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2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

Blackbeard said:
I had heard (word of mouth in arenas mostly) a fair amount about Poulin and the women's hockey phenom that she apparently was as early as two or three years prior to the Vancouver Olympics and I live half way across the country from where she lived and played. The Team Canada Goaltending Coach for the Sochi Olympics once told me years before the Vancouver Olympics that women's hockey "is a very small community." I guess my hearing about Poulin that early on would be an example and possible proof of his contention.

About the rest, who knows?...other than to say that I have been impressed with Stacey and her work ethic.
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I will watch for Stacey.

Interesting comments on Poulin. To read her comments in news coverage she is always so humble, so I didn’t have a read on what the expectation of her was 8 years ago, a time when I didn’t follow women’s hockey as closely. Then I heard Jeff Marek on the 31 Thoughts podcast just last week tell a story about Poulin, indicating something to the effect of it was known back in 2010 she was gonna be the next big star in women’s hockey. So I was curious and wanted the opinion of die hard women’s hockey fans.

I look at 18 year old Barnes on the USA team, and a forward to a D is probably not a great comparison, but I get the impression from watching this far that she will not be a star at the Olympics, that it’s more of a growth opportunity for her, and if all goes well she might anchor the D in a future Games. It made me wonder if there is a young first Olympian who will really make a name for herself in South Korea.

As, DC pointed out, it might be Watts in Boston.
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

Lindsay said:
Hahah, quite right DC78-82. If Watts busts out with a Patty Kaz this year, Canada will hopefully have the good sense to get her in their senior program. She’s already made a case for being part of the program, maybe a Patty Kaz would help Hockey Canada better understand.
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No. Hockey Canada's scouting staff is out in la-la land. All politics.

In 2014 Rattray won the Patty Kaz over, among others, Poulin. She also led Clarkson to the NCAA Championship. Rattray has never had a chance to even compete on the National Team.

Once Team Canada decides they dont want someone, its over.

Watts would be best to become a US citizen or head to some other country if she ever wants a chance to compete in the Olympics or World Championships.
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

dd17 said:
In 2014 Rattray won the Patty Kaz over, among others, Poulin.
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No, she didn't. Poulin spent the 2013-14 season centralized with the national team and wasn't eligible for the Kazmeier.
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

team Canada women's GM basically admitted that the team sucks and will have a hard time at these Olympics. Not shocking at all for those who have been following this team in the past 4 years.

Cheryl pounder will be working for Canadian TV at these Games. her commentary is the epitome of fake news. Sighs.
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

After the first day of plsy for Canada and the US, I am underwhelmed with both. This is the world stage- the one that gets people talking about our sport. At this point, at least Korea is there for the smokescreen (and I don't mean that as a slight - for all they have gone through, and being the hosts, with the pressure that brings, I enjoyed their game more than either Sunday game.)
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

How long have the teams been there? I wouldn't entirely throw out jet lag as a cause for the first USA & CAN games being a bit of a slog.
 
TonyTheTiger20 said:
How long have the teams been there? I wouldn't entirely throw out jet lag as a cause for the first USA & CAN games being a bit of a slog.
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They have been there for a week. Finland is always tough and has even beaten both teams in World play. I have the Canadian game saved but have not watched it yet. Russia is not the push over it was either and 5 zip seems good enough.
 
ne7minder said:
They have been there for a week. Finland is always tough and has even beaten both teams in World play. I have the Canadian game saved but have not watched it yet. Russia is not the push over it was either and 5 zip seems good enough.
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Yeah I'm not too concerned about the Finland game. The second period for USA showed me they're good enough if they play well for 60 minutes.

Didn't see the Canada game. Hopefully they were BAD! :D
 
DC78-82 said:
After the first day of plsy for Canada and the US, I am underwhelmed with both. This is the world stage- the one that gets people talking about our sport....
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Could it possibly be that other teams are finally starting to slowly but surely close the gap?! That would be great if true. I welcome tougher games/opponents for the US and Canada. Isn't that what we all want so they don't get rid of women's hockey at the Olympics??? Closing the gap absolutely WILL get people talking about our sport. I thought that was the goal and obvious to all true fans of our sport. Blowouts and easy wins on the world stage DO NOT help anyone!!!! Every game of this tournament should be a tough challenge and well worth watching, not just the two games where the US and Canada will face each other.
 
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Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

shelfit said:
Could it possibly be that other teams are finally starting to slowly but surely close the gap?! That would be great if true. I welcome tougher games/opponents for the US and Canada. Isn't that what we all want so they don't get rid of women's hockey at the Olympics??? Closing the gap absolutely WILL get people talking about our sport. I thought that was the goal and obvious to all true fans of our sport. Blowouts and easy wins on the world stage DO NOT help anyone!!!! Every game of this tournament should be a tough challenge and well worth watching, not just the two games where the US and Canada will face each other.
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My observations from last year's World Championships is that Finland is closing the gap, but no one else is. Sweden has gone backwards. For some reason, Russia always plays Finland tough, but they pretty much failed to show up against anyone else, getting blown out by both the U.S. and Canada in pool play and then losing to a hard-working but undertalented German team in the quarterfinals. No one from Pool B was at all competitive against the top three teams.
 
Eeyore said:
My observations from last year's World Championships is that Finland is closing the gap, but no one else is. Sweden has gone backwards. For some reason, Russia always plays Finland tough, but they pretty much failed to show up against anyone else, getting blown out by both the U.S. and Canada in pool play and then losing to a hard-working but undertalented German team in the quarterfinals. No one from Pool B was at all competitive against the top three teams.
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Great observations. The broadcast this morning confirmed that Sweden has in fact gone backwards a lot even though they dominated the host team this morning. Unfortunately the Korean team looked a lot like many average or worse D3 teams....scrambly positioning, weak passing and puckhandling skills, etc. That said, I wasn't expecting much more than that from them and I was rooting for them to score at least one goal nonetheless. Maybe they'll find the back of the net against Japan. I hope so!
 
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Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

I'm also not sure how much of Finland's improvement depends upon a group of players that are starting to get old and that they won't be able to replace. The last few U-18 tournaments have been less than successful for the Finns: unable to get out of Pool B or win a quarterfinal. So, the reality may be that no one is gaining on the U.S. and Canada in the long run.
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

Eeyore said:
I'm also not sure how much of Finland's improvement depends upon a group of players that are starting to get old and that they won't be able to replace. The last few U-18 tournaments have been less than successful for the Finns: unable to get out of Pool B or win a quarterfinal. So, the reality may be that no one is gaining on the U.S. and Canada in the long run.
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I am curious about the effect that the loss of international recruiting by North Dakota and UMD has on the development of the Swedish and Finnish women's Olympic teams. Those two schools used to have a half-dozen or more international players on their rosters at any one time. Now that UND is gone and UMD has turned local, does that hurt the international women's game?
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

Leather helmet said:
I am curious about the effect that the loss of international recruiting by North Dakota and UMD has on the development of the Swedish and Finnish women's Olympic teams. Those two schools used to have a half-dozen or more international players on their rosters at any one time. Now that UND is gone and UMD has turned local, does that hurt the international women's game?
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It certainly can't help the international women's game, but measuring its impact would be difficult if not impossible, especially when you consider that other programs will at least partially take up the slack. It seems unlikely that the best of the European players will go unnoticed.
 
Re: 2018 Canada's Olympic Women's Hockey Team

Leather helmet said:
I am curious about the effect that the loss of international recruiting by North Dakota and UMD has on the development of the Swedish and Finnish women's Olympic teams. Those two schools used to have a half-dozen or more international players on their rosters at any one time. Now that UND is gone and UMD has turned local, does that hurt the international women's game?
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Elander got a asst coaching job at OSU.

He's still in the game, so why would his Swedish/Euro recruiting efforts cease?
 
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