Although tonight's edition may run a little long, it will at least be on an incredibly important and relevant topic. I'll be giving my predictions for the podium and 4th and 5th-place positions in Men's Hockey for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
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.
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