WC 2014 (Minsk, Belarus) thread

[Tomas]

Day 1:
USA trashes home Belarus 6:1

USA roster: Thomas - Trouba, Dekeyser, Jones, McCabe, Petry, Gardiner, Donovan - Nelson, Johnson, Smith - Gaudreau, Trocheck, Abdelkader - Wingels, Stapleton, Mueller - J. Hayes, K. Hayes, Shore - McDonald. Trenér: Peter Laviolette.

Canada traditionally screws up game 1. This time, they lost to France 3:2 (SO)

Canada roster: Reimer - Bieksa, Garrison, Coburn, Myers, Ellis, Gudbranson, Rielly - Turris, Burrows, MacKinnon - Hodgson, Brouwer, Kadri - Schenn, Huberdeau, Read - Scheifele, Chimera, Ward - Monahan. Trenér: Dave Tippett.

Russia destroys Switzerland 5:0 (Ovechkin 1+1)

"Federal derby" : Czech Republic over Slovakia 3:2 (OT) (Jagr with the equalizer at 57:53; Roman Polak out with a possibly bad shoulder injury).

[PensFanInDC]

Sonofa. Im an idiot for clicking this thread. I was going to watch the USA game tonight.

[Gaucho]

Some dude named Oppenheimer scored a shootout winner for Germany, probably with an explosive move that led to the goalie's meltdown.

Light em up up up ...

[columbia]

Yoi

[Gaucho]

I think I got the lame humor for today out of my system now.

[offsides]

Pretty good game USA-Sweden Switzerland. USA getting its first lead (3-2) with around 7 minutes left in the third.

Thanks Mikey, fixed. I knew it was one of thos "S" countries, Just another senior moment.

[mikey287]

They are playing Switzerland.

The USA wins because two Swiss goals were wiped with offside calls well after the fact...

The USA should have lost...and man, sometimes you forget because you don't see him as much now, but Tim Thomas is one of the worst goalies I've ever seen...holy cow...any American NHL-caliber goaltender that the USA gets a shutout...or at worst, they give up that goal with 10 seconds left to Josi, but the game would have been well in-hand already...he tried to give the game away, only to be undone by the linesmen...

[offsides]

Tim Thomas with a nice game saving stop with a few seconds left. But to be able to save the game, there were two third period Swiss goals disallowed because of offside calls. One of the calls pretty iffy. But hey, a win is a win, no matter how it happens.

[shoeshine boy]

They are playing Switzerland.

The USA wins because two Swiss goals were wiped with offside calls well after the fact...

The USA should have lost...and man, sometimes you forget because you don't see him as much now, but Tim Thomas is one of the worst goalies I've ever seen...holy cow...any American NHL-caliber goaltender that the USA gets a shutout...or at worst, they give up that goal with 10 seconds left to Josi, but the game would have been well in-hand already...he tried to give the game away, only to be undone by the linesmen...

I only saw the replay once but the first goal looked like it was offside. it certainly looked to me like the non puck carrier raised his back foot before the puck crossed the line. the second one wasn't even close. add that one to the blown call in the Pens game and wtf is going on with linesmen these days????

[Tomas]

Quarterfinals/Semifinals set (QF to be played on Thursday, SF to be played on Saturday)):

Canada (B1) vs. Finland (A4) / USA (A2) vs. Czech Republic (B3)

Russia (A1) vs. France (B4) / Sweden (B2) vs. Belarus (A3)

France is so far the biggest surprise of the tournament. They beat Canada (3:2 SO), Slovakia (5:3), Denmark (6:2), Norway (5:4 SO), and narrowly lost to Sweden (1:2), Italy (1:2), and the Czech Republic (4:5 OT).

For fun: Jagr can score with any stick he wants!

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

How about a goalie stick?

[mikey287]

This has been a pretty terrible World Championships from what I've seen...I haven't seen a ton of it, but the quality of play looks to be even a half-step down from what it even normally is...perhaps some that I've seen more than me can agree or disagree...

[Tomas]

This has been a pretty terrible World Championships from what I've seen...I haven't seen a ton of it, but the quality of play looks to be even a half-step down from what it even normally is...perhaps some that I've seen more than me can agree or disagree...

I watch just the highlights, but it would not surprise me that the quality at this WC is low(er), as it usually is anytime the WC is played during the OG year. The top players are mostly tired after the longer season, so the rosters are full of B- or C-team names. There have been talks about playing the WC less often, and at least not in the OG year, but IIHF simply makes way too much money at these tournaments. PLus, this year in particular, Belarus gladly took the opportunity to organize the unpopular OG-year tournament, as this was pretty much their only chance (for non-OG years, the other countries would probably suddenly remember the human rights violations... ).

Here are the starting times for Thursday:

8AM CT: CZE-USA
9AM CT: RUS (Malkin) - FRA (Fleury )
noon CT: CAN - FIN
1PM CT: SWE-BLR

[mikey287]

I mean, do what you want with the World Championships, it won't change a thing a really...I mean, hell, the Finns have what, one NHL regular as a skater in Olli Jokinen...it's not just the Americans sending fringe NHLers in Thomas, Leggio and Hellebyuck to get perforated...these aren't particularly scary lineups even from the Euros...

I'm surprised they make so much at these...especially this one in particular, I'll be curious to see the attendance/monies from this one...

[Tomas]

Malkin with 1+1 in Russia's 3:0 QF victory over France in front of 14,000 spectators.

Czech Republic vs. USA - a very interesting game:

Spoiler:

Czechs win 4:3. USA with 2 goals inside the last 70 seconds. Mini-videos of all goals here:
http://www.onlajny.com/match/index/date ... /id/104291" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(on the dark blue strip, click "Vsechno" instead of the default "Posl. 20"
Czechs score 2 goals in the 5+game penalty against Abdelkader who was sent out after a terrible hit to the head of Sobotka. Sobotka left the game, and Abdelkader will most likely be suspended from the future WC.

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hoc ... ampionship" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[penny lane]

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Evgeni's goal!

[Tomas]

Finland team barely made the QFs, but they beat Canada 3:2.
Sweden over home team Belarus 3:2 as well.

Semifinals:

Saturday
6:45 AM CT: Sweden-Russia
10:45 AM CT: Czech Republic - Finland

Incidentally, even before the semifinals, golden, and bronze medal games, the Minsk WC broke the all-time spectator record (04' Prague). So far, the 60 games had the total attendance of 582,032.

[Tomas]

Petri "Socrates" Kontiola, the great interviewee:

[youtube][/youtube]

To his credit, he contacted the lady the next day and apologized:

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

He was not an expert.

[MRandall25]

I didn't realize Evgeny Dadonov still played at a high enough level to make a WC team.

[mikey287]

KHL All-Star this year...my only real memory of him was, "what is he doing at the NHL All-Star game?" Followed by, "man, is he ******* up with all the tricks he's trying to do..."

[mikey287]

Geno has the Russians ahead 3:2 with 20 minutes to go for Gold...

[penny lane]

Congratulations Evgeni!

[luv66]

Congrats to Geno. This seems to mean a lot to him. I'm happy he got to end the ~season on a high note.

[Tomas]

Freakin Putinlovers!

[youtube][/youtube]