Well, well, well Kiprusoff. Your arrogance has kind of come back to bite you in the ass. After stating that he will only play for the Finnish Olympic team if he was named starter, Miikka Kiprusoff has just been pulled out of the semi final game against USA after giving up four goals in just over ten minutes of play this afternoon. You tell em Kipper!!
Here are his words:
If I’m not going to start for sure, I think I’m going to take that time off and rest
On a night when it was expected to be Crosby vs Ovechkin, the newly formed shutdown line of Mike Richards, Rick Nash and Jonathan Toews absolutely stole the show. If I were Mike Babcock, I would continue putting them out there before I put the San Jose line. Each of those guys were absolutely fantastic every shift of the game.
Anyone who doubted that Mike Richards should be on the team, I hope you saw his effort along the boards before the Shea Weber goal last night. I can’t find a replay because the fucking Olympics has a stranglehold on everything, but he basically outmuscled a Russian forward while on his own ass, got the puck free and moved it up the ice. And I will admit, even once the tournament started, I was a bit skeptical of Jonathan Toews being picked over some players; but he has been absolutely phenomenal, both on the draw and with the quiet seven assists he has put up. And Rick Nash, well, I never thought I would say that he had an amazing game shutting down the league’s best player. I hope they put this line head to head with Hossa and Demitra tomorrow night.
I think I can hear Doug Wilson crying somewhere in California…
While the four San Jose members of the Canadian Olympic team were obviously ecstatic last night, especially Boyle after his three point performance, they must have been swearing under their breathe as they watched NHL teammate Evgeni Nabokov blow another big game. While he did not have a chance on a few of the goals, he probably should have had the ones by Morrow, Boyle and Weber. Take those three goals back and the game could have been different.
While Sharks’ GM Doug Wilson is definitely worried about the play of Nabokov, the fact that his two big Canadian guns have had little influence on the turnaround of Team Canada is also something to make him uneasy. Patrick Marleau is once again showing why he cannot perform in playoff hockey. And how is it that Joe Thornton, consistently one of the highest scoring players in the League since the lockout, absolutely refuses to get his nose dirty on almost every shift. They are the definition of perimeter players, who need time and space to make things happen. Whenever Canada was pressing the Russkies, or even the Germans the night before, it was never this supposed “all star line”. They do not play at a high tempo, and I think that Babcock is starting to see that they may only be effective while on the powerplay.
It is amazing what can happen in two days time. 48 hours ago, Canada was coming off of a very disappointing loss to the Americans, and were looking ahead to must win games against Germany, Russia and Sweden. Their defense was shaky, their goaltender was being replaced and their offense could not find a rhythm. Today, Canada is now the odds on favorite to win this tournament. Coming in to the Games, the top three teams were thought to be Canada, Russia and Sweden; the latter two were eliminated yesterday. Now all that stands in Canada’s way are the surprising Slovakians, and one of two offensively challenged teams in the US or Finland. Canada is now rolling on all cylinders, and there is no chance that any of these players will be taking the Slovaks lightly tomorrow night. They have already faced their adversity. Now the are rolling on all cylinders and ready for the push that will win them the gold medal for the second time in eight years.
There is so much that I want to say about the outcome of yesterday’s games, I just don’t know if I will get to all of it.
Everyone knows what is at stake for tonight’s game, so I won’t even get into it. The amount of unbelievable storylines that are in this match is absolutely awesome. I almost wish that I wasn’t fan of one side so that I could just sit back and watch some fantastic hockey. But I am, and it will probably go down as one of the most intense games that I have ever watched. I put together a bit of a preview below. Anyone who knows hockey would be stupid not to be legitimately scared of the Russian team; they are very good and have a quick strike offense that cannot be matched. Tonight is more than just another chapter of Crosby vs Ovechkin (and I hate how it is already being billed that way); it our Canadian pride on the line once again against a country that has taken it from us too many times in recent years. My prediction is alllllll the way at the bottom. Enjoy… Continue reading
I will be talking more about this in the preview that I am writing, but tonight is yet another chapter in the rivalry between Mike Richards and Alex Ovechkin. I think Babcock will try to line him up against Ovie at least a little bit, just to try to get him to do something stupid. Here is that great video TSN showed a few months back before a Flyers/Caps game. CANNOT WAIT for tonight!!
Sunday’s Canada-US heartbreaker attracted an average of 10.6 million viewers, with around 21.5 million people tuning into at least a part of the match. That was a round robin game with no elimination consequences, barely any personal rivalries, and an opponent that was considered inferior. Tonight……is a win or go home game with the best rivalry in hockey, against the team that was expected to play them in the gold medal game. 15 million viewers?
One of the things that has really bothered me since the onset of this tournament has been the lack of credit given to Marc Andre Fleury. When you think about it, who has done more in their NHL careers so far; Luongo or Fleury. Yes, Luongo spent multiple season on the crappy Panthers and Fleury was lucky enough to land on a team with two of the best players in the game. But Fleury is the guy who has taken his team to two straight Stanley Cup Finals, Luongo has never made it past the second round. And if anyone watched last year’s game 6 between Chicago and Vancouver, you would be stupid not to lay the blame of losing that game on Bobby Lou.
Another reason why I think that Fleury could have been the man for the job is because of his familiarity with Canada’s biggest rival, and they team they will likely be playing tomorrow night, Russia. When you look a the Russian roster, they are an East heavy team. They have two of Fleury’s Pittsburgh teammates in Malkin and Gonchar; two of members of the archrival Capitals in Semin and Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk, who has spent his entire career in the East. Their other sniper is Pavel Datsyuk, who has face off against Fleury in the last two Cup Finals.
I know this is definitely comparing apples to oranges because you cannot compare the circumstances between the Canucks and the Penguins. Who knows; if Luongo was a Penguin they could be two or three time defending champions by now, but I just wish Fleury was getting at least a little more consideration for the job.
Because everyone knows who is going to win the men’s games today, but CTV will not release who will play when tomorrow, here is the schedule that I found for the quarterfinal games tomorrow:
United States vs Switzerland @ 3 pm
Russia vs Canada @ 7:30 pm
Sweden vs Slovakia @ 10 pm
Finland vs Czech @ 12 am
That is is yet another damn good day of hockey coming up tomorrow. The only game today that could possibly go the other way is if Belarus somehow beats the Swiss. Either way, the winner will lose to the US on Wednesday.
