The Official Olympic Hockey Thread

[count2infinity]

Austria's team and their phone auto-corrected names:

[Rocco]

The US will beat the Czechs in a wild game, then lose to a Latvia team riding high off an upset win over Canada.

[Gaucho]

The US women outshot Sweden 29-1 in the 1st. Welp, it's only the semi-finals.

[brwi]

TJ Oshie has already won the gold medal in the girlfriend category.

[Shakes]

Yes, yes, he has.

Everyone see this?



Oshie and USA forward Gigi Marvin went to the same small high school in MN. Go Warroad.

[penny lane]

Hockey a hit
Pittsburgh's 9.8 local rating for the U.S.-Russia game Saturday was No. 1 in the country, according to NBC Sports Network, which carried it. That means about 294,000 regional viewers watched the game.
Boston was next with a 9.2 rating, then Buffalo at 8.5.

Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/olympics/mor ... z2talG5mmC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

[Gaucho]

Pretty impressive for a city that didn't know hockey existed before 2005.

[redwill]

The US women outshot Sweden 29-1 in the 1st. Welp, it's only the semi-finals.

70-9 in the game.

Oh em jee.

[tfrizz]

I like that there's no fighting.

I also like the scoring format, that rewards teams for winning in regulation.

I'm still holding out hope that the NHL adopts the 3-point format and get rid of the imbalance in game values (regulation games worth 2 points, OT games worth 3 points). Their tiebreaker (ROW) already makes OT wins more valuable than SO wins.

[Gaucho]

I'm curious, any data available that'd prove this would make much of a difference?

[count2infinity]

I'm curious, any data available that'd prove this would make much of a difference?

i'm sure someone could go through last season and show the difference, but I certainly don't have the time nor patience to do that.

[pittsports87]

I'm curious, any data available that'd prove this would make much of a difference?

i'm sure someone could go through last season and show the difference, but I certainly don't have the time nor patience to do that.

Taking a quick look at last years standings and overtime win leaders, I believe the Rangers may have been the 7/8 seed instead of the 6 and the Penguins would have won the Presidents Trophy instead of Chicago.

Right now I believe it would cause Columbus to be tied for the last Wild Card spot in the East and for Columbus/Detroit to be down only 1 point to Toronto instead of 6.

[count2infinity]

I'm curious, any data available that'd prove this would make much of a difference?

i'm sure someone could go through last season and show the difference, but I certainly don't have the time nor patience to do that.

Taking a quick look at last years standings and overtime win leaders, I believe the Rangers may have been the 7/8 seed instead of the 6 and the Penguins would have won the Presidents Trophy instead of Chicago.

Right now I believe it would cause Columbus to be tied for the last Wild Card spot in the East and for Columbus/Detroit to be down only 1 point to Toronto instead of 6.

The other thing that needs to be looked at though is OTW. Those don't show up in the regular standings as they'd be worth less than a regulation win.

[pittsports87]

I'm curious, any data available that'd prove this would make much of a difference?

i'm sure someone could go through last season and show the difference, but I certainly don't have the time nor patience to do that.

Taking a quick look at last years standings and overtime win leaders, I believe the Rangers may have been the 7/8 seed instead of the 6 and the Penguins would have won the Presidents Trophy instead of Chicago.

Right now I believe it would cause Columbus to be tied for the last Wild Card spot in the East and for Columbus/Detroit to be down only 1 point to Toronto instead of 6.

The other thing that needs to be looked at though is OTW. Those don't show up in the regular standings as they'd be worth less than a regulation win.

That is what I mostly looked at, that along with the standings. PuckDaddy did a sample back in December about 30 games into the season on how the standings would change:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck- ... --nhl.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tfrizz]

I'm curious, any data available that'd prove this would make much of a difference?

It'd actually had a negative impact on what the NHL wants. The whole "OT Loss" thing was meant to make the standings tighter and create more exciting playoff races. Here's a comparison of the standings:

Current System:

Code: Select all

EASTERN CONFERENCE

     Team            GP    W     L     OT    P
1    Pittsburgh      58    40    15     3    83
2    Boston          57    37    16     4    78
3    Tampa Bay       58    33    20     5    71
4    Montreal        59    32    21     6    70
5    Toronto         60    32    22     6    70
6    Ny Rangers      59    32    24     3    67
7    Philadelphia    59    30    23     6    66
8    Detroit         58    26    20    12    64
9    Columbus        58    29    24     5    63
10   Washington      59    27    23     9    63
11   Ottawa          59    26    22    11    63
12   Carolina        57    26    22     9    61
13   New Jersey      59    24    22    13    61
14   Ny Islanders    60    22    30     8    52
15   Florida         58    22    29     7    51
16   Buffalo         57    15    34     8    38



WESTERN CONFERENCE

     Team            GP    W     L     OT    P
1    Anaheim         60    41    14     5    87
2    St Louis        57    39    12     6    84
3    Chicago         60    35    11    14    84
4    San Jose        59    37    16     6    80
5    Colorado        58    37    16     5    79
6    Minnesota       59    31    21     7    69
7    Los Angeles     59    31    22     6    68
8    Dallas          58    27    21    10    64
9    Phoenix         58    27    21    10    64
10   Vancouver       60    27    24     9    63
11   Winnipeg        60    28    26     6    62
12   Nashville       59    25    24    10    60
13   Calgary         58    22    29     7    51
14   Edmonton        60    20    33     7    47

IIHF System:

Code: Select all

EASTERN CONFERENCE

     Team            GP    W     OTW    OTL    L     P
1    Pittsburgh      58    33     7      3     15    116
2    Boston          57    32     5      4     16    110
3    Montreal        59    25     7      6     21     95
4    Ny Rangers      59    27     5      3     24     94
5    Tampa Bay       58    22    11      5     20     93
6    Philadelphia    59    26     4      6     23     92
7    Toronto         60    21    11      6     22     91
8    Columbus        58    24     5      5     24     87
9    Detroit         58    20     6     12     20     84
10   Carolina        57    22     4      9     22     83
11   Ottawa          59    20     6     11     22     83
12   Washington      59    15    12      9     23     78
13   New Jersey      59    16     8     13     22     77
14   Florida         58    15     7      7     29     66
15   Ny Islanders    60    14     8      8     30     66
16   Buffalo         57     7     8      8     34     45



WESTERN CONFERENCE
    
     Team            GP    W     OTW    OTL    L     P
1    Anaheim         60    34     7      5     14    121
2    Chicago         60    30     5     14     11    114
3    St Louis        57    29    10      6     12    113
4    San Jose        59    24    13      6     16    104
5    Colorado        58    28     9      5     16    107
6    Minnesota       59    23     8      7     21     92
7    Los Angeles     59    21    10      6     22     89
8    Dallas          58    23     4     10     21     87
9    Phoenix         58    20     7     10     21     84
10   Nashville       59    22     3     10     24     82
11   Winnipeg        60    19     9      6     26     81
12   Vancouver       60    18     9      9     24     81
13   Calgary         58    12    10      7     29     63
14   Edmonton        60    15     5      7     33     62

Basically, the top teams are going to stay at the top but there may be a shuffling amongst the bottom teams. And it becomes so much harder to close the gap as the season goes on because those magical "3 point games" we see now are a non-factor since all games are worth 3 points.

[DelPen]

Basically, the top teams are going to stay at the top but there may be a shuffling amongst the bottom teams. And it becomes so much harder to close the gap as the season goes on because those magical "3 point games" we see now are a non-factor since all games are worth 3 points.

You could see more teams though pull their goalie in a tie game late in the 3rd to try to get three points instead of just 2 as the season winds down.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

Basically, the top teams are going to stay at the top but there may be a shuffling amongst the bottom teams. And it becomes so much harder to close the gap as the season goes on because those magical "3 point games" we see now are a non-factor since all games are worth 3 points.

You could see more teams though pull their goalie in a tie game late in the 3rd to try to get three points instead of just 2 as the season winds down.

Why would they pull their goalie and risk LOSING in regulation? That doesn't seem cost effective at all...

[Idoit40fans]

If you need points that badly, you'd do it. This doesn't seem like something that would happen until someone mathematically needs 3 points every game.

[pressure=9Pa]

The US women outshot Sweden 29-1 in the 1st. Welp, it's only the semi-finals.

70-9 in the game.

Oh em jee.

[tfrizz]

Basically, the top teams are going to stay at the top but there may be a shuffling amongst the bottom teams. And it becomes so much harder to close the gap as the season goes on because those magical "3 point games" we see now are a non-factor since all games are worth 3 points.

You could see more teams though pull their goalie in a tie game late in the 3rd to try to get three points instead of just 2 as the season winds down.

Why would they pull their goalie and risk LOSING in regulation? That doesn't seem cost effective at all...

Right now it doesn't happen because winning in regulation has no real benefit over winning in OT or a shootout, so coaches will defend a tie game to play for a tie and ensure they don't lose one point. However, as DelPen said, if there are a potential 3 points on the table, then you're going to see coaches start considering it.

[Durbano]

If you just can't get enough Olympic hockey talk, there are a few decent podcasts out today: Hockey Night in Canada, ESPN Hockey Today, Marek vs. Wyshynski, Hockey Central. Bill Guerin is on the last one.

Bunch of guys north of the border seem worried about a Switzerland match-up in the quarters.

[SolidSnake]

I feel neutral about a possible match up between the Swiss and Canadians but if it happens the Swiss don't want a run and gun game with the Canadians and stay out of that war

[columbia]

But are the Swiss neutral?

[MRandall25]

They do know their way around the neutral zone.

[Gaucho]

Basically, the top teams are going to stay at the top but there may be a shuffling amongst the bottom teams. And it becomes so much harder to close the gap as the season goes on because those magical "3 point games" we see now are a non-factor since all games are worth 3 points.

You could see more teams though pull their goalie in a tie game late in the 3rd to try to get three points instead of just 2 as the season winds down.

Why would they pull their goalie and risk LOSING in regulation? That doesn't seem cost effective at all...

Right now it doesn't happen because winning in regulation has no real benefit over winning in OT or a shootout, so coaches will defend a tie game to play for a tie and ensure they don't lose one point. However, as DelPen said, if there are a potential 3 points on the table, then you're going to see coaches start considering it.

Only if they're really desperate I'd think. I mean, you'd have to be really all but eliminated to even consider it.