GDT: Women's | Semifinals | Canada vs Russia| 7:10 AM

[Pouchkine]

Because their world ranking was 5th which puts them outside the top 4 rankings of USA, Canada, Finland, Russia. The brackets are so they don't have massive blowouts and give a chance of those countries to get wins and grow the sport in their country...which should be obvious when both teams from group A (Finland/Russia) smoked the two teams from group B (Sweden/Switzerland).

Switzerland and Japan got in by beating everyone else in a qualification tournament which is why there was no Germany this Olympics, Korea got in as a host nation and were obviously going to be trashed by everyone given their world ranking.

Have you see the game grow in the past 10-15 years? It's the complete opposite. You think people in Japan are watching women hockey on tv or in Sweden people are watching a string of meaningless very low quality games. What about the old saying you can only get better when playing better than you? It's a complete joke.

 

[Pouchkine]

It will take much longer to grow a team sport since depth matters so much. Finland has 3 of the better players but their depth isn't the greatest.

But there's no growth. Finland has not improve, Sweden have regressed a lot, Russia don't play and fund women hockey, the rest can't play.

 

[YMCMBYOLO]

And to be honest I'm not impressed by the level of Canada and USA. You can see they on average skate without the puck better than before and can shoot somewhat harder and most precisely BUT there's just no collective play, no combination play no great passes no great stickhandling, there's even some dump and chase and trap going on, you'd think they could develop an attractive playing style but no.

This is no different than Canada in 2014 in Sochi, so why are you complaining about the "attractiveness" of their playing style?

 

[Pouchkine]

Women Soccer has grown very rapidly in a number of countries because a lot of girls and good athletes want to play it. The problem is hockey just isn't popular among girls-women in all but two countries. Finland should do better but the level of their team is very low.

 

[Pouchkine]

This is no different than Canada in 2014 in Sochi, so why are you complaining about the "attractiveness" of their playing style?

Because they play vs. opponents who can't play so they could at least win with style! They could easily develop a high skill game that might also get people to watch it.

The men game at the moment is sick with boring hockey I acknowledge that but why do team Canada and team USA women have to copy that crap style? Why couldn't they develop something akin to the old Soviet style? Something that people would want to see!!!

 

[Pouchkine]

I'll watch the final and hope for a good game but let's not fool ourselves about the health of women hockey in general.

 

[Kyndig]

Have you see the game grow in the past 10-15 years? It's the complete opposite. You think people in Japan are watching women hockey on tv or in Sweden people are watching a string of meaningless very low quality games. What about the old saying you can only get better when playing better than you? It's a complete joke.

Yes, each country has gotten better in the last 10-15 years...but that also means USA/Canada has gotten better too as they're not quite at their best capabilities yet as you and others have pointed out there's still some sloppy stuff to clean up and stronger shots. Finland lost to Sweden last Olympics and this year they're not even in the same league. Finland has arguably one of the best young defenseman. I don't know why Sweden hasn't progressed while Finland has, even Switzerland has with a player like Mueller. Japan has obviously progressed too, quite possibly the fastest of any of the countries.

Soccer is already thee most popular sport on the planet so obviously that will progress faster.

 

[Urbanskog]

Women Soccer has grown very rapidly in a number of countries because a lot of girls and good athletes want to play it. The problem is hockey just isn't popular among girls-women in all but two countries. Finland should do better but the level of their team is very low.

Women's soccer isn't exactly big either. It's why Canada manages to be one of the top teams despite the men's team being one of the worst national teams in the western world.

 

[Pouchkine]

Canada just failed to qualify for the U20 World Cup finishing behind Usa Mexico and Haïti. The game is growing incredibly fast the last 5-10 years particularly almost everywhere.

Without Sinclair they would have been nowhere. Last World Cup at home they did nothing now watch without her how the team will disappear.

 

[Pouchkine]

How is women soccer doing in Finland? It seems Sweden Norway Denmark are doing very fine. It's not popular? Maybe that's why in hockey you are "better".

 

[GKJ]

Has Canada ever lost to someone other than the US? At the top level, too, where both teams had their best players.

 

[Barrie22]

Has Canada ever lost to someone other than the US? At the top level, too, where both teams had their best players.

Nope. But the usa has lost and i am actually pretty sure it was at an olympics. Yes it was. 2006 in turin the usa lost to sweden in the semis.

 

[GKJ]

Nope. But the usa has lost and i am actually pretty sure it was at an olympics. Yes it was. 2006 in turin the usa lost to sweden in the semis.

I know the US has, they've lost to Sweden, too. In 6 olympiads, everyone has won 1 game between then against the US and Canada.

That is not an intriguing tournament if it's always the same 2 teams.

 

[Monaakko]

Nope. But the usa has lost and i am actually pretty sure it was at an olympics. Yes it was. 2006 in turin the usa lost to sweden in the semis.

Actually, just last year Canada lost to Finland in the World Championship group stage.

 

[cactusjack]

Because they play vs. opponents who can't play so they could at least win with style! They could easily develop a high skill game that might also get people to watch it.

The men game at the moment is sick with boring hockey I acknowledge that but why do team Canada and team USA women have to copy that crap style? Why couldn't they develop something akin to the old Soviet style? Something that people would want to see!!!

That's exactly what it is. It's more a positioning game than a skill game even if they seems to have that extra second that men don't have because the game is so tight. It seems there is foward who's a mile ahead it term of skills from everyone else. US has had trouble scoring 5 on 5 during tournament. I guess when you're not paid to play (or so little) , you can't spend as much time on the ice and the skillset can't improve that much.

 

[Kyndig]

That's exactly what it is. It's more a positioning game than a skill game even if they seems to have that extra second that men don't have because the game is so tight. It seems there is foward who's a mile ahead it term of skills from everyone else. US has had trouble scoring 5 on 5 during tournament. I guess when you're not paid to play (or so little) , you can't spend as much time on the ice and the skillset can't improve that much.

USA only has 2 fewer 5v5 goals than Canada despite having to play Finland twice which is a much better team than Russia. Now if you said USA has a bad shooting percentage I'd agree considering they've outshot their opponents 175-74. Canada has outshot their opponents 150-100 (95 of which came from their 2 games against Russia.) USA has the same amount of PPG's as Canada despite having 6 fewer PP's than Canada. I like where USA stands in the gold medal rematch, Canada will need their goalie to stand on her head again to win.

 

[cactusjack]

USA only has 2 fewer 5v5 goals than Canada despite having to play Finland twice which is a much better team than Russia. Now if you said USA has a bad shooting percentage I'd agree considering they've outshot their opponents 175-74. Canada has outshot their opponents 150-100 (95 of which came from their 2 games against Russia.) USA has the same amount of PPG's as Canada despite having 6 fewer PP's than Canada. I like where USA stands in the gold medal rematch, Canada will need their goalie to stand on her head again to win.

In fact either Can or USA are having trouble scoring 5 on 5. The final will probably goes down to the wire.