Bracket Busters, Hockey Edition
by RudyKelly on Feb 22, 2010 3:33 PM PST
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Well, besides the fact that it means the United States has beaten Canada in the two biggest hockey tournaments of the year, it now means this:
To make the gold medal game, the US will likely have to defeat Switzerland and Finland.
To make the gold medal game, Canada will likely have to defeat Germany, Russia and Sweden.
So yeah, it was pretty important. The US has already downed Switzerland once this tournament, 3-1, but they're still far from an easy game and closer in quality to the top 7 teams than 9-12. Defeating a team backstopped by Jonas Hiller isn't easy but I think the US can do it. Or Belarus may win and we'll have to play them and I bet that'll be tough. Yeah, I'm real scared of the Belarussians- the Belarussos- those guys from Belarus.
After that, the Americans face either Finland or the Czech Republic. Tough but winnable; or at least, more winnable than a game against Canada, Russia or Sweden, who all reside on the other side of the bracket. Finland is tough because they can grind the shit out of you but I'm not scared of Miika Kiprusoff or their defense at all. The Czechs are pretty good but they don't have the top-end talent they used to. Either way, I'm cautiously optimistic.
Canada, meanwhile, is pretty screwed. I still think they're the best team in the tournament but beating Russia, Sweden and whatever team comes out of the other side of the bracket is a pretty insurmountable task. I almost feel kind of bad for Canada, but really, they put this pressure on themselves. They need to adopt the same stance Americans take in basketball: "We're the best, fuck the world, individual tournaments don't mean shit... wait, we won the Olympics? Fuck yeah, we rule! Fuck all y'all USA USA USA USA!!!" The problem Canadians have is that they admit the pressure is there before the game starts. You fools, you only acknowledge it after you win. That's the American way!
It's funny, this time yesterday I was convinced the US wouldn't medal and all I was hoping for was a match-up against the Slovaks or Czechs to at least make the semi-final game. Now I'm thinking the US should be able to walk into the semis with a honest to God shot at a medal. To be honest, I don't even care at this point. Like I said to my roommate last night after Ryan Kesler made that amazing empty netter (around a clueless Corey Perry, no less): "Holy fucking shit, we just beat Canada!"
***
A few things that shouldn't get lost in the shuffle of last night's mayhem:
-Drew Doughty played the 2nd most of any Canadian defenseman.
-Jack Johnson played the 3rd most of any American defenseman. And pretty well, too, although he did find himself out of position a lot.
-Corey Perry is a weenie and I'm glad everyone now knows it.
-Doc Emrick had the game of his life. Seriously, I love that guy. How can you not get excited when he's calling a game? I thought he was going to spontaneously combust during those 3 consecutive breakaways.
-Shut up, Ed Olczyk.
-I really like cheering for Ryan Kesler. It's a lot more fun when he's being a little shit to teams you don't like.
-Ryan Miller, American hockey god.
-Martin Brodeur, klutz.
-I love hockey.
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-Doc Emrick had the game of his life. Seriously, I love that guy. How can you not get excited when he’s calling a game? I thought he was going to spontaneously combust during those 3 consecutive breakaways.
I thought he was gonna pass out on those break aways…im pretty sure he stained his draws during that sequence
I got a snake in my boots!!
GO Team USA!!! GO Bobby Ryan!!
by SPADE-IN-VICTORHELL on Feb 22, 2010 3:44 PM PST reply actions
I heard that the IOC thought ahead on that one and put a splash guard in his booth.
UNRELATED: Handel is the most overrated composer ever...
by Bleys on Feb 22, 2010 5:23 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
i think Switzerland is gonna be a bitch to beat…2 words “fuckin frazen”
I got a snake in my boots!!
GO Team USA!!! GO Bobby Ryan!!
by SPADE-IN-VICTORHELL on Feb 22, 2010 3:46 PM PST reply actions
whoops sweden i meant…3 more words “fuckin edit button”
I got a snake in my boots!!
GO Team USA!!! GO Bobby Ryan!!
by SPADE-IN-VICTORHELL on Feb 22, 2010 3:51 PM PST up reply actions
I love seeing Perry reviled and Drew praised everywhere. I got two out of three on my Olympic hockey wish-list right there.
The memory of people bitching about his selection is now delicious. I mean, I could see their point about Green, but I also had a feeling most of the people griping the loudest hadn’t seen Drew play much at all. And it looks like he’s got the perfect attitude for this kind of pressure situation. Even on this big stage, it didn’t take him long to relax. All good for us in the playoffs.
Either way, I’m cautiously optimistic.
Cautious is good. I want them to take everybody seriously. I do wish Finland had some defense to speak of, but I’m pro-American enough to say yay (sniff).
If Burke can get his players to buy the Miracle 2.0 potion he’s selling, more power to him.
In Dinglebarn We Trust
The memory of people bitching about his selection is now delicious. I mean, I could see their point about Green, but I also had a feeling most of the people griping the loudest hadn’t seen Drew play much at all
Although I agree with what your saying, Drew is kicking ass, if i’m a Canadian fan right now I would be questioning a lot of the choices for this team. I think Burke built the US roster with a game plan in mind, Canada just went all firepower. If they had to do it over I would think they would choose less offensive defensman, and more shut down guys. But who knows, they do this pretty much every time.
yeah, that was kind of a joke.
I’m not trying to say there is a bad defenseman, just that given the results, if they choose today, the players would be different.
unless they are content with these results so far. But from what I’ve seen maybe they should have picked some guys with size and physical edge over the finess guys on D. They have enough finess on wing and center. What do you guys think, your way better at anaylizing than I am.
unless they are content with these results so far.
Well, this isn’t truly fair — of course every team would make different results if they knew ahead of time what would happen in their first three games. It’s a game of rolling the dice — you can play the odds, but still it comes down to very few throws.
I doubt my Team Canada would have turned out terribly different than Yzerman’s. His choices were western-conference-strong, and I’d probably go that way also.
I dunno — one game is always a really small sample to go on. Besides, yesterday’s skating MVP was Brian Rafalski — he’s more or less a finesse guy on defense.
http://www.battleofcali.com/
two things
1 – randomness; who did the great post on this? behindthenet? inside the rink? tvc15hockey? i forget, but it was great. in a nutshell: the outcome of a single hockey game is more random than a game of basketball. related to the olympics, and i’m saying before last night, the five good teams all had somewhere around a 1 in 5 shot. i.e. canada is basically screwed, yes, but so is everyone else. on the other hand, if you just want canada to lose, you have an 80% chance of “winning”! so go not-canada. Except I would like doughty to score about ten times or so.
2 – i forgot the second thing. so i’ll just say again that i thought it was great to see dustin brown do his move and have it canceled out by doughty’s move.
Wait till this year.
Do you mean, Canada didn’t pay attention to who would be a defensive liability overall?
In Dinglebarn We Trust
I don’t think Mike Green vs. Drew Doughty was an “either or” proposition. I would have almost been down with carrying an extra D (Green instead of Patrice Bergeron) and make Green primarily a PP specialist.
Still, it’s easy to second-guess roster choices but people forget just how random one-gamers can be.
When I'm not battling in California:
Cycle Like The Sedins
by jamestobrien on Feb 22, 2010 7:36 PM PST up reply actions
You’re right, it could have been Green and Doughty. There did seem to be more focus on the defensemen left off (or maybe I was more sensitive to that part of the debate because I felt defensive of Drew). But even now it’s “Green should be here instead of Pronger or Niedermayer,” isn’t it? How quickly that could change after one game.
people forget just how random one-gamers can be
Amen. I feel like the urge to second-guess the roster is kind of like wearing your lucky hat to the big game, in a weird way. As a fan, I mean. Both actions give you the comforting illusion that events are under more control than they really are. And if disaster strikes we’d rather ignore the randomness factor or how short the tournament is or how well other teams managed to get it together and think that it all could be fixed next time, if only smarter people were in charge.
In Dinglebarn We Trust
Yeah, I’m real scared of the Belarussians- the Belarussos- those guys from Belarus.
The Barrassos.
If Team USA faces the Finns, they should just learn some easy Swedish phrases — that’s probably enough to disrupt any hopes of Finnish composure.
http://www.battleofcali.com/
Want your day to be better Rudy? J Ro publically apologized for being entirely wrong about putting Drury on Team USA.
UNRELATED: Handel is the most overrated composer ever...
by Bleys on Feb 22, 2010 5:15 PM PST via mobile reply actions
Was anyone else cringing every time Doughty had the puck?
I was happier watching him on the bench. You can’t get hurt on the bench.
http://inplaynoouts.blogspot.com/ - A blog about teams I like, written by me.
#34
you also shouldn’t be scared of Finland’s offense because it has minor issues with small things like, say, scoring
Hockey needs to be moved to Summer Olympics because jumping off the bridge is not that effective if you fall to meter of snow on the ice instead of water.
I was going to say that but it came off as anti-Duck bias. Mostly because I originally wrote, “Selanne and Koivu fucking suck and I hate their Duck asses.”
The West Coast is the Best Coast.
Defensemen can’t block all the shots, that’s what your goaltender’s for. Brodeur has sucked balls in net.
by Nut on Feb 23, 2010 12:50 PM PST via mobile reply actions
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