Woah, that 7-1 loss for the Leafs, against the Rangers, was so embarrassing. Especially after the win at the Winter Classic. Thanks to Lupul for not making it a complete shutout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taxman
Canada is pretty strong, as always, but does a bigger rink bother them? Russia is strong as always but does they have too big pressures? (Can I say so? Not sure, I'm not familiar with English sport terms). Swedes are good, maybe a little bit too good. I think that either Canada or Russia or Sweden win, but dunno. USA can surprise, though.
We Finns are quite weak this year, but it is always so. The best we can get is a bronze and it would be possible only if everything succeeded. Dunno.
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For Canadian & American players, I don't think the big rink is too bothersome for veteran Olympians and players who have played in Europe. That goes for men and women hockey players. I think that Olympic rookies may find the bigger rink intimidating at first, but I don't imagine that it's hard to get used to, considering that both Canadian and both US teams have done quite well in the competition. I actually think the women's teams are far more used to the larger rinks since they seem to participate in more international competitions and many of them play in Europe since they can get farther in their careers over there.
Here, most rinks that we play on, or just skate on for fun, conform to NHL size regulation. I've never seen the Olympic sized rink in real life.
The USA teams have gotten as far as a silver medal in recent years (2002 and 2010 were silver medals for them). I would say that they are in medal contention, as well as Canada and Russia, but I would not count out Sweden or Finland either. I don't know if they are as strong, though.