Thoughts on Olympic Hockey Tournament
First off, what a tournament! The best players in the world on the biggest stage, what else do you expect. A lot of surprises and a lot of nail biting moments. Team USA coming within a bounce of winning the gold medal is about as close as most Blues hockey fans have been to any championship for quite a long time, although hopefully that will change soon. I’ve put together some of my thoughts about the Olympics. I’m sure to have missed a few things, but here you go:
Surprise Teams – Good: USA, Switzerland & Slovakia
Did anyone really expect the USA to get as far as they did? I didn’t. I figured they’d do well and hope to contend for a medal but they exceeded my expectations by far. They really seem to be on an upswing and really have put their foot in the door when it comes to top 2-3 hockey nations in the world. From the juniors tournament, women’s and now men’s hockey, they really have come close to taking over that second spot. Fans of Sweden and Russia may disagree, but the results do speak for themselves. Some may say the Olympics were stacked on one side of the bracket, but I still contend that they had to beat Canada to get there.
The Swiss team really put up a fight against both the Americans and Canadian teams. Their style of play seemed to match up well. They are obviously well behind the top 5-7 teams in the world, but they are improving year in and year out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a star or two come out of Switzerland in the next few years. Jonas Hiller really stepped it up.
Slovakia really exceeded expectations. They had aging but NHL quality players but they really did make a good stand. A lot of their quality players are in their 30′s, so I doubt they really make a splash in the next Olympics unless the NHL players don’t participate. They should be commended for their showing.
Surprise Teams – Bad: Russia, Sweden & Finland
Russia, what’s going on with them? They seemed more worried about fighting with each other than playing a team game. A country historically known for playing a good team game looked like a group of individuals masquerading as a team. Too egos and history to go around. This team had gold medal expectations and ended up playing four and out. Malkin and Ovechkin have history and it showed.
The team from Sweden came in as defending gold medalists with their eye on a second straight gold medal but also were ousted after four games. I think Sweden was looking past Slovakia and not giving them respect, especially after being up by 2 in the deciding game. They were busy looking ahead to playing Canada or Russia but instead got shown the door. Their top players didn’t show up, simple as that.
Finland played a good tournament up until their last game, but it was a horrible game. They got down early and never recovered against the USA. Bad coaching decisions, bad goaltending and poof, they were out of the game before the 10 minute mark. There must be a bad taste in their mouths after coming up lame against the USA.
Surprise Players – Good: Ryan Miller, Jonas Hiller, Pavol Demitra & Brian Rafalski
Jonas Hiller:
While Miller won MVP, I feel that Hiller played extremely well. He kept his overmatched team in games they had no business being in. If the Swiss went further, maybe he would have had an outside chance of best goaltender in the tournament, but Miller’s outstanding efforts overshadowed him.
Ryan Miller:
Miller was fantastic and put Team USA on his back on the way to the silver medal. Not much else needs to be said, but a .942 save percentage in huge game situations? Look out Eastern Conference if Miller can translate his Olympic success back to the NHL for the stretch run.
Pavol Demitra:
10 points in 7 games is great. With skilled guys around him and playing for his country he showed he really can step it up. We’ve seen him falter in the past in big games, but he came through for Slovakia
Brian Rafalski:
He played a great tournament and really set the pace for the younger players on the team. He scored a lot of points for a defenseman, but his role as a mentor to me was just as important.
Surprise Players – Bad: Martin Brodeur, Mikka Kiprusoff & the Sedin twins
Martin Brodeur:
Bad decisions gave Team USA the crack in the door to wedge their foot in and the confidence that propelled them to a silver medal. His poor puck decisions along with poorly timed dives left him out of position and unable to recover. One bad game on a team with 2 other NHL All-Star level goaltenders waiting meant he never saw the ice gain.
Mikka Kiprusoff:
Like I said above with the Finns, one bad game. His head was not in the game from the get go. Outside of his one good year in Calgary when they road him to the finals, he hasn’t shown that he can be a big game goalie. If I was Calgary I’d be concerned about him come playoff time, but we’ll see.
Sedin twins:
Did they even show up? I don’t even remember their names being called. The two top scorers on the Canucks didn’t contribute for Sweden and that’s probably the reason why they didn’t get past Slovakia. They weren’t even mentioned in the recap against Slovakia.
Final thoughts on Canada winning along with the future of USA Hockey:
This tournament can draw a lot of parallels with the Summit series back in the 1972. Canada was expected to trounce the Soviets in the Summit Series, didn’t give the Soviets as much respect and in turn were surprised and barely pulled out the victory. After the Summit Series Hockey Canada did not re-tool as much as some people think they should have. During this Olympic tournament no one gave Team USA any chance of beating Canada once, not to mention twice. Canada had to squeak it out. Do the Canadians put the gold medal in their back pocket and continue on business as usual? Who knows.
In the 70′s, before and after the 1972 Summit Series, the Soviets really had an uptick in their national program. With the USA coming within a goal of knocking Canada off to take the gold with what many consider the ‘new faces’ of USA Hockey, I feel that things should get really interesting for Team USA over the next few years. With players that were responsible for beating Canada for the junior title a few years ago almost beating Canada for the gold this year and with the USA taking this years junior tournament, Canada has to watch out. They are number one, but the USA has shown that they belong.
Thanks for reading!
