Olympic ice hockey thread

I was trying to be polite.

 

If it comes down to a goalie battle, I'll take Quick and the US. The US has shown more offense in the tournament than I expected, even more than Canada, although there are certainly other factors to be considered. Just hoping both games are close, competitive games that don't get decided on a fluke bounce or bad call.

 

And Mayor Ford celebrates the Canadian women's team game winning goal



Not sure whether he's celebrating the goal, on crack or just in a drunken stupor.

 

You mean, like someone scores more goals?

 

It was pointed out when Meghan Duggan or someone else slashed at Shannon Szabados, I believe in the second period, that that sort of thing is usually not tolerated. The Yanks were warned, they did it again, and they were called for it.

Fitting that it was one of the Lamoureux twins, too. They like starting shit against Canada, but this time their whole team paid for it.

 

I'll pick Canada to win 4-2 not because I'm Canadian but based on familiarity with the opposing goaltender. Of eligible players, Canada has 15 that play in the Western Conference of the NHL and see Quick more often than the 10 Eastern Conference players the US team can field that see Price as often, ignoring divisional matchups.
Canada has 5 skaters (Getzlaf, Perry, Marleau, Vlasic, Hamhuis) who play in the Pacific Division and 2 who play on the opposing goalies team (Carter, Doughty). The US has 1 skater playing in the Atlantic (van Riemsdyk) and 1 playing on the opposing goalies team (Pacioretty).
Since everyone is trying to figure out which team might have the edge, this may be it.

 

Now that's really breaking it down. Maybe over-analyzing. Are you Pierre McGuire in disguise?

My prediction is that one team will score a power-play goal and that team will win.

 

The California based forwards are usually involved in tense, evenly matched, low scoring games against each others teams. Isn't that what the Canada/USA game is shaping up to be?
Getzlaf, Perry and Marleau by themselves have seen Quick regularly....add that Carter and Doughty face him in practice and it's not a perceived but actual advantage.
Invariably it boils down to which team can put the puck just underneath the crossbar. I like Canada. Babcock will open up the offensive taps since it seemed in previous games he was asking them to play defence first. Canada will be ready defensively and surprise offensively.

 

This.

And if it was still 4 on 3, the breakaway that leads to the takedown never happens.

 

But she didn't go in hacking and slashing, she took one late swipe at the rebound just after Szabados covered it up and hit her pad. She didn't take mtie swipes or hack the glove. Even by the letter of the law IMO it was a weak call, the fact it was in overtime of an Olympic GDP medal game makes the call that much worse. The ref has to have some sense of the situation.

 

Rask ill, Lehtonen in goal for Finland today.