Olympic Hockey

[goblueM]

i was watching women's hockey the other day - they need to scrap that until there's actually some degree of competition for US/Canada

[Bear55]

Wow, Canada squeeks out a shootout win and Russia is beat by the Slovaks! Hopefully these games are showing some chinks in the armor vs an early wake up call to the two favorites.

[scsavre]

Gotta love Olympic hockey. You get these teams, the really good teams like Canada and Russia and they are not firing on all cylinders yet. Anything can happen in this tournament.

By the way Canada and Russia/swede are so far and away the best on paper. You could just look up their NHL stats and figure that one out. But hey, too many stars usually makes for a poor core of a team. Go USA

[walleyefisher0990]

So far the hockey has been really good. I really enjoyed the Swiss/Canada game. I was pulling fo the Swiss, that goalie Hiller i think, he played out of his skull, that glove save he made against Getzlaf was amazing. really fun game to watch. I am excited for the US/Canada game on sunday, if the Swiss can put up a fight like that i think we got a good shot at beating Canada, the US team is just getting started, there a solid team.

[OnAFly]

I don't think USA is as strong defensively as the Swiss team is. The Swiss are like the Wild were a couple of years ago, where if they get a two goal lead, the game is just about over. Plus Hiller was nearly impenetrable last night. If he keeps that up, this could be a medal worthy team.

I think the USA will show it's weakness defensively when they play Canada. Canada has sooooooo much skill offensively, they can and will take advantage of every mistake made defensively. The Swiss team just didn't make many mistakes.

goblueM - I agree, that women's Russian team is an embarrassment. If they want to compete at an Olympic level, they need to at least compete with other teams. A USA/Canada game would be a pretty good women's game to watch.

[brmuskie]

I saw some of the Russia China women's game and thought at first that it looked like a JV high school game and then after a couple of minutes I realized there was no way that either team could compete with a JV high school team. I turned the channel to watch something entertaining.

Men's hockey has been definitely entertaining - go USA!

[OnAFly]

I'm watching the US/Canada game.

I can admit when I'm wrong. Canada doesn't look like the team I thought they would. I really thought they would beat the US easily. Right now its looks like they are going to lose 4-3.

[harvey lee]

What a game. They said this is the fiest time the USA has beat Canada since 1960.

[Bear55]

Wow what a game! US played about as good as they could have and wins 5-3. Here's to a gold medal run and not seeing Canada again because I don't think we can beat them twice. Then again we do have Ryan Miller on our side so anything is possible.

[jentz]

I don't think USA is as strong defensively as the Swiss team is. The Swiss are like the Wild were a couple of years ago, where if they get a two goal lead, the game is just about over. Plus Hiller was nearly impenetrable last night. If he keeps that up, this could be a medal worthy team.

I think the USA will show it's weakness defensively when they play Canada. Canada has sooooooo much skill offensively, they can and will take advantage of every mistake made defensively. The Swiss team just didn't make many mistakes.

goblueM - I agree, that women's Russian team is an embarrassment. If they want to compete at an Olympic level, they need to at least compete with other teams. A USA/Canada game would be a pretty good women's game to watch.

Canada Who?? USA USA USA

[Mudcutter]

OH! Canada???

USA may not have to worry about playing CAN again as they will have to get by Russia first.

Martin Brodeu will not play agst the Germans, Luongo will get the start,,, Martin was horrible in stick handling agst the USa and is getting old.

Heres' to Miller Time...

[walleyes12]

Great Win for USA, lets hope Miller stays hot between the pipes!

[solbes]

VERY entertaining game last night. The effort on that empty netter was unbelievable.

Also I can't remember a team that put such sustained pressure in 5 on 5 hockey as Canada did at the end of the game. Our guys were so tired in our own zone that they were moving at my speed, which is barely moving. Big props to Miller for maintaining the lead when the pressure was on.

[harvey lee]

Miller was awesome and needed to be. Canada put on some extreme pressure in the last minutes of the game. I thought they would score for sure in the last 2 and a half minutes of the game.

[Bear55]

VERY entertaining game last night. The effort on that empty netter was unbelievable.

That was a great goal, I remember thinking to myself dive and go for the puck. A split second later the puck was in the net and I was jumping around and screaming like a little kid. Great effort by Kesler, it was sure nice to have that two goal cushion in the final minute.

[Bear55]

This sets up a very interesting bracket. I like our chances, however a potential rematch with the Switzerland kind of scares me. A Canada/Russia quarter final game should be interesting.

Swiss/Belarus winner vs USA

Czech/Latvia winner vs Finland

Slovakia/Norway winner vs Sweden

Canada/Germany winner vs Russia

[harvey lee]

I can still see Canada in the finals with the expierenced talent they have on their team.

[scsavre]

That was a very fun game! We played pretty good, not as good as the Canadians. But we were good when we needed to be. And our goalie was awesome while theirs played pretty lousy. I wonder if our plan was to clog up the front and shoot from the point. It worked. They Canadians doubled up on our shots and definitely had more chances.

I cant say that i have ever seen a team dominate the last few minutes like the Canadians did. That was unreal. I dont think we touched the puck from 4 minutes left to 1:30. I have no doubt in my mind that they had about 80% chance of scoreing and winning until we got that awesome open netter.

Is is weird that i was still nervous until i go to the 15 second mark?

Go USA

[solbes]

This sets up a very interesting bracket. I like our chances, however a potential rematch with the Switzerland kind of scares me. A Canada/Russia quarter final game should be interesting.

Swiss/Belarus winner vs USA

Czech/Latvia winner vs Finland

Slovakia/Norway winner vs Sweden

Canada/Germany winner vs Russia

How sweet is that for us that we don't have to play Canada or Russia until possibly the Gold medal game? And the fact that only one of them will make it to the medal round (huge if we play in bronze medal game)? Very important game last night.

Assuming we win our game vs Switzerland/Belarus, then we play the Czechs or the Finns. I would rather play the Czechs, but both teams are fairly loaded with talent. It's going to be fun to watch!

[scsavre]

USA #1 seed, i dont think anyone would have predicted that. I cant wait for Russia vs Canada, assuming it happens.

[harvey lee]

That will be a good game and one of them will not medal.

Who would have thought that?

[Bear55]

How sweet is that for us that we don't have to play Canada or Russia until possibly the Gold medal game?

Ya it doesn't get much sweeter than that, we really have to thank the Swiss for that, if they didn't take Canada to a shootout the brackets would be entirely different, but lets only thank them if we can beat them in the quarters.

If we can make the gold medal game I would prefer to play anyone but Canada! Like I said before, I don't think we can beat them twice, they are just far too skilled and probably a little pi$$ed off right now.

[OnAFly]

We'll see if Canada is the same team with elimination on the line.

A game against the Swiss could be scary. Hiller is a good goalie, and if he gets hot, a fluke goal could easily win the game. I guess we'll see what happens. Now is when Olympic hokey really gets interesting!

[PierBridge]

Here's the medal round bracket and TV times. We are now down to the final 8! I threw this together quickly so please post any corrections on mistakes I may have made.

If we can get by the Swiss today and their hot goalie we will have a couple of chances to win a medal and if all the stars align the GOLD!

I'm looking forward to the Canada vs Russia tilt at 6pm which should be a one ell of a game!

USA! USA! USA! USA!

QUARTER-FINALS SCHEDULE:

Wednesday, February 24

Ch. 11 NBC

# 2 pm QUARTERFINAL 1: USA vs. Switzerland...

Next 3 games will be airing on CNBC.

# 6 pm QUARTERFINAL 3: Russia vs. Canada....

# 9 pm QUARTERFINAL 2: Sweden vs. Slovakia

# 11:30 pm QUARTERFINAL 4: Finland vs. Czech Republic.......

February 26, 2010

Ch. 11 NBC

2:00pm CT - Ice Hockey - Men's Play-offs Semifinals - Game 27

Ch. CNBC

8:00pm CT - Ice Hockey - Men's Play-offs Semifinals - Game 28

February 27, 2010

Ch. 356 MSNBC

9:00pm CT - Ice Hockey - Men's Bronze Medal Game - Game 29

February 28, 2010

Ch. 11 NBC

2:00pm CT - Ice Hockey - Men's Gold Medal Game - Game 30

***** Don't forget the USA women are playing Thursday against Canada for the Gold medal!

Women's Ice Hockey

February 25, 2010

Ch. MSNBC

1:00pm CT - Sweden vs Finland - Women's Bronze Medal Game

5:00pm CT - USA vs Canada - Women's Gold Medal Game

[jwmiller33]

I really dont think Brodeur played all that bad in the game against the US.. Yes, the US scored 5 goals but they were definitely getting some bounces to go their way... also, one of the goals was an open netter...

USAs first goal was tipped off of Crosby's stick, can't really blame the goalie on those deflections, especially when its off of their own players stick.

USAs second goal was one that Brodeur should have got.. It was a shot on the ice from the point thru traffic that just slid under his pad and found the bottom corner of the net. People say he made a bad play by swatting the puck with his stick in an attempted clear. It was actually pretty amazing that he was able to swat it and a good amount of juice on the puck going out of the zone. It ended up getting blocked and kept in the zone and then the shot from the point with bodies infront ended up going in. It was an aggressive play, but thats the way Broduer plays, and everybody in the arena knew about his tendency to play the puck. I'm not condoning it, but aggressiveness doesn't always pay off

USAs third goal was kind of a scramble infront after Brodeur already made two saves.. He made a good attempt at a diving poke check to clear the loose puck infront of the net and just missed it or a stick got on it or something. It was an aggressive play on his part but thats the way he plays, and from a goaltenders perspective, it was a very good attempt at the poke check, it was just a scramle/mess infront.

USAs fourth goal was a one timer on the powerplay. You could say he should have stopped it, but you can't always directly blame a powerplay goal on the goalie

And the fifth goal was an open netter...

I'm a huge fan of the USA, not a Canada supporter by any means, but I can't stand seeing a goalie of Brodeur's stature get ripped for playing "so badly"... On the other end of the rink, Miller played out of his mind and it obviously made Brodeur's play seem subpar. I am a 22 year old goalie and I still play hockey here at college, and Ive been a goalie for 11 years... I think the average joe shmoe who watches the game, or even some hockey fans who don't know anything about goaltending, don't really know how to evaluate a goalie's play as well as they can evaluate a skaters play. Brodeur made several good saves throughout the game that kept Canada in the game. Yes, he should have definitely stopped the second goal, the first goal was tipped by Crosby, the third goal was a scramble in front after he already made two saves, the fourth goal was a one timer on the powerplay and you could argue he should have stopped it. I think the bar was set very high for Canada to perform in this Olympics, and losing to the US ticked a lot of Canucks off, and they needed someone/something to blame for the loss, so naturally, blame the goalie. Pretty typical if you ask me.