Canada need to be careful. The Russians got away with way too many embellishments against use (presumably USA ) and even Sweden.
Here we go again, looking for a scapegoat to explain why the Russians are where they are. Newsflash: Russians beat Yanks fair and square...And they totally outclassed the jr crowns
Posted this in another thread, but it really belonged here, & since I'm lazy just gonna cut n paste...
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This Russian Team ( with a Capital T! ) has looked very cohesive in the last 2 games. They're standing up guys at the blue, playing really aggressively, attacking the puck carrier on the pk, taking away time and space in the neutral zone. They've gotta a guy with a howitzer ( left handed shot manning the right side of the blue line ) on the pp...Their counterattack/ transition game was lights out vs Sweden...and they were even coming tantalizingly close with that home run stretch pass, now and again, when Tre Kronor tried, not very successfully, to mount a comeback. Admittedly, it was a different story in the 3rd vs Yanks, when they were badly outshot. Still that D bent but didn't break, plus their nettie ( Igor or Ilya smthg or other? ) has been a stone wall.
Long story short, Russians are firing on all cylinders now, and seem diametrically different than that listless squad we saw in the round robin.
Team Canada has looked good , pretty much ,throughout the whole tourney, with the odd hiccup, such as that poor first period vs SVK last nite; to their credit they rebounded nicely thereafter.
These are the two BEST teams in the tourney* SANS DOUBT...Should be a classic, Canada/Russia Gold Medal Showdown...
OH CANADA BAByyyyyyyy!!!!!
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* On second thought, had they not shot themselves in the foot, and taken all those undisciplined penalties , in the first, USA woulda probably beaten RUS imo. Still that Russian side looked to be better coached, plus calmer in the crunch, and maybe that's why they say this is a tourney traditionally dominated by 19 year olds. Reportedly, every guy on team RUS is in his last year of U20 eligibility, whereas a good many of USA's top guns , esp on D, were 18. In the end, coaching + the experience factor may well have been the decisive difference in that QF game...