Olympics Hockey

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Ok it's gonna start in mid Feburary in Torino. As much as i love canada to win, i also really like sweden's chance since they have a better netminder now. Lundqvist has been playing excellent so far this year in the nhl, and hopefully he will carry that spirit to the olympics. Also to have tellqvist to back him up, this team is a powerhouse. Canada on the other hand is a major powerhouse since they have a lot of brilliant players to choose from. All the players that are selected are all hard choices cuz the ones that aren't selected are also playing very well this year, just that team canada doesn't feel it's time to pick them (guys like crosby and spezza and staal and etc).

Czech Rep is another strong team with solid goaltending and a lot of offence. Notable ones are hasek, vokoun, jagr, lang, and hejduk. They have some new blood in the team too include vokoun, hemsky and erat and etc. So it's another team that eyes for the gold too. I haven't seen the whole russian rosters but i heard yashin, kovalev, khabibulin, and malkin (an amazing rookie who's said to be teamed up with crosby after he finishes playing in the russian hockey league) are in. If ovejkin makes it to the team, it'll be an exciting team to watch.

The US isn't my favourite cuz first i dun like them and second they aren't as powerhouse esp for the goaltending. Notable ones are conroy, gionta and modano.

My pick would still go to canada cuz they deserve to win with their rosters. Feel free to filter-004 if your into hockey.

cam_kwok86

I don't think Bert will get much playing time as the lines are pretty much set from the previous Canada Cup and Olympics already. Canada is always the favourites because we're just so deep, even without Jovo and Niedermeyer we have young guns to fill in spots. Czech as u said is a really solid team as well, i think its either these too teams that will contend for the gold, with probably Russia or Finland bronze. Ovechkin is just gonna dominate like he's doing in the NHL.
PS. Ovechkin > Crosby

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maybe bert will get some playing time mainly as a 3rd/4th liner for checking despite he doesn't really check now. I always think bert's invitation to the team has a lot to do with tambelini, with him talking the management into getting bert into the squad to raise his value. It's just a guess anyway. How bout sweden tho i think they are capable of winning at least a bronze or silver if not gold. Finland's ok since they have guys like selanne and nittymaki but still the team lacks a bit of depth.

stats wise ovechkin>crosby
but i'm kinda looking at it this way, u see an ovechkin type of guy coming across the league a few times in one decade. I'm not trying to compare him to others, but u see guys like bure, fedorov, mogilny, and kovalchuk were/are scoring machines like ovechkin. But the crosby type is a little different, he's like a leader in the making. I'm not a crosby fan at all and i like ovechkin's style more too. But ovechkn's more about flare and making jaw dropping plays. But when we look back at the previous champs, it's the canadian players who are able to guide the team for the cup (sakic, yzerman, lemieux and of coz the great one). So canadians somewhat know what it takes to win the cup (i know i sound a bit too generalizing). But ya by looking at all these flashy moves of ovechkin, we can't deny that he's a superstar in the making.

wclchris

but canada's blue line is getting a bit thin without jovo, mccabe and niedermeyer

cam_kwok86

but ovechkin isn't only a offensive demon, he also checks hard. he's not those typcial russians as u said. As for Crosby, he whines way too much when a call doesn't go his way. He embellishes little high sticks on him sooo much. thats y i don't like him that much. However, i do acknowledge that he is a very skilled player, even if he's only like 18.

Jovo's out for 6 or more weeks, so no chance.
niedermeyer is still playing rite now, so he might still go
McCabe i think is back playing for the leafs if not today or nxt game.

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mccabe is back on ice today so he might be able to make it to the olympics tho we're not sure if he'll be at his 100%. Actually i think the majority of nhl-ers aren't playing with 100% health wise anyways. I'm not sure about niedermeyer tho, i thought he was playing earlier this week. So not sure if he got hurt. To find replacements isn't too hard for canada, even the 2nd tier dmen have up to par performance. Guys like morris, hamhuis, phaneuf, sopel, souray, desjardin (if he's not too old to play) and etc are playing decent this year i believe. So if team canada were to replace jovo and meyer i think there are choices out there.

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ya throwing hard hits is also part of ovechkin's game but it just shows that he's not a pansy on the ice like other euro players. To be honest i was amazed by his hard checking too when i first saw him playing. He's also rite up there with gagne, jagr and staal and the likes. Of coz i hope ovechkin will become a true leader of the team instead of just showing stats (checks are part of stats i suppose) cuz that's what euro superstars tend to do.

Just found out that foresberg's gonna see a specialist on his injury or something so i think he might sit out the olympics. If he does i think the team will miss him quite a bit. I'd rather see a full swedes team playing in the olympics. Either way i'll cheer for them.

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just a little update. Markus Naslund of the vancouver canucks is going to sit out the torino olympics. So sweden is missing one key player once again. Their chance of taking the gold is slimmer now.