Biggest Dissaopintments and Surprises

[12# Peter Bondra]

Who in your opinion are the biggest dissapointments and surprises up to date (player and team)?

For me, the most dissapointing team is Slovakia. We play with 0 desire and wilingness. I hope a miracle happens and we start to play tommorow or else we need big .

The most surprising team is Finland. Many experts ranked them behind SWE and CZE but they won the group. They play with desire and want to win. Kiprusoff is also helping them.

Players: Modin is playing very good for SWE. (I dont watch NA games except SVK so I cant say who is the best over there). Also Daniel Kreutzer (GER) played good and created chances. Not the best player but he surprised me.

Dissapointments: There are a lot of players who can go here: Satan, Naslund, Hull etc.

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[Preds666]

For team Sweden

+ Fredrik Modin
+ Daniel Alfredsson

- Markus Näslund (should be benched now, but that is not going to happen)
- Kim Johnsson

 

[canucks666]

naslund



i missed the first couple of games of sweden and thought the rumors of him playing badly were greatly exaggerated. And then i saw teh finland game.


MY GOD.

 

[NYI]

for sweden, that they were to stupid not to pick Kenny Johnsson

looks like they could have used his solid defensive postional play in this game.

 

[Shack]

For European teams.

+Kipper, Koivu, Modin, Holmström, Sundin

-Czechs, Forsberg, Näslund, Selänne

Czechs are playing better and better, but they were weak against Finland and Sweden.

For North-American teams

+Canada, Esche, Russia

-USA, Slovakia

Haven't seen all the games from N-A so don't know alot about players. I saw all the 60 minutes from USA-Russia and in that game Esche was solid but so was the whole Russian team.

 

[Riddarn]

for sweden, that they were to stupid not to pick Kenny Johnsson

looks like they could have used his solid defensive postional play in this game.

Maybe yes. But what bugs me the most is that the coach benched Ragnarsson for Tärnström in the Finland game. How stupid can you get?

 

[NJ_Devil_Boy]

Paul Martin

 

[NYI]

Paul Martin

if your going on terms of the US, how about Jason Blake, he is averaging a goal a game and Dipietro has the best GAA in the tournament

 

[Leo Naphta]

Maybe yes. But what bugs me the most is that the coach benched Ragnarsson for Tärnström in the Finland game. How stupid can you get?

The idiot even played him on the penalty kill.

 

[psycho_dad*]

Slovaks have been surprisingly weak. That's pretty much the only surprise so far. Czechs could have been a bit better too.

 

[Leo Naphta]

This is coming from a Swedish perspective

+ FREDRIK MODIN!!! (What on earth did they do with him in Tampa? He is at this moment tournament leader in points and goals and tied second in assists and playing like his life were at stake.)
+ Thomas Holmström. I could never have guessed that he would be this effective in the power play.
+ Daniel Alfredsson. Finally showing up in the national team
+ Mattias Öhlund. He was outright bad in Salt Lake. Now he is the best d-man on the team

- Peter Forsberg. Well, he hasn't been bad, but you can see that he is far from fully recovered.
- Markus Näslund. No excuses here. Andreas Johansson is the only forward who has been worse.
- The defence. On paper we have at least the second best defence in the tournament. But that hasn't translated into reality.
-Goaltending. I really thought one netminder would go hot. Well, they haven't and unless something changes really quick, they will cost us dearly.
- Hardy Nilsson. His forward-lines and defense-pairings have been even worse than I feared.

Mats Sundin probably deserves a +, but I'm kind of used to him being our MVP, so I can't say I am surprised.

 

[NYI]

+ Thomas Holmström. I could never have guessed that he would be this effective in the power play.

I am not a fan of Detroit, but whenever i watch them play i am always impressed with Holmstrom, i am suprised he doesn't get more goals.

 

[Shoalzie]

I am not a fan of Detroit, but whenever i watch them play i am always impressed with Holmstrom, i am suprised he doesn't get more goals.

Watching Sweden's games proves why the Wings would be fools to ever let him go. They don't have any players in Detroit that are good in front of the net...he's a great role player.

Zetterberg has looked great also...the Wings need to give him more ice time next season.


I wouldn't define Team USA as a disappointment because I didn't think they'd win the tournament anyways but I was surprised in how overly matched they were against Canada and Russia. They do match up better with Canada because they don't dangle like the Russians do. Speed has proven to be their kryptonite. Gotta love Esche's performance though...can't complain about the goaltending their three games.

 

[mikkoz]

Surprices
- Team Russia and Kovalev
- Can-Usa and Usa-Rus games were entertaining
- Koivu, Sundin, Thorton, Tkatchuk, Guerin

Dissapointing
- Team Slovakia
- Team Czeck Rep.
- Refereeing in couple of games, some wierd and bad calls - that i dont want to see anymore
- Jaromir Jagr (said that this is second hand tournament and he didnt really care much)
- Modano, Modin and every other dying swan

 

[VanIslander]

I've only seen one game so far, but it seems obvious to me that:

+ Modin
+ Vaananen
+ Peltonen

- Naslund
- Selanne ( + and - - = - )
- Zetterberg

Zetterberg...the Wings need to give him more ice time next season.

I'm not a Red Wings fan so I must agree with you.

 

[Preds666]

Dissapointing
-- Modano, Modin

 

[mikkoz]

No flips when falling to ice thank you very much.

 

[Riddarn]

No flips when falling to ice thank you very much.

Yeah because we all know finnish players never do stuff like that..

 

[mikkoz]

Yeah because we all know finnish players never do stuff like that..

Read my post, i dont think i pointed only a swedish player.

 

[Ensane]

For the US:
+Esche
+Gomez
+Rafalski
+Liles
errrm, actually, all of the younger guys and first timers are playing great.

- Chelios
- Tkachuk
and then the rest of the guys who're older and have been there before.

It's actually kinda ironic how the list has gone.

 

[Shoalzie]

- Tkachuk

Tkachuk has been solid in my opinion...very good in front of the net but has taken a few penalties. I like the line of Tkachuk-Modano-Guerin.

The scenarios for Team USA in the quarterfinals...
Play Slovakia if Slovakia beats Russia by more than 3 goals.
Play Russia if Russia beats Slovakia or doesn't lose by more than 3 goals.

With that, it looks like it'll be USA-Russia again.

 

[Ensane]

Tkachuk has been solid in my opinion...very good in front of the net but has taken a few penalties. I like the line of Tkachuk-Modano-Guerin.

The scenarios for Team USA in the quarterfinals...
Play Slovakia if Slovakia beats Russia by more than 3 goals.
Play Russia if Russia beats Slovakia or doesn't lose by more than 3 goals.

With that, it looks like it'll be USA-Russia again.

My beef with Tkachuk is that he's trending towards 1 stupid ass penalty per PERIOD! His play has been decent, but he needs to get his head screwed on straight. Some rogaine right now wouldn't hurt his cause either.

 

[Moskau]

My beef with Tkachuk is that he's trending towards 1 stupid ass penalty per PERIOD! His play has been decent, but he needs to get his head screwed on straight. Some rogaine right now wouldn't hurt his cause either.

He's been doing this for years in the Playoffs.

 

[Johnny]

Jay-Bo looked like a vet out there tonight against the Russian... I was skeptical with his placement on the team originally but he certainly impressed, hopefully he can keep it up.

 

[Joe_Sakic#19]

I think Tkachuk has been playing good, but he takes some stupid penalties. He's kind of reminding me of that guy from Vancouver. Hmmmmm.....