WC: Surprises this world champs

[mattihp]

So what are the big surprises this far?

I had no idea Jokipakka and Lindell were this good. Kemppainen's success is no surprise to me as a Kärpät fan.

The US are really gelling, interesting to see.

Also; had never heard of Genoni before. Solid play and interesting style.

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[Ola]

So what are the big surprises this far?

I had no idea Jokipakka and Lindell were this good. Kemppainen's success is no surprise to me as a Kärpät fan.

The US are really gelling, interesting to see.

Also; had never heard of Genoni before. Solid play and interesting style.

Great atmosphere at the tournament.

 

[ebis]

Great atmosphere at the tournament.

That's understandable with pretty much 2 home teams.

 

[Urbanskog]

Great atmosphere at the tournament.

That's hardly a surprise as this tournament was predicted to break the all-time attendance record.

 

[matsqq]

That's hardly a surprise as this tournament was predicted to break the all-time attendance record.

High attendance doesn't necessarily mean a great atmosphere.

The crowd is amazing !

Much better than at the NHL playoffs ! Canada has the greatest hockey players but not the best atmosphere

In fact, It was long since I last heard anything like this ...

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Anyone who considers the atmosphere to be a surprise obviously wasn't around for the 2004 Worlds.

 

[begbeee]

Captain of Slovakia being a healthy scratch in his 4th game is pretty much surprising to me.

 

[JoeyBeans]

Canada. Compared to previous years

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Captain of Slovakia being a healthy scratch in his 4th game is pretty much surprising to me.

The only reason why it's a surprise is because they gave him a C and everyone thought he wouldn't be benched just because of that.

 

[begbeee]

When is the last time that happened during a top tier tournament?

 

[Canuckistani]

Biggest surpises so far have been 1) USA on track to top their group, and 2) Slovakia having so much trouble putting away weak teams (basically on home ice no less)

 

[Jakk123]

Biggest surpises so far have been 1) USA on track to top their group, and 2) Slovakia having so much trouble putting away weak teams (basically on home ice no less)

I think the issue with Slovakia is the fact that we now unfortunately, more or less, belong to the weak teams.

 

[mattihp]

I think the issue with Slovakia is the fact that we now unfortunately, more or less, belong to the weak teams.

Yeah, why is that? Are the defensemen not so good? Or is it the lower range of forwards that mess it up? Mentality? On paper forwards and goaltenders look pretty alright...

 

[Erikfromfin]

Biggest surprise is there has been no surprises

 

[Kiraly]

High attendance doesn't necessarily mean a great atmosphere.

The crowd is amazing !

Much better than at the NHL playoffs ! Canada has the greatest hockey players but not the best atmosphere

In fact, It was long since I last heard anything like this ...

I think people from Winnipeg and Calgary may take exception to your claim.

 

[Jakk123]

Yeah, why is that? Are the defensemen not so good? Or is it the lower range of forwards that mess it up? Mentality? On paper forwards and goaltenders look pretty alright...

Well, our team in general is weaker... It's not like it happened just yesterday, we have been regressing for a long time. Maybe we still belong to the top 8, but I guess you can't expect walking over somebody from us.

 

[SlovanHC]

Biggest surpises so far have been 1) USA on track to top their group, and 2) Slovakia having so much trouble putting away weak teams (basically on home ice no less)

2 is not a surprise at all. We are not the team we were 10 years ago. We have been regressing for a while and this was expected.

 

[Chileiceman]

Well, our team in general is weaker... It's not like it happened just yesterday, we have been regressing for a long time. Maybe we still belong to the top 8, but I guess you can't expect walking over somebody from us.

But it seems like some decent players are coming up through the pipeline. You guys hadn't had prospects of the calibre of Dano, Cehlarik, Godla and Reway in quite some time. So hopefully for your sake you've already hit bottom. Tatar and Jurco also still have time to get better and better, Marincin is developing nicely. Gernat is a project, Detroit could turn Tvrdon into something.

 

[Jakk123]

But it seems like some decent players are coming up through the pipeline. You guys hadn't had prospects of the calibre of Dano, Cehlarik, Godla and Reway in quite some time. So hopefully for your sake you've already hit bottom. Tatar and Jurco also still have time to get better and better, Marincin is developing nicely. Gernat is a project, Detroit could turn Tvrdon into something.

Yeah, that is indeed right, but that is a very small number of prospects.

 

[DrunkElkCZ]

So many goals per game.

 

[syz]

Anton Lander.

 

[BobDobolina]

Kopitar throwing some HUGE hits

 

[hahahaa]

As far as teams go, USA has played very well, I tought, they would struggle in this tourney. Belarus has been a nice surprise SO FAR. Also Denmark has fought hard their every game despite being very weak this year. On the other hand, Switzerland doesn't look good, also I expected more from France, but it seems that they struggle to score goals this time. As for players, I think Lindell, Mursak, Lalande are players that I have noticed to play surprisingly well.

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

US team

 

[Oilerglory]

on paper Canada has the strongest roster