Eagle Eye Cherry
guitar player
either Latvia, Austria, Slovakia or Switzerland to a gold medal? Is it possible?
I definitely think a top 10 goalie could let Slovakia take gold. They have very strong forwards between Hossa, Gaborik, Palffy, and Demitra, as well as a bit of depth with Satan, Handzus, Stumpel, Zednik, and Kopecky.
But what really stands out to me is Slovakia's defense. The forwards are all old and don't seem to be being replaced, however they have a top defense core on paper with Visnovsky and Chara, which is complimented by Meszaros, Sekera, and Jurcina. Top 4 D Slovakia is one of the strongest teams in the tourney on paper, I'd put only Canada ahead of them.
If Slovakia had a top goalie this year I think they could do some serious damage, olympics in the future, however, I think they will be very, very weak.
either Latvia, Austria, Slovakia or Switzerland to a gold medal? Is it possible?
I definitely think a top 10 goalie could let Slovakia take gold. They have very strong forwards between Hossa, Gaborik, Palffy, and Demitra, as well as a bit of depth with Satan, Handzus, Stumpel, Zednik, and Kopecky.
But what really stands out to me is Slovakia's defense. The forwards are all old and don't seem to be being replaced, however they have a top defense core on paper with Visnovsky and Chara, which is complimented by Meszaros, Sekera, and Jurcina. Top 4 D Slovakia is one of the strongest teams in the tourney on paper, I'd put only Canada ahead of them.
If Slovakia had a top goalie this year I think they could do some serious damage, olympics in the future, however, I think they will be very, very weak.
Perhaps Switzerland.
Other teams such as Latvia or Austria. No chance in Hell. Who would score the goals. Also NHL goalies playing on these teams would still get lit up, just not as bad.
Well, Switzerland was no better at scoring than Latvia was. The Swiss had 19 while Latvia had 17 with one less game. Either way Latvia wouldn't stand a chance. Sure their goaltending was by far their biggest weakness, but the defense was not much better. I don't think an NHL tender could stop 65 shots a game either.
If Slovakia had a top goalie this year I think they could do some serious damage, olympics in the future, however, I think they will be very, very weak.
What people forget is that many of these kids nearly have NHL calibre shots. The rest of their game is lacking in most cases, but the shot is typically there. I'm not sure that an NHL goalie would be enough of an improvement to be counted on to stop the 50+ shots that would be coming his way. But with a good goalie anything can happen.
People are quick to forget that Conz was phenomenal this tournament.