World Cup: 2016 World Cup — Team North America Part III

[major major]

The better team lost, are serious? Russia was dominated most of their game and lucked out. I don't get why some people act like they weren't the second best team.

Bob is on their team. That's why.

 

[major major]

Really unfortunate that they're out. I really don't like how the World Cup playoffs work. I mean, skipping the quarterfinals? Really?

Still the 2nd best team after Canada IMO. They were visually the better team against Russia.

If you have quarterfinals then the round-robin doesn't matter at all. The round-robin is at near-elimination-game levels of tension because there's no quarter-finals, and it's better for it.

 

[Scotty B]

The team looked like the defense and goaltending would be inconsitent at best from the start and could bite the team in the ass and sure enough it did. Yes some great forwards but defenseman and goalies at 24 and younger are usually not very reliable just yet.

23 and younger actually. The loss of Ekblad their best Dman hurt, but fair points otherwise

 

[Scotty B]

Shouldn't the players have been pushing to win the game no matter what? I mean if they believed any win would get them in, why not win it in regulation?

Also, like said, it's kinda odd the players didn't figure it out on their own.

I guess the thought -- half baked though it was -- was to secure the pt for taking it to OT, then hopefully come away with 2

 

[Scotty B]

I agree that they should have known.

My thoughts while watching the team celebrate after the OT goal: "Well that celebration seems disproportionate to their position in the standing. Could it be that they don't understand how the brackets work? No... that's cynical crazy thinking. There's no way professional athletes wouldn't have figured out the math in advance..."

Not math per se...the tie breaking formula...and yes they should have known how it works, but didn't obviously....again that's on the coaches/team management

 

[SAK11]

Russia was absolutely not better. It basically took a combo of Murray having a horrible 5 minute stretch of play and Bob having a fantastic game for them to win. NA almost doubled their shot total and generated more dangerous chances.

The one thing I'd say about this is that I've seen games like this time and time again- a team goes up big and then sits back. So yes, the young guns dominated the 2nd part of this game [through the 1st half of the game, it was fairly even] but that happened after Russia went up 4-1 and stopped playing with any offensive aggression. In knowing that a team needs to score 4 to beat you, this seems to be a natural tendency, and it ended up working out for Russia, albeit just barely.

 

[Fossy21]

Just saw a miced up Sedins & Loui video from Sweden - Finland. At the end, when Eriksson scored the empty-netter, Hörnqvist tells Henrik:

Hö: "That's important! Goal differential!",
Sedin answers "Nah, only between the tied teams",
Hö: "But if everyone beats everyone...?",
Sedin: "Haha, that's impossible? Finland has lost both their games"
Hö: "But everyone else, I mean, Russia beats Finland and we lose to NA! Then we're all tied in points and GD decides"
Sedin: "Nah, only GD in games between the tied teams, Finland doesn't count"

And Hörnqvist is like "Oooooh. Awww. Okay." like a younger boy being schooled in an argument by his older brother after he comes home from school with some factoid.

Quite the contrast to the Young Guns reacting to winning in OT. It's not unusual for players to know the outs and ins with standings. Might be a difference between veterans and young guys, or maybe NAT coaching told the players not to look it up at all.

Also, the guys on the ice are skating by to celebrate the goal, and they're just discussing, idly throwing out a fist for a fist bump but missing

Thought I might as well leave this here. Thoughts?

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Really unfortunate that they're out. I really don't like how the World Cup playoffs work. I mean, skipping the quarterfinals? Really?

Still the 2nd best team after Canada IMO. They were visually the better team against Russia.

If you have quarterfinals then the round-robin doesn't matter at all. The round-robin is at near-elimination-game levels of tension because there's no quarter-finals, and it's better for it.

You'd need more teams for quarterfinals to make sense. At least 12 and have groups of 6.

NHL could've done it in a way the CFL does it. Have the top two teams with a bye, and have the 2-3 place teams play in like a preliminary playoff. We'd have ended up with:

Europe vs North America

Russia vs Czech Republic

With Sweden and Canada awaiting the winners. Tournament would be pushing its stay though at that point, but the NHL could just start it a week earlier.

Oh well.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Quite right...BUT the whole notion that coaches decided not to tell them they needed to win in regulation is just a COVER STORY. I'll lay dollars to donuts that they themselves didn't understand how things worked -- otherwise you pull ur goalie if its tied late -- HUGE FAIL however they try to spin it

Here lemme cut n paste something I said in a different thread

Me:

I know hockey players are not always mathemeticians but... lol
Lets take a scenario where there are 4 teams

NAT vs Russia
Sweden vs Finland


Russia beats NAT
Sweden Beats Finland

Next up

NAT vs Sweden
Russia vs Finland

What does team NAT have to do? And if they do not win in regulation and Russia wins what happens

Its a ridiculous notion IMO that they couldn't add 2 + 2

 

[flaneur]

Thought I might as well leave this here. Thoughts?

That conversation shows the difference between teenagers and veterans in their 30s.

 

[Fossy21]

That conversation shows the difference between teenagers and veterans in their 30s.

Yeah, might just vary from person to person as well, I guess. But even Hörnqvist who apparently wasn't too well-informed on the subject seemed to take an interest in it, and almost emphasised it more than the (just sealed) win.

 

[CanadianPantherFan]

I think if Ekblad was in the line up then NA beats Sweden in regulation and Russia too

I'm not going to go that far as biggest Panthers/Ekblad fan out there, but I do believe on that one rebound in Russia game Ekblad would've buried it top shelf when Parayko ?? was replacing him. Easy to say by me , but that was ONE moment in key part of game I think he could've made ultimate difference. Again easy to say by me.

The wildcard theory : Ekblad would've been only guy to know including SN commentators /possibly coaches as I don't buy the cover up story .... that team needed to win in regulation. He is very very high IQ player on and off the ice which is probably the strongest part to his game/as a person. Just a thought.

 

[WTFMAN99]

I'm not going to go that far as biggest Panthers/Ekblad fan out there, but I do believe on that one rebound in Russia game Ekblad would've buried it top shelf when Parayko ?? was replacing him. Easy to say by me , but that was ONE moment in key part of game I think he could've made ultimate difference. Again easy to say by me.

The wildcard theory : Ekblad would've been only guy to know including SN commentators /possibly coaches as I don't buy the cover up story .... that team needed to win in regulation. He is very very high IQ player on and off the ice which is probably the strongest part to his game/as a person. Just a thought.

The Rielly-Ekblad pairing was a thing of beauty.

 

[Rorschach]

Team NA...shoulda been called Team HF

So much of this team's make up seemed to be what we HF fanboys would dream of as a fantasy team.

There were so many roster-based storylines on this fairy tale roster...

The big three of McDavid, Eichel and Matthews;

The future of Team Canada in McDavid with the future of Team USA in Gaudreau and Eichel;

Toronto locals getting to see their future core players in Matthews and Rielly;

The Alberta Arms Race - McD/RNH on the same team as Johnny Hockey and Boring Monahan;

CBJ future top pair Jones and Murray, 'Peg's Schiefele and Trouba;

And my favorite, MacKinnon and Drouin reunited.


One thing I noticed was a high percentage of these players play for Canadian franchises too.


Was there a favorite player/s you were looking for?

 

[xxxx]

just for the record, Monahan, who couldn't play at this tournament due to injury, is still not available for the Flames. Reportedly, he will not play in the next 3 pre-season games.

 

[LastWordArmy]

We'll miss you team North America.

http://lastwordonhockey.com/2016/09/29/well-miss-you-team-north-america/

 

[xxxx]

I'm still angry that they didn't make it to the finals, where they deserved to be.

Imagine playing Russia with Gibson, Ekblad, and Monahan. They would've won the game in regulation. Crzay bad luck in the worst time possible. And they hit the post 10 seconds before the end of the game!!
Just look at it again, HOW CLOSE they were to the semis!!

look at it from time 2:09:00 it's the last minute and a half of that game