Although the all-knowing Drake has taught us to start from the bottom, I'm going to go ahead and start from the top, and that's exactly where I expect the US to be standing on the podium when all is said and done.
GOLD:
This US team bares a striking resemblance to another legendary American hockey squad. No, not the Miracle team, I'm not that cliche. This team is the Second coming of the Mighty Ducks or "D-4" for those of us that grew up on the trilogy. This rag-tag bunch of scrappy, but talented NHL'ers seems under appreciated by every non-American Hockey journalist covering the Olympics. Although I didn't want to be cliche and compare this team to the Miracle team, I do see a similar outcome. The big came will come in the semifinals with the US matched up against heavy favorite Canada, a game I expect the Americans to "shock the world" and win advancing themselves into the gold-medal game to be played a day later. Then, the Americans will surely feel like they "deserve" gold, but will still find themselves up against another tough obstacle in the form of the Swedes, who they will narrowly fend off in a tight 3rd period until a late empty-netter eventually seals gold for the Yanks.
SILVER:
Ahhh, the good ole Swedish Fish. I actually like this team and the way it is constructed a lot. If I wasn't a blazon biased American, I'd most likely be picking them to play the role of Spoiler to the Canadians and Russians come podium time. Goalkeeping and scoring win International play (listen to me talking with authority like I know what I'm talking about, when in fact I know little and next to nothing when it comes to hockey) and that's where the Swedes excel. Henrik Lundqvist has the ability to go all Ryan Miller and put the team on his back as he carries them through game after game as he did in the '06 Torino games. Also, Alex Steen and Gabriel Landeskog (Go Avalanche) will be two names who introduce themselves to the casual American NHL fans who don't (but should) know their names yet. The losses of Henrik Sedin and Johan Franzen are the only thing that keep the Swedes from beating the Americans in the Gold-medal game.
BRONZE:
I know, I know-I'm probably an idiot for picking a team with this much talent to finish with what could only be seen as a colossal failure of a third-place finish. But, in all honesty, this is the outcome I see happening. The format is set up for , in my opinion, the most interesting, competitive game to be played in the Semi's. I think group play will set the stage for Canada-USA to play in the game before the game they should be meeting in, and that really is a shame. But, wow, speaking of talent, Martin St. Louis being listed as an alternate, are you freaking kidding me Canada, that's just unfair. The Canucks are talented at Goaltender as well, their "weakest" point in their roster. And weak is truly the wrong word; a more appropriate word is unproven as that is what Carey Price truly is. So, yes they are extremely talented and one of the best teams in the world, but we play and watch and love sports for underdogs and upsets (amongst so many other amazing things sports bring us) and thats what we'll see here, so stay tuned folks.
4TH PLACE (Loser of Bronze-Medal Game):
This team will surprise at the Games this year. Although they should be forced to change their team name to Olliland in place of Finland, somehow the pairing of Olli's (Jokinen and Maata) will take the hockey world by surprise as they shut the favored home Russians out of the semifinals and medal-round games. On the backs of these two and goalie Tuukka Rask, the Fins will certainly compete each and every game throughout this tournament while eventually being out-classed by the Canadians in the bronze-medal game. Other NHL stars include: veteran captain Teemu Selanne, Mikko Koivu, Sami Salo and Kimmo Timonen.
5TH PLACE:
Because I apparently love to completely contradict myself when making a point, I will here. Although I said scoring and Goaltending wins at the International level, Defense is why Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk will be watching from their homes (igloos-just kidding, side note-have you seen how surprisingly warm Sochi is). Russia will bring the big names to the event to light up the crowd, and sometimes the scoreboard-the problem, they'll do almost as much to help their opposing teams light up the scoreboard in return.
Today will be better than yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment