2012 IIHF World Junior Championships

Wow...

Stone time?

There it is. My prediction for the Bronze medal game is 6-1 Canada.

HAHAHAHA Good luck winning gold after 2 epic meltdowns!

For what it's worth, the Russian players are terrible singers.

HAHAHA the Russian head coach Bragin is always yelling at his assistant coach. Anyone else notice that? It's like he's his master.

Wow, what a finish. Kinda of a shame that they didn't play like that for the first 48 minutes, tho', but still, credit to them for not going gently into that dark night.

Big Ev wrote:HAHAHAHA Good luck winning gold after 2 epic meltdowns!

Sorry dude but this sound like a serious damage control

WJC, Skill > grit, time to accept it.

LeKid wrote:And I'll keep saying it but they are gonna regret leaving Murphy out of the tournament. Sweden skated 2x better than Canada.

Murphy, Danault and McKinnon could have changed this pathetic power play.
Instead they preferred size. Oleksiak, Beaulieu, Jenner, Howden...

Crunch time, half the team were useless.

LeKid wrote:

Big Ev wrote:HAHAHAHA Good luck winning gold after 2 epic meltdowns!

Sorry dude but this sound like a serious damage control

WJC, Skill > grit, time to accept it.

Ok but too bad this team wasn't built on grit. They had a lot of skilled players. I'd say they LACKED GRIT. Where's the big hits? Where's the momentum changing forechecking? None of that tonight or in the previous games IMO.

Russia didn't win because of their skill. They won because Canada decided not to play in the first two periods. Pretty simple. Canada controlled their own fate. Russia didn't win, Canada lost.

Again, good luck winning gold after giving up a 3-0 lead in one game (against the team they are now going to play for gold) and then nearly blowing a 5 GOAL LEAD in an another. Team folds like a cheap tent when they face serious pressure from the other team.

LeKid wrote:

LeKid wrote:And I'll keep saying it but they are gonna regret leaving Murphy out of the tournament. Sweden skated 2x better than Canada.

Murphy, Danault and McKinnon could have changed this pathetic power play.
Instead they preferred size. Oleksiak, Beaulieu, Jenner, Howden...

Crunch time, half the team were useless.

Haha ok, now the "oh they should have had this guy and that guy" people come out to play.

and you want skill then you say to add Danault to the team? He's the definition of grit/defense, not skill.

Mackinnon is Cussing 16 or 17 years old, he wouldn't have done anything in this tournament.

Big Ev wrote:

LeKid wrote:

Big Ev wrote:HAHAHAHA Good luck winning gold after 2 epic meltdowns!

Sorry dude but this sound like a serious damage control

WJC, Skill > grit, time to accept it.

Ok but too bad this team wasn't built on grit. They had a lot of skilled players. I'd say they LACKED GRIT. Where's the big hits? Where's the momentum changing forechecking? None of that tonight or in the previous games IMO.

Russia didn't win because of their skill. They won because Canada decided not to play in the first two periods. Pretty simple. Canada controlled their own fate. Russia didn't win, Canada lost.

Again, good luck winning gold after giving up a 3-0 lead in one game (against the team they are now going to play for gold) and then nearly blowing a 5 GOAL LEAD in an another. Team folds like a cheap tent when they face serious pressure from the other team.

When you have a 6-1 lead with 1 period to go that's usually what happens, no matter who you are.
They completely shut down Canada's forechecking system in the first 2 periods and it had nothing to do with Canada's willingness to compete, they just skated better so they retrieved the puck before Canada could even reach the red line.
They won this game, blowing lead or not they played with enough passion to win. Time to stop overrating Canada. They were not good enough on paper. Not 1 game changing player. Yakupov and Kuznetsov made them their Wing Dang Doodle.

LeKid wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

LeKid wrote:

Big Ev wrote:HAHAHAHA Good luck winning gold after 2 epic meltdowns!

Sorry dude but this sound like a serious damage control

WJC, Skill > grit, time to accept it.

Ok but too bad this team wasn't built on grit. They had a lot of skilled players. I'd say they LACKED GRIT. Where's the big hits? Where's the momentum changing forechecking? None of that tonight or in the previous games IMO.

Russia didn't win because of their skill. They won because Canada decided not to play in the first two periods. Pretty simple. Canada controlled their own fate. Russia didn't win, Canada lost.

Again, good luck winning gold after giving up a 3-0 lead in one game (against the team they are now going to play for gold) and then nearly blowing a 5 GOAL LEAD in an another. Team folds like a cheap tent when they face serious pressure from the other team.

When you have a 6-1 lead with 1 period to go that's usually what happens, no matter who you are.
They completely shut down Canada's forechecking system in the first 2 periods and it had nothing to do with Canada's willingness to compete, they just skated better so they retrieved the puck before Canada could even reach the red line.
They won this game, blowing lead or not they played with enough passion to win. Time to stop overrating Canada. They were not good enough on paper. Not 1 game changing player. Yakupov and Kuznetsov made them their Wing Dang Doodle.

Yeah it's so common for you to give up 4 straight goals and almost blow your 5 goal lead. I see it happen all the time!

Canada didn't have a game changing player but they didn't leave anyone out of the team who was. Who is a game changing player that they left off the roster? And no, Ryan Murphy and Nathan Mackinnon aren't acceptable answers.

RNH was definitely a bad call last year, but there was nobody left off this year that is at RNH's level.

Big Ev wrote:

LeKid wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

LeKid wrote:

Big Ev wrote:HAHAHAHA Good luck winning gold after 2 epic meltdowns!

Sorry dude but this sound like a serious damage control

WJC, Skill > grit, time to accept it.

Ok but too bad this team wasn't built on grit. They had a lot of skilled players. I'd say they LACKED GRIT. Where's the big hits? Where's the momentum changing forechecking? None of that tonight or in the previous games IMO.

Russia didn't win because of their skill. They won because Canada decided not to play in the first two periods. Pretty simple. Canada controlled their own fate. Russia didn't win, Canada lost.

Again, good luck winning gold after giving up a 3-0 lead in one game (against the team they are now going to play for gold) and then nearly blowing a 5 GOAL LEAD in an another. Team folds like a cheap tent when they face serious pressure from the other team.

When you have a 6-1 lead with 1 period to go that's usually what happens, no matter who you are.
They completely shut down Canada's forechecking system in the first 2 periods and it had nothing to do with Canada's willingness to compete, they just skated better so they retrieved the puck before Canada could even reach the red line.
They won this game, blowing lead or not they played with enough passion to win. Time to stop overrating Canada. They were not good enough on paper. Not 1 game changing player. Yakupov and Kuznetsov made them their Wing Dang Doodle.

Yeah it's so common for you to give up 4 straight goals and almost blow your 5 goal lead. I see it happen all the time!

Canada didn't have a game changing player but they didn't leave anyone out of the team who was. Who is a game changing player that they left off the roster? And no, Ryan Murphy and Nathan Mackinnon aren't acceptable answers.

I think that's why he said, "Time to stop overrating Canada."

you know, we would have lost to Sweden anyway. They're due!

Big Ev wrote:you know, we would have lost to Sweden anyway. They're due!

Don't count out the Russians yet (again); the jersey *will* be worn.

Now, do I have the balls to wear it to work today? That's another question.

I still wonder, how would the game have gone if he;d started Visentin? More experience, a bit of the "redemption" factor.

Overall, do you think Hay did a good job? He put a goal down for his team of 4 or fewer minors per game, and they failed at that one, miserably. The competition was pretty soft -- I don't think Mrazek played anywhere near as well against them as he did later in the tournament, and the Finns were not very strong this year. The only serious competition was Sweden in the preliminaries, and that's the game that knocked Visentin out of consideration (in Hay's eyes, at least).

Oh, well, there's always next year, and the fact that our best *are* playing in the NHL. I wonder what would happen if the CHL clubs decide to hold back their best (Euoropean) players -- don't even know if they can.