Smyth2Hemsky said:
Oveplaying Pronger and Blake to get them out of slumps isn't going to help. By playing both players for half the game is only going to make them tired and take useless penalties. Under no circumstances should Pronger and Blake be playng half the game on a larger ice surface playing 4 games in 5 nights. On top of that, you can tell that the two of them are playing hurt. If Pronger wasn't hurt, do you really think Koivu would have been able to beat him?
are you saying that Pronger doesn't ever get beat when he's healthy?
we're also not talking about Jarkko Ruutu here beating him, but a very skilled player overall... I know you've said this a few times, but you must think that Pronger never gets beat by anyone if he's healthy?
As far as how much those guys played, it was a coaching decision here (and in this case, you can point fingers at Hitchcock here since he does most of the work with the defense)... my guess is that they wanted their two best guys out as much as possible.
In that game, as much as Pronger and Blake may have been hurt, they were still among the top Canadian dmen, and Koivu beating Pronger on one play doesn't change that... McCabe and Regehr were both not that good, and haven't been in the tournament... Foote was okay, but when you're looking for offense, Blake and Pronger are better options... I'm surprised JBo hasn't played more, and IMO should have, but maybe they didn't want to go with a less experienced guy in a critical situation... and Redden wasn't exactly good in that game either, throwing away the puck a few times, and icing it several times.
And I don't by the tired excuse either... these guys are used to playing 30 mins a game, and Team Canada knew they had Monday off as well, giving them time to rest.