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ExtremeRavens: The Sanctuary

GO U.S.A!


OutsideRzAcE

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Said the same thing. >:(

 

Crosby is a great player, though admittedly not my favorite, but he really didnt play that well today. Now that he scored that goal, which was an impressive time to do it, we'll hear about it forever. No one in the media will remember how well the rest of the plates did.

 

The US really had a good tournament, to have the youngest team and win silver is impressive. I was really impressed by Parise, he was awesome.

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Crosby is a great player, though admittedly not my favorite, but he really didnt play that well today. Now that he scored that goal, which was an impressive time to do it, we'll hear about it forever. No one in the media will remember how well the rest of the plates did.

 

The US really had a good tournament, to have the youngest team and win silver is impressive. I was really impressed by Parise, he was awesome.

 

 

It's funny reading the reactions to crosby on this board - he's worshipped here in Pitt. I think this is big for him because though he has a Stanley Cup under his belt, he didn't play in most of that Game 7 against the Red Wings, nor was he the best Penguin player in the playoffs. Getting the winning goal for his home country in the Olympics makes up a little for that.

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You mean aside from the Tom Brady-esque whining and Golden Boy status when it isn't exactly deserved?

 

"these hats on the ice are delaying the game!" lol

 

Dont forget the frequent diving from his first couple years, though I admit he has stopped that some what.

 

I agree with both of those statements but the main reason it bothers me is because the efforts of the rest of his team and of the US team will pretty much be forgotten by the media in their effort to promote Crosby. He is the Canadian press darling boy, and has been years before he was even drafted, and they will go overboard on this and in the US the NHL promotion department (which does an awful job) only know how to promote one or two players so it will get tons of press here too.

 

His resume speaks for itself. He is a great player, and seems like a nice guy even though he rarely looks to be having any fun. I really don't dislike him. I just get tired of the hero worship of him (similar to Brady and Mannings in NFL) and I dont think he is the best player in the league. But since the Canadian press has touted him since he was 12, and he is Canadian (thats the most important thing - if he was exactly the same player but from Russia or the US they would pick apart his game pick another one to be the best) I dont expect anything to change.

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Let's put things in perspective. USA lost to Canada in the men's and women's Olympic GOLD MATCHES, but the USA men's junior, U-17, U-18 teams have won championships. The talent pool of young American hockey players is strong and growing into NHL and Olympic level talent. This is not your father's 1980 American hockey! GO USA in RUSSIA 2014!!!

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Crosby isn't even the best player on his team.

I agree, Malkin might be considered better by most, but I really like Staal. He seems to always have his best wits about him, knows how to play both ends of the ice and is great in short-handed situations, has range and skating ability and general common ice-sense that seem to elude Crosby and Malkin. I wish the Pens would work Staal more into offensive sets, but he's so good defensively I guess they don't gamble with that. But I'd think Jordan Staal would be gone once contracts are up for renegotiation...

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Let's put things in perspective. USA lost to Canada in the men's and women's Olympic GOLD MATCHES, but the USA men's junior, U-17, U-18 teams have won championships. The talent pool of young American hockey players is strong and growing into NHL and Olympic level talent. This is not your father's 1980 American hockey! GO USA in RUSSIA 2014!!!

 

The World Juniors championship gold game a couple months ago was a fantastic game!

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The World Juniors championship gold game a couple months ago was a fantastic game!

The reestablishment of youth-level hockey in America has been evidenced, and is huge now. The USA teams will now (and forever IMO) be expected to compete and win at the highest levels, as these recent great victories are indicating the growth of the sport. The reason no victory will ever approach the 1980 olympic victory by the Americans is that that was a team of amateurs, college players, and now the games are open for professionals. So the US had better step up, because we have basically a plurality of NHL talent alongside the Canadians, Swedes, Russians, etc. No more excuses, just time to show up and win. Which is why I'm still confused about the Russians...

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I think Russia shot itself in the foot by having so many KHL players on the team in an effort to show they were as good as NHL players. They failed.

 

Even beyond that, I think for the most part the Russians havent produced defensemen or physical players the way some other countries have. Markov and Gonchar are good, but after that it gets thinner and thinner. Also Nabokov was not good that night, I think he is a good goalie but I dont think he can steal a game from a team very often. If I was the Russians I would do all I could to see that Sochi has international sized ice, not NHL sized.

 

Its been an amazing few years for the US team. Even in 98 and the World cup in 96, and probably more recently there were a number of "American" players who had dual citizenship and played for the US, some it was alleged tried out for the US teams as juniors because they knew the Canadian team was not interested. Now the US is producing quality players all on its own, I think Paul Statsny is the only dual citizen that played for the US this past Olympics.

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I think Russia shot itself in the foot by having so many KHL players on the team in an effort to show they were as good as NHL players. They failed.

 

Even beyond that, I think for the most part the Russians havent produced defensemen or physical players the way some other countries have. Markov and Gonchar are good, but after that it gets thinner and thinner. Also Nabokov was not good that night, I think he is a good goalie but I dont think he can steal a game from a team very often. If I was the Russians I would do all I could to see that Sochi has international sized ice, not NHL sized.

 

I agree, Spen, even though some of Russia's currrent KHL players were former NHL (Kozlov I believe is one, so is Federov) the most of the KHLers had little/no NHL experience, in which case playing on Olympic-size ice normally, then switching to NHL-size rinks would definitely affect defensive positioning and strategy (can't just collapse around the net in a smaller venue). And Russia hasn't produced the D-men say like Sweden and Canada. From what I've heard on NHL Home Ice (XM 204) it seems it will in fact be Olympic-sized rinks at Sochi in 2014. It'll be interesting to see if the other shoe drops then.

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I agree, Spen, even though some of Russia's currrent KHL players were former NHL (Kozlov I believe is one, so is Federov) the most of the KHLers had little/no NHL experience, in which case playing on Olympic-size ice normally, then switching to NHL-size rinks would definitely affect defensive positioning and strategy (can't just collapse around the net in a smaller venue). And Russia hasn't produced the D-men say like Sweden and Canada. From what I've heard on NHL Home Ice (XM 204) it seems it will in fact be Olympic-sized rinks at Sochi in 2014. It'll be interesting to see if the other shoe drops then.

 

They should have put Feds on defense, he couldnt have done any worse than some of them.

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