GDT: Group H • May 7 • United States 2, Slovakia 4

[AmericanDream]

to be fair, we did beat Canada so having a 2-1 record is where I felt we would be after these 3 games. sometimes you have a down game and team USA did, but I wouldnt get all worked up over this game...we have plenty of games left to redeem ourselves after this past game

 

[js10]

Fair enough.

I believe Canada and the U.S. will both have strong tournaments from here on in. The one thing they now have in common... they both know the pain of losing to an inferior opponent.

Man, you must have not seen any Slovakia games this tournament. They were on par with Can and Fin.

 

[sureWhyNot]

Howard's not that great. I never saw anything special about him so I'm not surprised at his performance.

Agree 100%. I am a die hard Wings fan and I think he is painfully over rated (majority of which come from Wings fans). He is average. Not great, not terrible. Won't lose you games but certainly won't steal you one either

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Ok. Tatar is the oldest skater, he will turn 22 on December. Demitra was AHL-player at the same age and Supler gave him opportunity to play in Wien ´96 (1st time for Demitra) at the end of the season. You probably only forgot this, right? Palffy finished his first full NHL season as 24y old, Satan 22... I am not goning to mention Chara or Visnovsky with their careers.
Gaborik and Hossa were generational talents like Stastny brothers in 70/80-ties, Palffy and Bondra in 90-ties.
You are like Handzus and Satan last year in TV "Lampa": "We don´t have young players." Hudacek, Tatar, Bliznak or Sersen (I know he played in the most important game last WC against Denmark) probably didn´t exist in 2011, they all were born in summer and grew up only this year.
Tatar, Panik, Jurco, Tvrdon could easily turn into TOP 6 players of any NHL team in next two or three years. Then D-men like Marincin, Gernat, Janosik could be part of the strong SVK defence in future alongside Meszaros, Sekera, Jurcina or Baranka.
I am really bored of this - always reading arguments like "Tatar/Panik/Jurco is not so good as Crosby/Hossa/Malkin at the same age". Maybe Tatar is not so good as Patrik Stefan at the same age?

Oh, come on, have you read my other posts on here? I´m absolutely with you on the I don´t agree that we don´t have young players bandwagon and I´ve argued for some of them to make the NT on here since before the 2010 Olympics and I will be only happy to see more of them make it as I would have been glad to see more of them make it this year. I don´t even care about the they can´t play at the WC because they´re still ina major juniors argument, if anything seeing Pánik in 2010 proved that the argument makes no sense. I definitely was not comparing them to Malkin or Crosby that would be just dumb. As for our other players in the pst, maybe it´s just me, but I have this impression that in this last few years rookies started to make the NHL at a younger age and also our players at that time were different from our players these days as they still grew up before 89 back then and therefore adjusting to NA play/life might have been a tad harder than for a kid bonr in the 1990s.

Yes, I know that not all of our players made it to the NHL at such a young age as Gabby or Hossa. And that was exactly my point that since Gabby we haven´t produced such a special player.

It is bad to say that we don´t have young players. (which is not at all what I´m saying). But it is equally bad to overrate them as well. I guess it also depends who you consider to be elite level talent. There´s no point to gloat,especially before we know what kind of players they will actually become. I was merely counting players who were pretty much a sure thing to make it to the big show into this category and sadly considering our succes rate of prospects turning into NHLers I´m a little bit sceptical (Sekera drafted in 2004 was the last one to make it), but I will be absolutely delighted if these guys prove me wrong. At the same time I would be really glad if we had at least one player for once who would not have size/competitivnes/slating/whatever issues and would make it into the NHL without us having to worry for a number of years whethe he´ll make it.

 

[19Yzerman19]

Agree 100%. I am a die hard Wings fan and I think he is painfully over rated (majority of which come from Wings fans). He is average. Not great, not terrible. Won't lose you games but certainly won't steal you one either

For a so called "Diehard Wings Fan" you couldn't have watched too many games the last 2 seasons to come up with this statement.

 

[cagney]

Congrats to the Slovaks on a nice win. They've become a pretty solid team despite the poor showings they had in preparation games leading up to the tournament. They're in a great position to grab a quarterfinal spot now if they can consistently play the way they've been playing.

From a US perspective this game was unbelievably disappointing. After the game against Canada I thought this US group looked good enough together to be a legit medal threat for once. Now after this awful showing it's a major question as to whether or not they'll even make the quarterfinals. I expect the Finns and Swiss to play games with the same kind of tight defensive play that the Slovaks did and it's quite possible we'll lose to both of them unless this team can figure things out between now and then.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Congrats to the Slovaks on a nice win. They've become a pretty solid team despite the poor showings they had in preparation games leading up to the tournament. They're in a great position to grab a quarterfinal spot now if they can consistently play the way they've been playing.

From a US perspective this game was unbelievably disappointing. After the game against Canada I thought this US group looked good enough together to be a legit medal threat for once. Now after this awful showing it's a major question as to whether or not they'll even make the quarterfinals. I expect the Finns and Swiss to play games with the same kind of tight defensive play that the Slovaks did and it's quite possible we'll lose to both of them unless this team can figure things out between now and then.

You have to be the most bipolar American hockey fan I've seen on these boards-EVER. Why jump off the bridge? The U.S. had a tough first period and it cost them the game. It happens. The Slovaks are clearly not pushovers giving Canada and Finland all they could handle. They could easily be 3-0. The reality is there are no easy games in this tournament-especially for NA teams.

The U.S. hasn't played a complete game yet-and maybe they aren't capable of that-don't know. It's a very young team-in particular on defense. Hopefully they shore things up and take each of their next four opponents seriously (which I believe they will). I see Belarus and Kazakhstan as probably wins. Switzerland can go either way. Finland will be tough-but they have serious scoring issues.

If we could come out of this round 5-2 I consider that a success. We'll see.

 

[cagney]

You have to be the most bipolar American hockey fan I've seen on these boards-EVER. Why jump off the bridge? The U.S. had a tough first period and it cost them the game. It happens. The Slovaks are clearly not pushovers giving Canada and Finland all they could handle. They could easily be 3-0. The reality is there are no easy games in this tournament-especially for NA teams.

The U.S. hasn't played a complete game yet-and maybe they aren't capable of that-don't know. It's a very young team-in particular on defense. Hopefully they shore things up and take each of their next four opponents seriously (which I believe they will). I see Belarus and Kazakhstan as probably wins. Switzerland can go either way. Finland will be tough-but they have serious scoring issues.

If we could come out of this round 5-2 I consider that a success. We'll see.

Part of the problem is that I was wrong about the tournament format. I was thinking that only the top three teams in each group advance with the top team getting a bye to the semis. Given that it's the top four advancing that gives us much better odds. My mistake.

Still, I don't like the notion of finishing third or fourth in the group and having to face Russia/Sweden in an elimination game. Success in an IIHF tournament is always heavily dependent on the way the cross-over ends up matching up.

And yeah, I'll admit I can be all over the place given how emotional I get over the US national team.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Part of the problem is that I was wrong about the tournament format. I was thinking that only the top three teams in each group advance with the top team getting a bye to the semis. Given that it's the top four advancing that gives us much better odds. My mistake.

Still, I don't like the notion of finishing third or fourth in the group and having to face Russia/Sweden in an elimination game. Success in an IIHF tournament is always heavily dependent on the way the cross-over ends up matching up.

And yeah, I'll admit I can be all over the place given how emotional I get over the US national team.

QFs will be played within the groups. The teams from different groups will meet only in SFs.

So if the US were to finish 3rd/4th in the Helsinki group it´s likely they would face Canada or Finland in the QF.

 

[cagney]

QFs will be played within the groups. The teams from different groups will meet only in SFs.

So if the US were to finish 3rd/4th in the Helsinki group it´s likely they would face Canada or Finland in the QF.

Just skimmed over that part so I didn't notice it. I'm not crazy about it but I guess it makes sense given the way they split the tournament between two countries and reformatted everything else.

 

[Sojourn]

Meh. I expected a letdown game after a big win against Canada, and Slovakia is not a team you can afford to play poorly against. They are good enough to make you pay for a subpar performance.

 

[Juzmo]

Wrong thread.

 

[sureWhyNot]

For a so called "Diehard Wings Fan" you couldn't have watched too many games the last 2 seasons to come up with this statement.

Actually I have watched just about every one of them. Center ice package is great. And playoffs, well during playoff time I have been to every home playoff game the last 5 except for 6 of them - I am lucky amd my family has season tickets.

So yeah, I have seen him as much as anyone and he doesn't steal much. He was a stud in a couple shootists, but other then that and especially in the playoffs he is vanilla as vanilla can be. But I know Detroit fans have a hard on over him and I get this reaction quite a bit.

 

[GentlemanMasher*]

For a so called "Diehard Wings Fan" you couldn't have watched too many games the last 2 seasons to come up with this statement.

No kidding. I dunno if it's just Wings fans of if this happens with all local fans, but a lot of them seem to only judge off of their memory of the last 2 months or so. Nevermind Howard was a Vezina favorite before his injuries and his team hung him out when he came back, still hurt. Never mind that for the past couple years he's been stellar. No, all because he didn't meet the sky high expectations of a guy who doesn't look like he knows much about goaltending. Darn.