The Official Olympic Hockey Thread

[tfrizz]

Canada

Kunitz - Crosby - Duchene
Benn - Getzlaf - Perry
Sharp - Thornton - St Louis
Little - Marleau - Eberle
Tavares

Pietrangelo - Weber
Vlasic - Keith
Doughty - Subban
Letang

Price
Luongo
Fleury



As much as I'd hoped Kunitz wouldn't make the Olympic team, he's the 6th highest scoring Canadian forward this season with 31 points and the second highest goal scorer with 17. Given that and his chemistry with Crosby, I figure he's got a spot locked up.

[meow]

No Toews?? Ekk

[Idoit40fans]

Yeah that invalidates the list entirely.

[meow]

I do like the Brian Little addition. I love when guys play their way onto Olympic teams and Little has an outside shot of doing so.

[mikey287]

I like the idea of Little, but he can't play the left wing very well and he'd be their slowest skater probably, maybe Thornton...I think it's a reach personally...though, I like the outside the box stab at it...if Little was a better skater it would make more sense, because he has great hockey IQ...he's a guy that anticipates bounces so incredibly well, it's uncanny...it's tough to find a puck that he guesses wrong on the angle or can't field the bounce...

I almost don't want to do Canada because there's so many players that I'd leave off...it would be so hard...I had a hard time with the American defense...I'll try it in a little bit I guess...

[Idoit40fans]

I started doing America defense first, did 4 pairings and had a couple more I wanted to use and decided I wasn't doing any lineups.

[tfrizz]

No Toews?? Ekk

Yeah that invalidates the list entirely.

Yeah, I tried to do it off the top of my head and forgot about Toews.

[Crankshaft]

As much as I'd hoped Kunitz wouldn't make the Olympic team,

Why?

[meow]

CANADA
Duchene – Crosby – Tavares
Benn – Toews – Eberle
Perry – Getzlaf – E. Staal
Richards – Thorton – Bergeron
Hall – Couture

Keith – Weber
Doughty – Bouwmeester
Pietrangelo – Boyle
Vlasic – Letang

Luongo
Price
Ward

[Dickie Dunn]

Any chance for Brandon Saad on team USA? 11th among US forwards in scoring, willing to play physical, kills penalties, can fill the role of a 3rd/4th liner. Or is there just too much in front of him?

[MRandall25]

I thought about putting him on my roster, but inexperience and the fact there's a good 3 or 4 guys ahead of him for the last spot, I left him off.

He would have to play really, really well between now and selection time to make it, IMO

[MRandall25]

Finland

Forwards: Teemu Selanne, Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Koivu, Saku Koivu, Tuomo Ruutu, Jarkko Ruutu, Mikael Granlund, Jarkko Immonen, Jussi Jokinen, Olli Jokinen, Valtteri Filppula, Sakari Salminen, Petri Kontiola, Niklas Hagman

Defense: Sami Vatanen, Janne Niskala, Lasse Kukkonen, Sami Salo, Olli Maatta, Sami Lepisto, Ossi Vaananen, Kimmo Timonen

Goalies: Tuukka Rask, Kari Lehtonen, Antti Niemi (I don't really expect Rinne to be ready, but swap him and Niemi if so)

Czech Republic

Forwards: Jaromir Jagr, Patrick Elias, Jakub Voracek, Radim Vrbata, Tomas Plekanec, Martin Hanzal (over Milan Michalek), David Krejci, Petr Nedved (may or may not be a homer pick, but he's put up some numbers in the Czech league), Roman Cervenka, Martin Ruzicka, Jiri Hudler, Jan Kovar, Tomas Hertl, Tomas Rolinek

Defense: Zybnek Michalek, Marek Zidlicky, Roman Polak, Tomas Kaberle, Jan Hejda, Jakub Kindl, Miroslav Blatak, Zdenek Kutlak

Goalies: Ondrej Pavelec, Alexander Salak, Petr Mrazek

[tfrizz]

I wouldn't be shocked if Mazanec made the Czech team given how he's played for Nashville with Rinne out.

[MRandall25]

5-7-1 with a 2.51 GAA? Eh. Salak is 14-6 with a 1.69 GAA, and Mrazek would probably be in the NHL if it weren't for Jimmy Howard and Jonas Gustavsson (and actually just recently was called up to fill in for an injured Howard).

[Kovy27]

I have to say, I'm pretty excited on how much representation that we may have at the Olympics.

[tfrizz]

5-7-1 with a 2.51 GAA? Eh. Salak is 14-6 with a 1.69 GAA, and Mrazek would probably be in the NHL if it weren't for Jimmy Howard and Jonas Gustavsson (and actually just recently was called up to fill in for an injured Howard).

He was among the league leaders in both GAA and SV% prior to his last two starts. He was also 5-0-0 with a 1.97 GAA and .933 in the AHL before being called up.

[mikey287]

Any chance for Brandon Saad on team USA? 11th among US forwards in scoring, willing to play physical, kills penalties, can fill the role of a 3rd/4th liner. Or is there just too much in front of him?

He's on the radar, but I'm not sure if he's there yet...if I'm the Americans, I want to get by on grinding and physicality, being tough to play against...Saad can maybe provide that, but is he strong enough physically right now to handle that in a short order tournament...? I'm not sure.

- I'd also consider Mazanec, he's been excellent for Nashville thus far (I think I gave him a nod towards the end of a Calder poll I recently voted on). I'm not sure what I would do if I was the Czechs...Pavelec is probably the best upside to steal a game right now...Mrazek and Mazanec are both young and it wouldn't be bad to have them along as a #3...I'm guessing that one of Alexander Salak or Jakub Kovar will be the #2.

- The Finns and other countries maybe, but the Finns especially will probably lean towards domestic players for the filler spots. The third goalie will probably be domestic, the spare d-men will probably be domestic. Ossi Vaananen is hurt right now, I think Kukkonen is too, so they might be questionable...but if Vaananen is healthy, he'll go, they don't have enough better defensive guys to go. Teemu Selanne will be there on name alone...I seriously question Jarkko Immonen and Sakari Salminen's chance for the team...especially the latter...

[MRandall25]

Immonen was on the team in Vancouver.

I passed up guys like Antti Miettinen because I have no idea what he has left in the tank. Has gone downhill since 2010

[mikey287]

Yeah, for the role that Mittens would play, I gotta think that Lauri Korpikoski or even Leo Komarov have as good or better chance...

[PhantomJB93]

Can somebody explain why nobody seems to seriously consider Kyle Okposo to be in the starting lineup, let alone make the team? Not trying to be condescending, seriously curious. I get that he's nobody's favorite player around here, I hate him on the Isles too, but the dude's having a great season (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he has the 5th most points among American players) and was great in the playoffs last year against us too. Unless last year's horrible regular season goal output is heavily factoring in but I don't understand why it would.

[meow]

I passed on Okposo because I think he is a passenger. He doesn't make his linemates better. Hell, he hardly uses his linemates. He is in the same category as Kunitz and Rick Nash - simply passengers. Especially Nash; all of his goals are one-man efforts. Now, if I was picking a NHL all-star team, Okposo and Kunitz would definitely be on it.

[Beveridge]

I think Fins win the goaltending award by about 10000000000000000000000000

[mikey287]

Re: Okposo. Frankly, he's just not that good. Up until the last 30 games or so in his career he has been mired in inconsistency both in terms of production and work ethic. He's always left people wanting more, he's starting to get dragged along by John Tavares, but really, I don't strongly consider stats over the last month and a half in place of the grand scheme...he'll get a look because he's not talent-less, but you're talking Kessel, Kane on the right side, he's not in the same atmosphere as them...Brown and Oshie both bring an added element to their game and Oshie is more talented probably all together too...so that's the four right wing spots, and I just can't see a situation where he's better than any of them...and I wouldn't bring him on as an extra because he'll probably just sit there and cry about it...

[dodint]

My biggest interest in Sochi is seeing if the Slovaks can medal, though the prospects aren't really looking all that good with Russia and the US in the same pool, though it wouldn't shock me if they defeated either of those teams head to head on any given day. To me, Chára is a really tall pile of hype but he'll anchor their defense and hopefully be productive. If not hopefully Halák can clean up the mess. The fact that some people are still penciling in Žigmund Pálffy at wing, despite being 41 and retired, goes to show the Slovaks don't have a ton of forward depth beyond Hossa, Handzuš, and Gáborík. I'd love to see Ziggy holding a clipboard on the bench, though.

I'll be wearing my HK 36 Skalica jersey until the team is out, then I'll jump on the bandwagon and slip on my 1980 US 'Miracle' jersey for the rest of the games.

[PensFanInDC]

Quick is hurt. Not good for team USA