Comments on: Before you say it…

By: Trogdor

Trogdor — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:25:43 +0000

The new drive for 5 seems to silver plated… As for the Russians, they played well for most of the game and got rewarded big time in the 3rd. They should have thrown Roy in after the 2 quick ones, if nothing else to settle the team. Worked for Russia.

Read about the boys getting booted from their flight for being drunk. Nice work on the Sun for rolling with the vodka stereotype. Classy.

By: chucker

chucker — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:05:01 +0000

For sure the worst collapse in WJC history, or at least that I’ve seen, but yeah, they are teenagers.

As dissapointed as I feel, the Russians were not a team to be taken lightly. I felt Canada new that in the first two, and after that, they were making space on the mantle for the gold medal before they played the last 20.

To be fair, the Russians started coming on really good half way through the second and we were lucky to not have a goal against going into the third.

I think the team made the mistake that the Russians would just roll over in the third and that it was just a matter of playing it out. I saw no jump or hustle until it was about 3 minutes to go. By then it was to late.

Full credit to the Russians who made a gutsy move in pulling Shikin and putting Bobkov in (even though Bobkov is likely a better goalie at the end of the day) and then mounted what will be storied as their greatest comeback ever at a WJC.

Also, they know how to party like rock stars. Got booted off the plane today. That did give me a little smile.

By: Steve-O

Steve-O — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:39:53 +0000

Its not their past success. They had 15 first rounders. That’s a damn good team. I would say the best one at the tourney.

By: Racki

Racki — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:04:56 +0000

BTW (and unrelated to above), something most people don’t consider. In the last 10 years, the Russians only had two years where they didn’t win a medal (last year and 2004). They’ve won 3 golds, 3 silver and 2 bronze. Canada has earned 5 golds and 5 silver in that time (and past success is what makes them favorites to the people that consider them favorites, imho.. not so much the team they iced). The US has 2 golds and 2 bronze in that time. Finland has 4 bronze, Sweden 2 silver and 1 bronze and the Czechs 1 bronze.

Funny how the Russians are never really taken seriously. They have slipped recently, for sure… but they’re still the 2nd best country in the tournament on the whole, but generally looked at as unlikely winners as of late.

By: Racki

Racki — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:47:16 +0000

Underdogs is the wrong choice of word, for sure… not what I meant. Non-favorite is what I meant. They weren’t the favorite to win. The favorite to win was the USA with their larger number of returning players with gold medals and their great goaltender (and home turf).