TORRUS said:
Hmmm...
Interesting! Look at the poll at
www.nhl.com
57% think that Russia will win! Strange for such a biased pro NA site!
Finaly, people are becoming realistic!
GO RUSSIA FOR GOLD!!!!!!!!!
What does a poll have anything to do with reality? If you break each team down as forwards, defense, and goaltending, then add in the system they play and how they execute that system, and you will find your champion.
Taking that criteria, any fan of hockey and the WJC, if being truly un-biased, that Canada has more horses and shold win this game. Of course the ever popular saying reads somethink like this..."The games are not won on paper, that's why they play them on the ice" so obviously to make it to the final, both teams have shown enough to both be deserving, but I will stick with Canada on this one.
I understand that these boards get filled up with crazy talk, about how "my country is better than your country" or "my Dad can beat up your Dad" scenarios, but for those of us who love this game, and truly watch it for the think of beauty that it is, we take the strengths and weaknesses of each team, and try to rationally formulate an opinion. I really believe that Canada will win.
I don't say that because I dislike Russia or don't think that they have a chance. I state my opinion which is based largely on what I have seen take place in this tournament. Lets look at how both teams got here and then make a desicion shall we...
The Russians coming into this tourney were one of three nations everyone was touting as a medal favorite, along with Canada and the host nation, and defending champs team USA. The Russians drew the US in the first round robin game. The US held on for a 5-4 win, in a game where defense was non existant and the goaltending was quite bad.
Game 2 for the Russians saw them take on the Czech Republic and that ended with the Russians taking care of business 4-1.
Game 3 Russia smokes the happless Belarussians 7-2.
Game 4 Russia hammers the Swiss 6-1.
Then they outplay the US in the Semis 7-2, and earn the right to play for the GOLD!
Team Canada has been nothing short of incredible.
They began the tourney with a 7-3 thumping of Slovakia,
followed that up with an utter dismantling of the Swedes,
trounced Germany 9-0,
topped Finland 8-1,
and took care of the Czechs in the semis 3-1.
For the right to play for GOLD!
Now we could throw these scores out of the equation as I am sure most of you rooting for Russia will simply say that all of those clubs were lesser lights and were not worthy adversaries for team Canada. So lets not dwell on the final scores, lets instead look at how the games were played.
Russia is a very offensively gifted team. With very skillful and talented forwards. The Defense is nothing to right home about, but they are very steady and can chip in with some offense when needed.
The Galtending is quite good, and I feel that Khudobin may have a very big game left in him yet.
The Canadians are also very gifted offensively, but are not as flashy as the Russians and for this reason many people think that their offense is second to the Russians.
The Defense is a force. They are all big, they are all mobile, they take the body, and they can all chip in on offense.
The Goaltending is adequate. By adequate, I do not want to make Jeff Glass sound unworthy, but due to the low shot count on him each game, he really hasn't had to save the Canadian bacon if you will.
Then come the intangiables. Here is where the game is won and lost. The Russians rely heavily on puck possession and all out offense.
The Canadians blend strong Defense and puck possession, along with a very strong work ethic.
When you factor in that Canada let the gold medal slip out of their hands last year, and that they have 12 returning players who remember what that felt like, you have a real powder keg of emotion ready to explode. The beautiful part of this team Canada is that coach Sutter understands all of this and has his entire team on the same page. They are focused on winning the gold and nothing else matters.
My opinion is that Canada will win in what could be one of the greatest games the WJC has ever seen.
The final score will be...4-2 Canada.
