GDT: Quarter Final: Russia Vs Switzerland | 6:30AM EST 12:30PM CET | RUS 3 - 1 SUI

[Fantomas]

Tough to call this one

Yes, super tough.

 

[Fantomas]

I agree. Miftakhov looked way more calm and collected on this tournament. Don't get why they chose Askarov.

Miftakhov choked against the Americans. I hope Askarov plays the rest of the way. He's the superior goalie.

 

[Speyer]

For a goalie with his pro experience he has been very very bad and the stats support that. Since we have three excellent goalies there was no reason to go back to him after game 1 already.

Yes we have three good goalies but Hollenstein is definitley the most proven. He has the most WJC experience and his NLA stats looked very good coming into the torunament. Charlin had literaly no tournament experience and has played less games on the pro level. Schmid dominated the USHL last year but his numbers are looking much less favorable this year. Not to mention that the USHL isnt a very good leage to play in for a player of Schmids age in the first place. So it seems very reasonable that Patelini chose Hollenstein to be the number one pre tournament. I am also against the notion that a goalie should be done for the tournament after one bad game. So I dont fault Paterlini for giving him an extra chance. From now on the starter has to be Charlin though as he looked much better overall.

Has Paterlini even said that he will go back to Hollenstein in the quarters? Unless he actually goes through with that, I cant say he has done anything wrong yet in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Melkor]

Miftakhov choked against the Americans. I hope Askarov plays the rest of the way. He's the superior goalie.

Askarov choked against an inferior team in Czechs and gave up a clownish goal against Germans. At least Miftakhov shut Canadians out and gave up just one bad goal against Americans. Miftakhov's had a way tougher opposition and looked way better.

 

[Hinterland]

Yes we have three good goalies but Hollenstein is definitley the most proven. He has the most WJC experience and his NLA stats looked very good coming into the torunament. Charlin literaly no tournament experience and has played less games on the pro level. Schmid dominated the USHL last year but his numbers are looking much less favorable this year. Not to mention that the USHL isnt a very good leage to play in for a player of Schmids age in the first place. So it seems very reasonable that Patelini chose Hollenstein to be the number one pre tournament. I am also against the notion that a goalie should be done for the tournament after one bad game. So I dont fault Paterlini for giving him an extra chance. From now on the starter has to be Charlin as he looked much better overall.

Has Paterlini even said that he will go back to Hollenstein in the quarters? Unless he actually goes through with that, I cant say he has done anything wrong in the grand scheme of things.

I think that sometimes talent beats experience and since these tournaments aren't just about winning but also about player development, I'd have started Charlin or Schmid in game 1. Probably Charlin based on his hot hand.

But again...I don't fault Paterlini for starting Hollenstein in game 1 but after Hollenstein played poorly there was no reason to start him again. Normally teams have 1, maximum 2 good goalies at those under 20 tournaments. So it's completely normal to give 2nd or 3rd chances to your clearly superior goalies. But it's just not smart to play a goalie through all sorts of struggles when you have Akira Schmid eating nachos in the press box. Sorry. But that's bullshit, no other way to put it.

Paterlini didn't say anything but based on how stubborn he handled the goalies until now, I'd be very surprised if Charlin starts tomorrow.

 

[Fantomas]

Askarov choked against an inferior team in Czechs and gave up a clownish goal against Germans. At least Miftakhov shut Canadians out and gave up just one bad goal against Americans. Miftakhov's had a way tougher opposition and looked way better.

These are small sample sizes. Askarov is the better goalie. Hopefully Bragin isn't so short sighted to prefer a guy simply because he briefly played better.

 

[Melkor]

These are small sample sizes. Askarov is the better goalie. Hopefully Bragin isn't so short sighted to prefer a guy simply because he briefly played better.

Lol it's a short tournament. You don't play who you think is the better goalie. You play the one who is better at the moment and it's pretty obvious who's better at the moment. Hopefully Bragin just makes the right choice whoever it is and doesn't just base it on who he thinks is better in general because it's pretty subjective and irrelevant to the situation.

 

[Hinterland]

f*** those injuries. First the flu and now injuries start piling up. No luck this year.

More icetime for Pezzullo/Guggenheim. Sigh. Gross better be 100% or this one could get ugly. Somebody organize oxygen tents and and extra pairs of legs for Berni, Moser and Aebischer...they're gonna need them

 

[Fantomas]

Lol it's a short tournament. You don't play who you think is the better goalie. You play the one who is better at the moment and it's pretty obvious who's better at the moment.

That's not obvious at all.

I ride my star goalie, unless he is sick or completely broken. We'll see what Bragin actually does.

 

[Oberyn Martell]

I just don´t see the swiss winning this one. Russia is way too good and they will dominate. 6:1 Russia

 

[Passionis]

Both options are good enough to give Russia a fair shot to beat Switzerland. I'm not too worried about this selection.

Im still far from convinced Russia can consistently capitalize on the PP, which can kill them.

IF they solved that problem, this is a really good team that will be very hard to stop.

Switzerland hope is to remain within 2 goals into the third, if they do.. It'll be a very hard game for Russia.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Swiss have done better than I thought but I'm still not sure how much of that is Finland's struggle with their injuries. Russia meanwhile are the class of the tournament from what's I've seen despite the 2 losses. I'm going to say 5-1 Russia here.

 

[Hinterland]

Swiss have done better than I thought but I'm still not sure how much of that is Finland's struggle with their injuries. Russia meanwhile are the class of the tournament from what's I've seen despite the 2 losses. I'm going to say 5-1 Russia here.

Injuries? I only know about one injury.

In fact, if one team has health issues, it's the Swiss. Flu bug hit them pretty hard and they only had their first practice with everybody on board right before game 1 in which certain players certainly looked sick. We also had Gross missing for two games now and based on icetimes he was probably banged up pretty good before game 1 already. He's one of the "A"'s and cornerstones of the team. Salzgeber, one of the most important shutdown and PK guys was also out against Finland plus Henauer got hurt ingame (or, more likely, started the game hurt with Gross out already) and will now miss the quarterfinal as a result. We can only hope that Gross is good to go and back at 100%...otherwise we're in big trouble. Our bad luck really pisses me off.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Injuries? I only know about one injury.

In fact, if one team has health issues, it's the Swiss. Flu bug hit them pretty hard and they only had their first practice with everybody on board right before game 1 in which certain players certainly looked sick. We also had Gross missing for two games now and based on icetimes he was probably banged up pretty good before game 1 already. He's one of the "A"'s and cornerstones of the team. Salzgeber, one of the most important shutdown and PK guys was also out against Finland plus Henauer got hurt ingame (or, more likely, started the game hurt with Gross out already) and will now miss the quarterfinal as a result. We can only hope that Gross is good to go and back at 100%...otherwise we're in big trouble. Our bad luck really pisses me off.

Lundell getting injured before the tournament and Kupari in it. That's probably their 2 best players. Nordgren I thought would make the team as well and I believe I heard about an injury but I'm not sure if they just cut him or if he was hurt.

 

[Hinterland]

Lundell getting injured before the tournament and Kupari in it. That's probably their 2 best players. Nordgren I thought would make the team as well and I believe I heard about an injury but I'm not sure if they just cut him or if he was hurt.

They still had one more player in that game...and Henauer must have played hurt because we cannot afford to expose Pezzullo and Guggenheim even more than we already did. Already cost us goals, like the last one vs Sweden I think it was when Guggenheim was out on the PK. Those two younger guys would normally play reduced and sheltered minutes. The fact that Henauer is out for this game means that Gross is back for sure but probably not even close from 100%. They're just rotating the injured guys trying to survive.

 

[ZDH]

3-2 swiss

 

[greasysnapper]

I could see the Swiss winning. From what I've seen I think this is the best coached team in the tournament. And they have some dangerous guys up front that aren't getting a lot of attention that can do some damage. And a really solid top 4. Schmid's shifty, same with Verboon, these guys can make you pay. They are very good. The only thing is I think if they do win, they'll be too gassed to move on passed that next round because they don't have the defensive depth that Russia has.

To me this will be must see game of the quarters. I could see it going a bunch of different ways.

 

[novisor]

Gonna love getting up for this one - a great day ahead!

 

[Hinterland]

I could see the Swiss winning. From what I've seen I think this is the best coached team in the tournament. And they have some dangerous guys up front that aren't getting a lot of attention that can do some damage. And a really solid top 4. Schmid's shifty, same with Verboon, these guys can make you pay. They are very good. The only thing is I think if they do win, they'll be too gassed to move on passed that next round because they don't have the defensive depth that Russia has.

To me this will be must see game of the quarters. I could see it going a bunch of different ways.

Verboon I'm not so sure. Looking more like a sidekick of Nussbaumer to me. A good one as he fit in nicely but he has a lot left to prove. Was also pretty bad against Finland and I'm not even talking about the soft bs calls by the Swedish refs.

Schmid on the other hand is great. My favorite forward, I'll admit it. Not very gifted but just immense hockey IQ. Seems always in the right position, whether that's with or without the puck. Reminds me a bit of Jared McCann who was just as great as Schmid in those areas at a young age already. Schmid is also clearly superior to everybody else in terms of faceoffs and an outstanding PKer. At least as important as Nussbaumer in my view, taking the tougher matchups for him whenever possible. If Schmid can find a way to create more offense then I could see him become an NHLer despite his lack of size and elite talent.

 

[tictactoe]

Questionable goal tending and PP for Russia but I think they should be able to take this assuming they also will not take dumb penalties.

 

[hockey20000]

Russia in a 4-1 game. swiss looked good vs finland though abit average then normal team for them I would say.

 

[Yakushev72]

Askarov choked against an inferior team in Czechs and gave up a clownish goal against Germans. At least Miftakhov shut Canadians out and gave up just one bad goal against Americans. Miftakhov's had a way tougher opposition and looked way better.

Miftakov shut out Canada, but hardly faced any challenging shots in the process. He looked good because his team was dominating in the other end and keeping shots away from him. I agree that Askarov is the more talented goalie and, once he gets settled in, offers a better chance of keeping pucks out under pressure.

 

[Dodospice]

I think Russia takes this one easily. Good on the Swiss for getting this far, I thought the team was going to be a weaker edition then previous years but I can’t see them winning.

 

[Atas2000]

Miftakhov choked against the Americans. I hope Askarov plays the rest of the way. He's the superior goalie.

Miftakhov has not choked. Bragin choked with another stupid goalie decision. He is known to do those. Who playes even a great starter on back to backs against top opponents? And no, right now Askarov is not superior. He might be going forward, but he is 17.

 

[Mysteric1000]

I dunno why, but I have a weird gut feeling that in this game lies the first upset (and probably the only one if Finland wont win the US).

Very early game, Swiss's somewhat disciplined showing against us in the last round robin game + possible confidence boost from that game and if Charlin stays in net and Swiss will finish their counterattacks effectively like they did against us and they dont have the pressures in this game mentally they may take this one. If not on the regulation; then atleast in overtime.

Ofc Bragin's coached teams are also very disciplined and dont take anything for granted or lightly, but somehow I see this as a potential upset.

Anybody else have the same feeling here, or am I the only one?