, KHL, NCAA, IIHL
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by philballa09,
- Start date
DeadsetAce
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TJ Oshie knee injury tonight....looked somewhat bad. too early to know if it'll keep him out of the olympics.
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Iggy didn't even get invited. It's his fault! I'm still salty over that goal. But damn, that team is nice. I wanna see Benn play with Toews and see a line of Perry ? Stamkos :x or they have Toews/Bergeron on the checking lines 
Not fair
Not fair
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hockey canada doesn't want to get turin'ed where they took a bunch guys who won gold on a small ice surface.
in turin they took Bryan McCabe, Adam Foote, Rob Blake, to the big ice.... like wut?
in turin they took Bryan McCabe, Adam Foote, Rob Blake, to the big ice.... like wut?
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Darcy Kuemper played outstanding last night.
rell826
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Week suspension is finally up. Missed a lot.
DeadsetAce
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rell826
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Called someone a male sexual organ sucker in the CFB thread.
DeadsetAce
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Ranking the best Olympic forward groups.
At least Steve Yzerman made it interesting.
He could have put Claude Giroux and Martin St. Louis on Team Canada, and there really wouldn’t be anything to debate. Sure you could nitpick about the third goalie or perhaps the exclusion of James Neal or Brent Seabrook, but it would be splitting hairs.
Team Canada’s decision to go with Rick Nash, Patrick Marleau, Jeff Carter and even Chris Kunitz at least provided something to argue about. It also didn’t change the big picture: Canada has the best forward group in the men's tournament at the 2014 Sochi Games, by a long shot.
This week, with input from a few NHL coaches, execs and players, we’re ranking the position strengths by country, starting with a no-brainer. But after Canada, things get interesting:
1. Team Canada
One of the questions Yzerman often faced from reporters trying to squeeze any clue out of which direction he was headed up front was whether he preferred bringing natural wingers, or converting talented centers to the wing. He’d point out that many guys, like Patrick Sharp, had played center in the past, and that he was comfortable with both options, depending on the player. But looking at this roster, there appears to be more premium on players staying in their natural position.
Nobody is in a more natural position than Kunitz on Sidney Crosby's wing. If Kunitz and Crosby struggle at all, that will be a selection highlighted.
“We went back to last season when Sid was out of the lineup,” Yzerman said, explaining the Kunitz pick. “[Kunitz] played well. We like what he brings ... if he’s not on Crosby’s line, where is he playing? One, we know this guy has been on championship teams. He plays hard. He goes to the net, around the net he’s one of the top players. He’s very good in that area. He’s just gotten better and better each year.”
Even though he hasn’t played at the same level, we remember Nash’s performance for Team Canada in 2010, and have no issue with bringing him back. Considering Logan Couture and Joe Thornton are at home, it’s a bit surprising that Marleau is the Sharks forward who was picked. (It was announced later that Couture would have surgery for a hand injury on Wednesday.) But ultimately, this is a team with incredible forward depth and the best group of centers in the world, led by Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf and Jonathan Toews. It was nearly unanimous among those polled as to which forward group was the best.
“Has to be Canada. Deepest pool of players from which to select,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “87 and 19 end the discussion. There are not two better leaders, competitors and workers in the game.”
Said one player: “A Canada "B" team might be the only forward group that might beat Team A. There’s a plethora of forwards that don’t make the team that could easily be game-changers.”
2. Team Sweden
Sweden is my gold-medal pick, and the forward group has a lot to do with it. It’s a great mix of players who have experience winning internationally on the big ice, including gold-medal winners from 2006 in Henrik Zetterberg, Daniel Alfredsson and the Sedins. Alexander Steen, who projected to be a third- or fourth-line option before the season, has been one of the best players in the NHL in 2013-14. Gabriel Landeskog, Jakob Silfverberg and even Nicklas Backstrom bring youth to this veteran roster that has fantastic balance and great leadership in Alfredsson and Zetterberg.
“Us younger guys have to learn from them. They’ve been through it before,” Backstrom said Tuesday. “Obviously, I know all those guys are really good leaders.”
The question mark will be Loui Eriksson, the strong two-way forward who is still recovering from a concussion. Backstrom pointed out that he might be the leading candidate to play with the Sedins because that was a line at the world championships. This team doesn’t have quite the depth Team Canada has, so a healthy Eriksson will be key.
3. Team Russia
In polling, Russia’s forward group was the only country outside Team Canada to get a vote at No. 1. “It’s them or Canada,” one player said. “I’d like to say Canada has the best everything, but trying to be subjective.”
One measure of a great team is examining who didn’t make it, and the fact that Alexander Semin was left off says a lot about Team Russia, or perhaps the politics of the roster selection. It was a decision Alex Ovechkin wasn’t thrilled with.
“Semin is my close friend, it’s sad for me and for him he’s not on the team,” Ovechkin said during Tuesday’s conference call with Backstrom. “It’s coaching decision.”
The firepower on this team, including Ovechkin, is outstanding. Ilya Kovalchuk will return to the big stage, and is typically great in international play. Valeri Nichushkin and Vladimir Tarasenko are two of the most impressive young players in the league right now. Blues GM Doug Armstrong said this week that Tarasenko is consistently the Blues' most dynamic offensive weapon.
Down the middle, Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin stack up with anyone. The Swedes get a slight edge because of their more complete game, but in terms of firepower, it’s hard to top Russia. The biggest question remains how this group will respond to the immense pressure that comes with playing as the host country.
“Soon, I’m going to feel all kind of pressure,” Ovechkin said. “We’re Russians ... Olympics is probably most important thing for Russians [more] than anybody else in the whole world.”
4. Team USA
This group has already been analyzed and deconstructed more than any American Olympic hockey team in history. That’s a sign of how much growth hockey has made in the U.S. “It’s a good thing for USA Hockey when there’s hard decisions,” Dustin Brown said when we chatted this week. “Ten, 15, 20 years ago, there weren’t hard decisions. That’s a credit to USA Hockey.”
Brown believes 2010 was a transition year for this team, which isn’t bad considering it nearly won gold. Now the leadership group up front of Brown, David Backes, Zach Parise, Patrick Kane and others have that experience to lean on when taking on teams with more talent. The forwards were built with a focus on team, and leaving guys like Bobby Ryan and Jason Pominville at home might put more pressure on pure goal scorers like Parise, Kane and Phil Kessel. But Parise doesn’t necessarily see it that way.
“[In 201![0]](/styles/default/xenforo/NTemojis/alien.gif "Alien 0]")
what we excelled in was scoring by committee. You kind of got the sense that it was a different line contributing at different times,” Parise said. “That’s how good teams win. We were fortunate to have that ... looking at the teams, that’s going to be similar.”
This forward group was built around speed, defense and versatility, specifically to win on the big ice. “Skating is at a premium,” Team USA coach Dan Bylsma said. “Through the lineup ... we can match up against [anyone] and be great defensively. That was a big factor.”
5. Team Finland
I have to admit a deep admiration for the Finns, and I’m not alone. In chatting with Armstrong, who helped build Team Canada, he explained why Team Finland is such a tough out in international play. “They’re the little engine that could at every event. You never want to discount them,” he said. “They don’t ever ask for anything. They’re never given anything. It’s a hard-working, honest group.”
For that reason, Finland is the only country to earn medals in three of the past four Olympic games. Teemu Selanne is back to try again, and the forward group has youth to bring that average age down, including the ultra-talented Aleksander Barkov, who plays with a strength well beyond his 18 years. Mikael Granlund and Valtteri Filppula also bring world-class skill, but it’s the fight of the other forwards that will make Finland miserable to play against.
“We have some good size, we’ve got some versatility,” said Jarmo Kekalainen, one of the Team Finland architects. “We’re not going to win if we try to rely on individual skill.”
Like Team Russia, there are a few names that won’t be immediately recognized by NHL fans, but Kekalainen said that may change by the end of the tournament. “I think there will be a couple surprises of the guys who play in Europe. I think teams will wonder where these guys come from,” he said. “There will be a couple guys that will be playing in the bigger roles than many people would expect.”
He could have put Claude Giroux and Martin St. Louis on Team Canada, and there really wouldn’t be anything to debate. Sure you could nitpick about the third goalie or perhaps the exclusion of James Neal or Brent Seabrook, but it would be splitting hairs.
Team Canada’s decision to go with Rick Nash, Patrick Marleau, Jeff Carter and even Chris Kunitz at least provided something to argue about. It also didn’t change the big picture: Canada has the best forward group in the men's tournament at the 2014 Sochi Games, by a long shot.
This week, with input from a few NHL coaches, execs and players, we’re ranking the position strengths by country, starting with a no-brainer. But after Canada, things get interesting:
1. Team Canada
One of the questions Yzerman often faced from reporters trying to squeeze any clue out of which direction he was headed up front was whether he preferred bringing natural wingers, or converting talented centers to the wing. He’d point out that many guys, like Patrick Sharp, had played center in the past, and that he was comfortable with both options, depending on the player. But looking at this roster, there appears to be more premium on players staying in their natural position.
Nobody is in a more natural position than Kunitz on Sidney Crosby's wing. If Kunitz and Crosby struggle at all, that will be a selection highlighted.
“We went back to last season when Sid was out of the lineup,” Yzerman said, explaining the Kunitz pick. “[Kunitz] played well. We like what he brings ... if he’s not on Crosby’s line, where is he playing? One, we know this guy has been on championship teams. He plays hard. He goes to the net, around the net he’s one of the top players. He’s very good in that area. He’s just gotten better and better each year.”
Even though he hasn’t played at the same level, we remember Nash’s performance for Team Canada in 2010, and have no issue with bringing him back. Considering Logan Couture and Joe Thornton are at home, it’s a bit surprising that Marleau is the Sharks forward who was picked. (It was announced later that Couture would have surgery for a hand injury on Wednesday.) But ultimately, this is a team with incredible forward depth and the best group of centers in the world, led by Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf and Jonathan Toews. It was nearly unanimous among those polled as to which forward group was the best.
“Has to be Canada. Deepest pool of players from which to select,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “87 and 19 end the discussion. There are not two better leaders, competitors and workers in the game.”
Said one player: “A Canada "B" team might be the only forward group that might beat Team A. There’s a plethora of forwards that don’t make the team that could easily be game-changers.”
2. Team Sweden
Sweden is my gold-medal pick, and the forward group has a lot to do with it. It’s a great mix of players who have experience winning internationally on the big ice, including gold-medal winners from 2006 in Henrik Zetterberg, Daniel Alfredsson and the Sedins. Alexander Steen, who projected to be a third- or fourth-line option before the season, has been one of the best players in the NHL in 2013-14. Gabriel Landeskog, Jakob Silfverberg and even Nicklas Backstrom bring youth to this veteran roster that has fantastic balance and great leadership in Alfredsson and Zetterberg.
“Us younger guys have to learn from them. They’ve been through it before,” Backstrom said Tuesday. “Obviously, I know all those guys are really good leaders.”
The question mark will be Loui Eriksson, the strong two-way forward who is still recovering from a concussion. Backstrom pointed out that he might be the leading candidate to play with the Sedins because that was a line at the world championships. This team doesn’t have quite the depth Team Canada has, so a healthy Eriksson will be key.
3. Team Russia
In polling, Russia’s forward group was the only country outside Team Canada to get a vote at No. 1. “It’s them or Canada,” one player said. “I’d like to say Canada has the best everything, but trying to be subjective.”
One measure of a great team is examining who didn’t make it, and the fact that Alexander Semin was left off says a lot about Team Russia, or perhaps the politics of the roster selection. It was a decision Alex Ovechkin wasn’t thrilled with.
“Semin is my close friend, it’s sad for me and for him he’s not on the team,” Ovechkin said during Tuesday’s conference call with Backstrom. “It’s coaching decision.”
The firepower on this team, including Ovechkin, is outstanding. Ilya Kovalchuk will return to the big stage, and is typically great in international play. Valeri Nichushkin and Vladimir Tarasenko are two of the most impressive young players in the league right now. Blues GM Doug Armstrong said this week that Tarasenko is consistently the Blues' most dynamic offensive weapon.
Down the middle, Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin stack up with anyone. The Swedes get a slight edge because of their more complete game, but in terms of firepower, it’s hard to top Russia. The biggest question remains how this group will respond to the immense pressure that comes with playing as the host country.
“Soon, I’m going to feel all kind of pressure,” Ovechkin said. “We’re Russians ... Olympics is probably most important thing for Russians [more] than anybody else in the whole world.”
4. Team USA
This group has already been analyzed and deconstructed more than any American Olympic hockey team in history. That’s a sign of how much growth hockey has made in the U.S. “It’s a good thing for USA Hockey when there’s hard decisions,” Dustin Brown said when we chatted this week. “Ten, 15, 20 years ago, there weren’t hard decisions. That’s a credit to USA Hockey.”
Brown believes 2010 was a transition year for this team, which isn’t bad considering it nearly won gold. Now the leadership group up front of Brown, David Backes, Zach Parise, Patrick Kane and others have that experience to lean on when taking on teams with more talent. The forwards were built with a focus on team, and leaving guys like Bobby Ryan and Jason Pominville at home might put more pressure on pure goal scorers like Parise, Kane and Phil Kessel. But Parise doesn’t necessarily see it that way.
“[In 201
what we excelled in was scoring by committee. You kind of got the sense that it was a different line contributing at different times,” Parise said. “That’s how good teams win. We were fortunate to have that ... looking at the teams, that’s going to be similar.” This forward group was built around speed, defense and versatility, specifically to win on the big ice. “Skating is at a premium,” Team USA coach Dan Bylsma said. “Through the lineup ... we can match up against [anyone] and be great defensively. That was a big factor.”
5. Team Finland
I have to admit a deep admiration for the Finns, and I’m not alone. In chatting with Armstrong, who helped build Team Canada, he explained why Team Finland is such a tough out in international play. “They’re the little engine that could at every event. You never want to discount them,” he said. “They don’t ever ask for anything. They’re never given anything. It’s a hard-working, honest group.”
For that reason, Finland is the only country to earn medals in three of the past four Olympic games. Teemu Selanne is back to try again, and the forward group has youth to bring that average age down, including the ultra-talented Aleksander Barkov, who plays with a strength well beyond his 18 years. Mikael Granlund and Valtteri Filppula also bring world-class skill, but it’s the fight of the other forwards that will make Finland miserable to play against.
“We have some good size, we’ve got some versatility,” said Jarmo Kekalainen, one of the Team Finland architects. “We’re not going to win if we try to rely on individual skill.”
Like Team Russia, there are a few names that won’t be immediately recognized by NHL fans, but Kekalainen said that may change by the end of the tournament. “I think there will be a couple surprises of the guys who play in Europe. I think teams will wonder where these guys come from,” he said. “There will be a couple guys that will be playing in the bigger roles than many people would expect.”
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Anyone else feel that if Canada made a B team, they would still be a beast of a team?
rell826
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Lundqvist in net tonight
(my face at what could potentially happen)
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I'm glad Claude finally has his confidence back; I'm happy he will rest during the Olympics but that's blatant disrespect
Flyers looking like a solid playoff team under the Chief
Flyers looking like a solid playoff team under the Chief
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and going for 10 straight tonight at home Lets get it.
Looks like we are starting to adjust to berube system finally.
What a slap pass lastnight. straight MONEY
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Just spitballin here but:
Giroux
St. Louis
Thorton
Richards
E. Stahl
Couture (Injured)
Neal
Hall
Seguin
E. Kane
M Stahl
Iginla
Lucic
Letang
Seabrook
Boyle
Bieksa
Phanuef
Giordano
MAF
Crawford
Ward/Harding
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Yeah I'm telling you a Canadian B team could beat team USA the way they have their lines.
Btw Marc Stall is a defenceman, I think you mean Jordan Stall on your fourth line
Btw Marc Stall is a defenceman, I think you mean Jordan Stall on your fourth line
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Lol good call, mostly the same as Lebrun:
http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=nhl&id=28624
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Ah, right. I always get all 3 Stahls mixed up.
And I swear I didnt see that Lebrun thing! Now I feel like an analyst. 
And I swear I didnt see that Lebrun thing!
Now I feel like an analyst.
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Meant to comment earlier nice to see the Pens and Sid stick it to Torts. F him
Tough goal given up by Crawford. Stance didn't allow him to butterfly and let that through the legs
Tough goal given up by Crawford. Stance didn't allow him to butterfly and let that through the legs
DeadsetAce
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JJ..nice link 
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Story of the year. outplay a team for 2 1/2 periods, then let them come back at the end; lose in the shootout.
Kassian's goal, though.... :x
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Anyone have the rest of this ? I need to see other team reaction especially #19 and dude he missed aha
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great win for the Rangers
