Posted on 02/22/2014 10:33:33 AM PST by rickmichaels
It was over in a flash. A Finnish Flash. For Team USA, however, it was more like a flash finish.
Team Finland scored two goals in 11 seconds early in the second period to snap a 0-0 tie en route to a 5-0 victory in the bronze medal game Saturday.
Veteran Teemu Selanne, playing in his 35th Olympic hockey game, scored two goals including the game-winner to lead Finland. It was a wonderful conclusion to what has been a splendid Olympic hockey career for a classy gentleman.
Selanne scored on a nifty backhand shot at 1:27 of the second period and then off the ensuing faceoff, the Finns charged into the American zone with Jussi Jokinen, notching his second goal of the Olympic tournament. That was the game.
The United States generated very few quality scoring chances in the game as the Finns appeared to have a tad more interest in the outcome of the game.
The Finns added three third-period goals to ensure the victory.
(Excerpt) Read more at olympics.cbc.ca ...
I disagree there. In the All Star game, there is no hitting. These games were hard hitting.
I think the biggest problem US players have is getting used to the 'big ice' in international hockey. I'd love to see the NHL expand the rink size. It's a better game, IMHO. But I know that ain't going to happen. They would lose too many prime seats doing that.
great point Alberta, especially the time zone coverage.
Wasn’t the scoring last Olympics off the charts and these Olympics more subdued?
It sounds like an odd way to run a league, but the NHL did it for years when they had some rinks with smaller ice surfaces (the Boston Garden and the Aud in Buffalo were two of the smallest).
I think scoring may be down in recent Olympics because you don't see as many lopsided scores that used to be common when you'd have powerhouses like the Soviet Union facing countries like Japan that barely qualified to get into the tournament. The top 12-15 teams in the world are probably more evenly matched than ever before.
I’ll be up at 6 am to watch Canada play before I head to church. You know that will be a good game.
WTH do you mean wasn't as big an upset ??? 10 days before the start of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid - the USSR BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA THE USA 12-3 in Madison Square Garden ...
The USSR was the best team on the planet, having won 4 straight Olympic gold medals ...
They knew they would beat the USA, expected to beat them - and that is exactly WHY they lost to the Miracle Team ...
They didn't take them seriously ...
As a matter of fact, my wife and I watched “Miracle” just this evening.
The Russkies beat us 10-3 at the Garden, not 12-3, and it was 3 days before the start of the game.
Everything else you said is absolutely true.
I personally believe that game was the start of what Ronaldus Magnus called “Morning in America”...the first twinge of light in the darkness that we were in.
I could take 40 or even 50 years to complete that transition.
So much of the talk about this monumental "David vs. Goliath" upset was driven by several factors:
1. Hockey wasn't a popular sport in the U.S. at the time, and didn't get much media coverage at all. When you hear recurring descriptions about the U.S. team as a group of unknown players, the description is accurate. But they were unknown players mainly because the people watching the Olympics -- and most of the media covering those Olympics -- wouldn't have known the difference between a hockey puck and a Drake's Ring-Ding. This relates to Point #2 below.
2. The U.S. roster was filled with players who had either already been drafted by National Hockey League teams or would be drafted and signed to play in the NHL later. Some of them went on to have long, successful careers. Defenseman Ken Morrow, for example, joined the New York Islanders right after the 1980 Winter Olympics and immediately became an impact player in their four consecutive Stanley Cups.
3. Herb Brooks had spent the nine months leading up to the Olympics assembling a team that was built for the sole purpose of matching up against the Soviets. He wanted a certain prototype of a player for this: fast enough to keep up with the Soviets, tough and relentless enough to play a grinding game when necessary, and smart enough to learn a new system of hockey. This last point was probably why Brooks was a much more successful coach with college players than he ever was in the NHL. With this in mind, the U.S. had a disproportionate number of players who fit a certain mold that wasn't very common in hockey at the time: small, fast and skilled -- and yet strong as bulls.
4. The Soviets outplayed the U.S. in that game, but U.S. thoroughly outplayed the Soviets in one key area of hockey that matters an awful lot: goaltending. This also happened to be the one position in hockey where Americans had made their mark previously in the NHL even when Americans were rare at every other position.
Was the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" an upset? Sure it was. But that U.S. team was far better than anyone realized at the time. It was won behind the bench more than on the ice itself, with Brooks making all the right moves in terms of roster decisions, player personnel, and motivational tactics. Meanwhile, the Soviet coach made one blunder after another ...cutting one of his top players (Vladimir Lutchenko) from the team shortly after the Soviets' 10-3 victory at MSG ... pulling goaltender Tretiak after one period in the U.S. game ... and showing up in Lake Placid with a team that was overconfident, unprepared, or both.
I decided to catch up on sleep & not watch the G/M Final, won by Canada over Sweden 3-0.
(I’ll hear ALL about it tomorrow anyway ;)
Maybe not. After a certain number of rinks with the new dimensions are built, a lot of the teams with the smaller rinks will probably end up retrofitting the old ones anyway.
Keep in mind that Commissioner Bettman is a paid employee of the owners. And the owners have not liked the 3 week work stoppage while their paid employees go off and risk injury for free. The fact that he has not come out and said that they would be there in 2018 says a lot (IMHO)
But if the players revolt and push the issue, I believe he will decide in favor of good public relations. Then again, after the collapse of USA Hockey, some (like me) might be in favor of giving the amateurs a shot.
That
Judging by the chairlift, I'd guess this is actually an indoor skiing facility. Downhill skating is generally regarded as a bad idea. ;)
If they are going to keep NHLers in the Olympics, they need to take a cue from Soccer.
They have designated weeks called “International Breaks” during the season, where friendly matches are played, this give the national teams a chance to play together for a period so that come time for the tournament they are familiar with each other.
Hockey, like Basketball, has decided to make the Olympics their big tournament, instead of having a separate “World Cup”, if that is the case, then there should be accommodations from the professional leagues to have national teams play at least some games together before the Olympics. It’s hard to just throw a bunch of guys together who’ve never played a game together beforehand, and expect them to gel.
Why did the Olympics go from amateur to pro, or a mix of pro/ amateur?
Probably 90% of Americans today have heard of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice"..yet I'd eager that less than 1% know that 20 years earlier, the US squad won the gold medal at Squaw Valley.
Fascinating tidbit..Herb Brooks was cut from that squad, before the games..
Will Texans take Manziel?
Thanks for posting that link. Brooks has an interesting take on the issue, but I’m not sure I agree with him. He overlooks the other issues at play here — not the least of which is the difficulty of having the NHL cut deals with national hockey associations from all of the participant countries (Russia being one of the thornier ones) to lay out the terms under which the NHL players would compete for their home countries.
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