Hopefully the afternoon start won’t affect the rhythm the Canadiens have at the moment. With a 7 game point streak and enjoying consistent scoring, the Habs are creeping under the radar and putting points in the bank.

In addition, Team Canada plays for it’s 4th consecutive Gold Medal at the World Junior Championships.

Carey Price

• Tournament All Star
• Best Goaltender
• Tournament MVP

Not too bad.

Canada as a team looked questionable and pulled off the win mostly due to Price’s strong play.

Keep an eye on him throughout the Tournament.

The Olympic Hockey semi-finals are about to begin and by lunchtime Sunday a new country will be crowned Olympic Champs. There’s a strong possibility that a Montreal Canadien will return to the Bell Centre with a Gold Medal dangling from his or their necks. There’s also a strong chance Gold and Silver medals might adorn the Habs dressing room next week. Who will it be? Will the experience bring a boost or positive energy to his/their game and to the Canadiens?

Should Russia win, Alex Kovalev and Andrei Markov will be Gold Medalists.

If Finland wins, Captain Saku Koivu will have led his countrymen to the Olympic gold.

If the Czechs manage to repeat their 1998 win, Jan Bulis will be showing off his medal.

If the Swedes win….

Either way the Olympic experience should benefit all the players who took part. Including Mark Streit who was actually noticeable as the Swiss captain. You saw a little of what perhaps the Canadiens scouts saw in him to begin with and hopefully he’ll be more confident now in a Canadiens jersey.

I gotta cheer for Koivu and the Finns to win. “Olympic Gold Medal Team Captain” has a nice ring to it when describing your own Captain.

Team Canada failed to defend their Olympic Gold medal at the 2006 Olympic winter games. They failed to earn any medal after being eliminated by the Russians in the Quarter-Final. What can you say? It’s extremely disappointing and devasting to any Canadian hockey fan. It’s over and done with now, instead of another rehashed 2000 word article on what went wrong I’ll just list some points that were very noticeable.

• Certain players shouldn’t have been playing.
• Certain players sitting at home should have been playing.
• Canada was too old.
• Canada preferred injured veterans to exuberant youth.
• Canada cannot play on the big ice surface.
• Canadian coaching was poor.
• Canada could not score.
• Canadian powerplay was brutal.
• Canadian defense were extremely slow and immobile.
• Canadians took terrible penalties.
• Canadians took terrible penalties often.
• Canadians never attacked anywhere near the slot.
• Canadians avoided the net like the plague.
• Canadians stuck to the boards as if it were life support.
• Canada never shot the puck.
• Canada never hit the net when they did shoot the puck.
• Canada lacked leadership.
• Canadians didn’t want it bad enough.

Agree? Disagree?

The medal round is upon us and their are several interesting matchups that should provide some excellent quality hockey.

Switzerland vs Sweden

This game is interesting considering the fact Sweden arguably lost on purpose in order to face the Swiss. In essence what the Swedish coach told his team is “You’re not good enough to beat Canada or the Czechs.” Sweden is the stronger team but hopefully this strategy will backfire on them. The Swiss team has been on a low since defeating Canada and only managed a tie against Italy. They were ‘up’ for the game against Canada and if they hope to have any chance against the Swedes they’re going to have to psyche themselves to the same level and hope their goaltending is superb.
Prediction: Sweden 3 – Switzerland 1

Finland vs USA

Finland is on a role and has given up the fewest goals out of all the teams. The US have struggled in almost every game. Finland’s confident and I can’t see the US being able to overcome the Finns.
Prediction: Finland 4 – USA 2

Czech Republic vs Slovakia

This will be a death match. The former country seperated in the early 90s and formed two quality hockey nations. This is the equivalent of Quebec Seperatists playing against Team Ontario. They hate each other. The interesting thing is before the tournament most would have predicted the Czech’s to be 5-0 and the first seed. Slovakia like Finland, has surpassed expectations so far and there is no sign they are going to stop now.
Prediction: Slovakia 4 – Czech Republic 3 [Overtime]

Canada vs Russia

A classic matchup. Canada is definitely going to have to put the round robin behind them and start over. If they play like they did against the Czechs, Swiss or Finns, there is no chance they’ll come out on top of the Russians. The Russians possess a lethal attack and Canada will have to contain them and count on excellent goaltending. If the Canadians can manage to score early on the weaker Russian defense and play 3 full periods then it’s their game to lose. Even the US managed 4 goals against Russia after trailing 2-0. Canada traditionally ‘cares more’ than the Russians which is usually an advantage but this team has left a lot of doubt on the table.
Prediction: Canada 4 – Russia 3

Regardless of who wins, it will be very entertaining hockey with the World’s best going all out for their National pride.

Why?

The Swedish coach apparently mentioned on a Swedish TV station that they are considering what the best option for their team is. Throwing the game would assure them a 3rd place finish and a Quarter-Final birth against Switzerland as opposed to either Canada or the Czech Republic.

This has drawn attention from the IIHF and the Olympic committee and not to mention the other teams. Headline in the Swedish newspaper today read “Assignment: Lose.”

Not very Olympian. I doubt the Swedish players will play into this especially now since it’s been spread all over the media and has drawn a lot of negative attention.

What I’d like to see? Sweden should compete against Slovakia and get beat badly. Move on to face Switzerland in the medal round like they wanted and then lose again. Now that’s justice.

Is it time to panic?

The Swiss team beat Canada for the first time ever and caused alarm and panic all across Canada. Canada came out flat against a hungrier Swiss team and couldn’t score. There was a questionable goal disallowed that most people agree should have counted. The bottom line is the Swiss outplayed Canada and Martin Gerber in particular won the game for the Swiss.

Ex-Montreal Canadien Paul DiPietro scored both Swiss goals. So that’s where he ended up. He’s about as Swiss as Lasagna. I heard Gary Leeman is playing for Kazakhstan.

The Swiss loss should have woken Canada up a little. They should have been ready to explode out of the gate against Finland. They did not.

The 1st period against Finland was probably the worst period of Olympic hockey in the past 3 Olympic games. Finland out hustled and out played Canada in every possible way. They were rewarded for their effort and earned a 2-0 lead. Canada again partially woke up in the second and third but couldn’t put enough together.

The common denominator with both of those games is Switzerland and Finland played like they want to win and Canada played like they already won.

Is everything falling apart? Hardly. Finland has a very strong team and they seem to know how to play a system and play on the big ice better than Canada does. Better coaching? Better preparation? Maybe. They are undefeated and their goaltending bailed them out of any mistakes they made against Canada. The confidence they got in the round-robin will make them hard to beat in the medal round.

With any Canadian loss the critics come out and rightfully so. In Canada’s losses a few players stand out in a bad way. Chris Pronger, what is he doing? The slow lurching giant has been dreadful. Montreal’s Saku Koivu is 8 inches shorter and probably 50 lbs lighter and he simply out worked him on the 1st Finnish goal. Pronger’s taking penalty after penalty and contributing nothing positive. He can’t seem to figure out where to go on the big ice and the same foes for Adam Foote. Age is definitely showing. Oh ya, Rob Blake, can you hit the net EVER? I haven’t seen a shot on goal all tournament. Break outs? Passing? Passing percentage must be less than 20%. Scott Niedermayer is a big missing piece on the back end.

Sometimes you wonder why mini Martin St-Louis is there while Sidney Crobsy and Eric Staal aren’t. I’d sure take either of them over the one year wonder. The team needs some goal scoring and badly. Of course if Canada comes back for gold all this criticism will be forgotten. So far though, this team is not all that awe inspiring.

If every period was like the 1st against the Finns, it would be panic time. Team Canada just needs one goal before they regain their confidence and explode, there are still extremely skilled guys on the ice on every shift.

Keep in mind the round-robin doesn’t count for anything. Which teams will show up for the Medal round?

Once again the Canadians were too much for the opposition. The Canucks managed to get a lead early and put five goals past the struggling German defense who played without Olaf Kolzig. The Canadians have never trailed and have scored 11 goals in 2 games which is tied for the lead in the Tournament.

Love him or hate him, when Todd Bertuzzi was announced as a member of the Canadian Team it stirred up controversy. Todd Bertuzzi has been arguably the best Canadian player so far at the games. Bertuzzi has been a presence on the ice on every shift and chipped in 3 points in his 2 games. It looks as if he’s on his game and could be a big player against the more challenging teams. Joe Sakic and Dany Heatley also look dangerous on the ice. Canada’s next game is against Switzerland before finishing up with Finland and the Czech Republic.

Upsets continue. Switzerland defeated the Czech Republic 3-2 which is a huge upset. The Czech Republic won’t get any help as Dominik Hasek has returned back to Ottawa after being injured in game 1. Patrick Elias has also withdrawn from the games leaving the Czech team another hole in their roster.

The Swiss winning goal was scored by none other than Montreal’s own Mark Streit. I’ve never seen him shoot the puck like that while in the CH uniform. The Swiss will be coming into Saturday’s game against Canada extremely confident. Martin Gerber has been playing well and the Swiss should be a harder game than the previous two.

Prediction: Canada 4 – Switzerland 2

The opening day also gave us some interesting upsets. Slovakia upset the Russians 5-3 in an exciting game and showed what kind of offensive talent they have. The larger upset however was the United States managing just a tie against the underdog Latvian team.

It’s easy to remember back to 2002 when Tommy Salo let in a goal from center ice to give the Belarussians a huge upset over the Swedes. The chance for upsets is still there as we saw today, but not as likely. Recall that Team Canada dropped it’s first 2002 Olympic game 5-1 to Sweden and barely beat the Germans 3-2 before going on to Gold. It’s exciting to watch a non NHL brand of hockey and with a possible 8 games in 12 nights anything can happen at anytime.

Does anyone else find it funny that Montreal Canadien Andrei Markov chose to wear #52 for Team Russia? Maybe he has a secret crush on teammate Craig Rivet.

Canada’s next opponent is Germany which is tradtionally not on the same playing field as Canada. However they should not be taken lightly as the Canadians had a lot of difficulty with them in 02. Germany is missing their 2 top forwards, unless Olaf Kolzig pulls one out of his lederhosen, Canada should get by with ease.

Prediction: Canada 6 – Germany 1