Bixby Snyder
IBTFAD
The best U.S. athletes aren't playing hockey.
Some of them are, the USA develops great athletes in all kinds of sports, not just basketball and football.
The best U.S. athletes aren't playing hockey.
USA is officially the best WJHC country of the decade.
As far as I'm concerned, they are now right up there with Canada, Russia, and Sweden.
Matthews
Eichel
Hughes
And only Canada comes close at center. Wingers is even and the USA has superior Defense and goaltending.
The best U.S. athletes aren't playing hockey.
Matthews
Eichel
Hughes
And only Canada comes close at center. Wingers is even and the USA has superior Defense and goaltending.
There are very, very few players all time that are on Kovalev’s level talent wise so that’s not saying much lol. Kovalev is one of the most talented players of all timeYes that one. Just an FYI from what I’ve seen of Kravstov he’s not on the level of Kovalev talent wise
Did you just list Jack Hughes as the Americans third best Center right now?
Canada's center depth blows the Americans out of the water.
McDavid(by far the best of all)
MacKinnon
Crosby
Schiefele
Bergeron
Tavares.
I'm not even going to acknowledge the rest of your post as you're reaching an entirely new level of delusional at this point.
It’s not a slight edge. It’s pretty damn clear Canada’s depth at Center is far beyond the States. It’s not an opinion either, it’s a fact.Not now but going forward he will be. Right now it would be Larkin or Pavelski and then Keller, Hayes, and Johnson. Slight edge to Canada now but there's just so many centers you can use. No other country but Canada beats that now but I'm mostly looking forward.
Not now but going forward he will be. Right now it would be Larkin or Pavelski and then Keller, Hayes, and Johnson. Slight edge to Canada now but there's just so many centers you can use. No other country but Canada beats that now but I'm mostly looking forward.
No, it's not slight, it's large. I also have no idea how successul Hughes will be as a Cener in the NHL, and neither do you. It's up in the air at this point whether he's a C or winger at the next level.
Canada will go what they do on every best on best tournaments, move C's to the wing. Canada boasts a huge advantage on the Americans forward wise, especially when we look at their depth.
Goalies are a wash, Defense is still without a doubt Canada. You really went off the rails with your last couple of posts.
As I said in my previous post, Canada currently boasts half of the top 10 scorers in the league, with the oldest of the bunch being 24 years old. 4/5 of the top scoring D-men in the league are also Canadian. As long as they keep producing more high level talent than any other country, they'll be just fine.
Unsuspecting crosscheck. Cheap all the way.
Canada has five of the ten. USA has two. If Mathews were healthy it would be three. That goes with the math. Canada represents 48% of NHL players and US 26%.
I dunno is it a bug but i cant like posts :/ wtf?Congratulations to the USA for what I thought was a dominant performance. If you didn't watch it, dominant might sound too strong for a 2-1 game, but only some great goaltending from Kotchetkov kept the score close. The Americans were superior in every facet of hockey. The most glaring difference was in skating speed, but they were also superior in stickhandling, and passing. Their shooting wasn't special, which may explain why Kotchetkov kept his team within striking distance. They were clearly hungrier and more motivated, which, when combined with their speed, might explain why they won the race to every loose puck and outnumbered the Russians around the puck all day. After looking disinterested and dispassionate in the first two periods, Russia tried to pour on the pressure in the 3rd, but the American smothered them on the perimeter and barely gave them a sniff of the goal. I'll never understand how it could be that kids from tropical beach cities in Florida and California, where a snow flake has never flown, can have superior hockey skills to kids from Siberia, but I guess that is what we have.
What was really stunning for me was how badly the Russians were outcoached. The Americans have been using the same forecheck and collapsing defensive schemes throughout the tournament, but Russia used no special tactics or strategies to counteract the American schemes. Instead of organizing a methodical attack, the Russian kids just tried stickhandling solos up the ice to see how far they could go before the Americans stripped the puck away from them. The kids have great skills, but they had no way to use them productively to get the job done. There was no road or avenue leading to success, which is what coaches are supposed to provide. It just seemed like the kids didn't know what to do, which is again the fault of the coaching staff.
Matthews has injury problems, we can't just ignore that to fit your narrative. If you're going to go that way you've got to throw Crosby into the top 10 as well.
We will see, won't we? I'm willing to wait. You like most Canadians seem to overrate your players and give little to no respect to ours. I bet if Seth Jones, Jacob Trouba and Zack Werenski were Canadian you'd be pumping them up as Norris caliber defensemen.
Well Eichel's just outside the top ten and measuring a players talent solely by numbers is unfair. Alex Ovechkin has scored 30 goals this year and isn't in the top 10 scoring.
No ones gonna argue that he's not a top five NHLer.
Imagine listening Hayes as one of your best centres then in the same post saying Canada only has a slight edge.Not now but going forward he will be. Right now it would be Larkin or Pavelski and then Keller, Hayes, and Johnson. Slight edge to Canada now but there's just so many centers you can use. No other country but Canada beats that now but I'm mostly looking forward.
I'm not trying to argue that fact. Everyone agrees Canada has the best players and they should. I'm arguing your point about top tier talent. High end skill.There are multiple Canadians outside of the top 10 as well. You're going into a circular argument again. Facts are facts and Canada has more high end talent than the Americans. No need to be salty about it, they're clearly improving.
Canada doesn't need to hype up Defenseman as being Norris calibre, since they already multi active Defenseman who have already won the trophy. Rielly, Chabot seem kinda good at Hockey too.
The USA is certainly improving, but as of this moment I don't they're still fourth. Canada and Sweden are the clear 1, 2.