2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

[SeymoreHockey]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

I hope you are not serious. Only kids who don't know any better think he is great. Sure the man knows hockey, but some of his drivel is "entertaining" to the less educated in the game. Give me McGuire anytime over Cherry.

I agree...I'll take Pierre over Grapes any day. And Doc is simply one of the top two play by play men around!!

 

[RStarr]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

I haven't watched the game yet, but three unanswered goals? Really. You suck, America. And you should be disappointed. Sorry, I'm not sorry.

 

[RStarr]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

Congrats to the Swiss. Apparently somebody showed up to play today. And played the whole game. Yeah, it's not over till it's over.

 

[RStarr]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

I'm gonna equate the Americans to Syracuse. Not good, just lucky......really lucky.

 

[RStarr]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

And it's time for Vetter to ride the pine. Yes, quadruple post. Catch fire.

 

[FredsDeadFriend]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

OMG...and their Olympic record is....???
And Three /Four Nations Cup record is...???

Come on...it was GREAT game contested by two VERY evenly matched teams. A bounce here or there and the result is totally different. Give credit where credit is due.

Seymour, I wasn't trying to prove that the US was "better" than Canada, just putting some balance into the discussion. The poster I was responding to was arguing that Canada is clearly superior, and it even seemed to make the argument that they would ALWAYS be superior to the USA. I was addressing those comments.


You asked what their record in the 4 Nations was? How about they've won 2 of the last 3 and 3 of the last 6?


And you asked what their Olympic record was? Seems I included that in my post, if you read the whole post you would have seen that.


Since 2008, there have been 14 Championship events if you count the 4 Nations, and the USA has won SEVEN Gold in those 14 Championships. 50%. Seems just like you say, pretty evenly matched, and todays game was very indicative of that. I give Canada credit for not giving up and coming back. I give the US credit for getting to the point where Canada needed to make a come back.


I think we agree far more than your "OMG" overreaction seems to indicate. Relax a little and try to see the bigger picture and understand what it was I was responding to.

 

[FredsDeadFriend]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

I'm gonna equate the Americans to Syracuse. Not good, just lucky......really lucky.

Big difference RStarr, Syracuse wasn't rated among the Top 7 teams in the nation in any computer rating out there, and not even Top 10 in some of them, and played a fairly easy schedule including a vast majority of which were home games.


The US, on the other hand, was rated #1 coming into the Olympics, and had played all of the best teams in the world leading up to the Olympics, including Canada, who they beat the last 4 times they had played coming into the Olympic games.

 

[Cali]

I hope you are not serious. Only kids who don't know any better think he is great. Sure the man knows hockey, but some of his drivel is "entertaining" to the less educated in the game. Give me McGuire anytime over Cherry.

Can't agree with that one. MacGuire is a know it all windbag. If you get past Cherry's inability to put words together, he is usually spot on with his analysis.

 

[SeymoreHockey]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

And Fred my point is there is VERY little difference between these two teams over the past decade. They're two EXCELLENT programs that I dearly wish other countries would at least TRY to emulate a bit so that women's hockey would not boil down to a two team event EVERY TIME. And trust me...I am relaxed after that game...TOTALLY relaxed and TOTALLY satisfied

Seymour, I wasn't trying to prove that the US was "better" than Canada, just putting some balance into the discussion. The poster I was responding to was arguing that Canada is clearly superior, and it even seemed to make the argument that they would ALWAYS be superior to the USA. I was addressing those comments.


You asked what their record in the 4 Nations was? How about they've won 2 of the last 3 and 3 of the last 6?


And you asked what their Olympic record was? Seems I included that in my post, if you read the whole post you would have seen that.


Since 2008, there have been 14 Championship events if you count the 4 Nations, and the USA has won SEVEN Gold in those 14 Championships. 50%. Seems just like you say, pretty evenly matched, and todays game was very indicative of that. I give Canada credit for not giving up and coming back. I give the US credit for getting to the point where Canada needed to make a come back.


I think we agree far more than your "OMG" overreaction seems to indicate. Relax a little and try to see the bigger picture and understand what it was I was responding to.

 

[FredsDeadFriend]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

And Fred my point is there is VERY little difference between these two teams over the past decade. They're two EXCELLENT programs that I dearly wish other countries would at least TRY to emulate a bit so that women's hockey would not boil down to a two team event EVERY TIME. And trust me...I am relaxed after that game...TOTALLY relaxed and TOTALLY satisfied

Yeah, I am sure you are, lol.

And nothing personal, but I hope you aren't relaxed or satisfied after the Men's game.

 

[chickod]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

And Fred my point is there is VERY little difference between these two teams over the past decade. They're two EXCELLENT programs that I dearly wish other countries would at least TRY to emulate...

See, this is what I don't understand. What do you mean, "emulate?" You sound like you can just "decide" to be great. You don't think Sweden, Finland, Russia and all these countries want to have good women's teams? You think they're not trying to "emulate" the Canadians? This is my entire point...Canada is great because it's a national obsession there. All this talk about "catching up." How? We've been playing in the US for 100 years...everyone makes it sound like we're new at this and look at the "strides" we've made. We have 9 times as many people and we still can't beat them. And I don't want to hear about World Championships. Nobody cares (except those same "die hards" that I have ranted about on the BU thread). The Olympics are the SIGNATURE event and the most watched in the world. I'm not going to carry on anymore because there are a lot of disappointed people today. Let me just sum it up this way. This was Doc Emerick's call: <B>"Two goals in the last three and a half minutes, and <I>PROUD</I> Canada has this tied up again.</B>" That's all you really need to know. As much as those of us who love the game want to argue, it means more to them. Period. Trust me. Don''t you have any Canadian friends? Ask them about it sometime.

 

[chickod]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

I haven't watched the game yet, but three unanswered goals? Really. You suck, America. And you should be disappointed. Sorry, I'm not sorry.

What is YOUR problem, man? Just because I think that Canada is "more talented" doesn't mean I didn't think the US poured their hearts out. They left everything out there. Saying "you suck" is a moronic reaction. And you didn't even watch the game. Gimme a break, you loser.

 

[Cali]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

See, this is what I don't understand. What do you mean, "emulate?" You sound like you can just "decide" to be great. You don't think Sweden, Finland, Russia and all these countries want to have good women's teams? You think they're not trying to "emulate" the Canadians? This is my entire point...Canada is great because it's a national obsession there. All this talk about "catching up." How? We've been playing in the US for 100 years...everyone makes it sound like we're new at this and look at the "strides" we've made. We have 9 times as many people and we still can't beat them. And I don't want to hear about World Championships. Nobody cares (except those same "die hards" that I have ranted about on the BU thread). The Olympics are the SIGNATURE event and the most watched in the world. I'm not going to carry on anymore because there are a lot of disappointed people today. Let me just sum it up this way. This was Doc Emerick's call: <B>"Two goals in the last three and a half minutes, and <I>PROUD</I> Canada has this tied up again.</B>" That's all you really need to know. As much as those of us who love the game want to argue, it means more to them. Period. Trust me. Don''t you have any Canadian friends? Ask them about it sometime.

I don't believe that. The "Heart of a Champion" is not a Canadian thing. The fans that "wanted it more" are not the ones on the ice battling it out. There is no way that you can tell me that the 20+ US playres didn't want it just as much as their Canadian counterparts. This game came down to a couple of lucky bounces, a couple of questionable refereeing calls and the determination from the Canadian side to not give up. Where that determination came from is debatable but today, Canada was the better team.

 

[RStarr]

And I don't want to hear about World Championships. Nobody cares.

qft.

 

[Skate79]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

Well I did watch the game from start to finish tonight. Here are my thoughts in no particular order.

1. You can't pin this loss on Vetter. Jenner's goal was a fluke. Nine times out of ten it misses the net. The fact that it hit Bellamy and changed direction is something Vetter couldn't control. And you leave Poulin alone in front, chances are she scores more often than she misses. Not much you can do about it.
2. The referee allowed the Canadians to play a physical brand of hockey. More so than I thought was possible in a game of this magnitude. The Americans started the game answering the physical challenge but as the game wore on, you could see that they wanted less and less of the physical play. Canada simply didn't stop until the winning goal. Dineen obviously decided he would take his chances with whatever calls were made against his team. He guessed correctly.
3. Say what you will about the blocked shots and I give the Americans full marks for their efforts. But they blew the D zone coverage on Poulin's tying goal. No doubt about it. You can't leave her alone in front of your goalie. That was one of the big differences in the game. Canada went for the net every chance they got. The US only occasionally went to the net and spent too much time around the circles.
4. The other area where Canada impressed was in their neutral zone coverage. They would spread three across from blue line to blue line, then drop a forward back in their zone staying up near their blue line to make it difficult on the US forwards to create any movement. At times it seemed like the US was playing five on six. It was that difficult to get any flow going.
5. Finally, there were a handful of plays that could have decided the game but in the end, it came down to Canada cashing in their chances and the US failing to do so. If Schleppers doesn't blow a tire before Wickenheiser's breakaway, if Kacey Bellamy's shot in OT was an inch to the right, if Stack doesn't hit the empty net post, on and on, it won't change the final score. The fact is that on a big stage with the world watching, Canada knows how to win these games. 4-1 in gold medals isn't an aberration. They've beaten us in the US, in Vancouver and now in Sochi. Venue doesn't matter, they know how to get it done. Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is upstairs. It's why the Maple Leafs folded in Game 7 last year when they had a 4-1 lead at TD Garden. It's why Miami of Ohio crumpled when BU made their comeback to win the national title in '09 after being behind 3-1 with less than 4 minutes remaining. You play it safe and try to hold on and the next thing you know, you are wearing silver instead of gold. Canada never panicked, took away the boards, and got an otherworldly performance from one of the clutch players of all time in women's hockey.

 

[FredsDeadFriend]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

See, this is what I don't understand. What do you mean, "emulate?" You sound like you can just "decide" to be great. You don't think Sweden, Finland, Russia and all these countries want to have good women's teams? You think they're not trying to "emulate" the Canadians? This is my entire point...Canada is great because it's a national obsession there. All this talk about "catching up." How? We've been playing in the US for 100 years...everyone makes it sound like we're new at this and look at the "strides" we've made.

We've been playing WOMEN's hockey in the US for 100 years now??? Really?


100 years???



Sorry, I'm only from the State of Hockey, and the Univ of Minnesota didn't even start up their program until 1997. UMD didn't start until 98.

And seeing as the state of Minnesota supplies the VAST majority of players to the NCAA where a VAST majority of US Women Olympic hockey players come from, I'd say YEAH, we're relatively new to this, and yeah, we have made strides.



You make the silly comment about our having 9 times as many people as them and we still can't beat them?! lol oh you silly person, where do most of those people live?!

 

[OnMAA]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

What is YOUR problem, man?

Be careful calling Rstarr a Man.

 

[RStarr]

Just to be clear, my hate blogging wasn't in response to anyone.

 

[RStarr]

Just to be clear, my hate blogging wasn't in response to anyone.

except those crappy Americans.

 

[AggiesHockey]

Re: 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Women's Ice Hockey Tournament

Well I did watch the game from start to finish tonight. Here are my thoughts in no particular order.

Good analysis. You left out the 800 kilogram gorilla: the scandalous slash call. No objective observer of the game would ever admit that such a play merited a penalty at U10, much less the Olympic stage. It was as ticky-tacky as ref calls come.