You're probably right. But the Wikipedia page only says "semi-final 2" is at 9 Sochi time. There's no suggestion that specific quarterfinal winners slot into semifinal 2.
It says "WQF1 16:00 WQF2" --- Winner, Quarterfinal 1 vs Winner, Quarterfinal 2. QF1 is Sweden-Slovenia, QF2 is Finland-Russia.
What I think is perhaps a bit..... suspicious is that the U.S. game is on Shayba ice, while the other three QF games are at Bolshoy. I would have thought the higher seeded team would get to play in the big venue. But I guess that would have meant bumping the home team. Either way, it seems somewhat of a bummer that the #2 seed in the medal round is only going to be playing in front of 7,000 people.
I think this article suggests the times are undecided and the tournament planners have some flexibility in choosing on which ice the teams will play and at which time the games will be. I see nothing -- other than the bracket on the wikipedia page -- suggesting the gametimes are locked in on Friday.
Regarding the Canada game in the bigger arena. This was decided before the play-in games, apparently based on the preferences of more influential TV rights holders. USA vs. Czech Republic was supposed to be not that big of a draw than Canada vs. Switzerland. For whatever reason, Bolchoi Arena offers better TV experience. (Same reason was given for putting Swiss in Bolchoi for their play-in game.)
As far as Friday goes, I too believe that the Russian organizers have the full power to sequence the games any way they want. If Russia makes it to the SF, I would expect Russia will schedule their game as No. 1, in order to give the team a longer break before the potential Saturday Bronze Medal Game (if Russia loses).
Slovak/Czech game was a tough watch. It was like watching your kids compete, really not wanting either to lose. But then you realize one of them is being a huge under performing pile of crap and you want them to feel the pain of defeat for being such an ***-hat. The upside is that I get to watch at least one more Nedved game before he fades back into obscurity.
If we lose to the Czechs, we should be embarrassed...I know it's one game and anything can happen, but man alive, is there any aspect that they have an advantage on us besides age? We're faster, we have better goaltending, we have more fast skill, we're better down the middle, we have a better defense...we should win by 3...
The Czechs are awful. Hossa and Chara are great players. But they skated circles around the Czechs the entire third period, seemingly never leaving the ice. They looked like vintage Orr and Gretzky and Chara is not really known for his end to end abilit.
So I'm thinking about the Latvia win today and it hits me - Ted Nolan is the perfect coach for a team like this in a tournament. He's the ultimate ra-ra guy. His technical coaching is...lacking... but his ability to squeeze every bit out of his team is really remarkable. He's a motivator and he proved it today. Tip of the ol cap.
You're probably right. But the Wikipedia page only says "semi-final 2" is at 9 Sochi time. There's no suggestion that specific quarterfinal winners slot into semifinal 2.
It says "WQF1 16:00 WQF2" --- Winner, Quarterfinal 1 vs Winner, Quarterfinal 2. QF1 is Sweden-Slovenia, QF2 is Finland-Russia.
What I think is perhaps a bit..... suspicious is that the U.S. game is on Shayba ice, while the other three QF games are at Bolshoy. I would have thought the higher seeded team would get to play in the big venue. But I guess that would have meant bumping the home team. Either way, it seems somewhat of a bummer that the #2 seed in the medal round is only going to be playing in front of 7,000 people.
Look at it this way. The ice is going to be way better @ Shayba than Bolshoy.
TheHammer24 wrote:Would it make more sense to give Russia the prime time spot for TV purposes?
Actually, for their QF game, Russians themselves picked the 4PM (local) start. I suspect that 9PM is actually past Russian "prime time." AFAIK, most main factory shifts are 6 AM - 2PM, stores/offices open ~7:00 or 7:30, schools uniformly at 8 (at least that's how it used to be for the Czech Republic until recently, when business hours start times started moving up to 8 or 9 AM). So, many of the Russians in their main Moscow (and Sochi) time zone can make it for 4PM start, while 9 PM start may be a little too late.
funny!
