Men's Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 2018

[hckošice 14,899]

as expected Jandáč had to risk everything on one card and try to play it by attacking the goalie, but obviously he lost his challenge and the time-out....

 

and 2-0 for the Red Machine after 25 seconds...gonna be interesting to see if SVK will be the only team that beat these hockey "aliens"

[hckošice 14,899]

Major penalty incomming for Kovalchuk !!! this must be ! hope the ref have guts

[Майкл 561]

Ouch, that was a nasty fall

[hckošice 14,899]

only 2 min hahaha

[Майкл 561]

4 minutes ago, hckosice said:

only 2 min hahaha

 

He seems to be very nervous today

[dcro 10,210]

Meh, I predicted victory for CZE, hoping to be the only one who'll see the secret connection in Czechoslovakian teams being the only ones able to defeat the Russians.

[hckošice 14,899]

1 minute ago, Майкл said:

 

He seems to be very nervous today

 

It´s almost 10 years no one saw Kovalchuk playing for a TEAM like he is doing here, I mean when we saw Ilia literally jumping to block the opponents shots, never

[Майкл 561]

6 minutes ago, hckosice said:

It´s almost 10 years no one saw Kovalchuk playing for a TEAM like he is doing here, I mean when we saw Ilia literally jumping to block the opponents shots, never

 

They were put under abnormal pressure in Sochi, which resulted in poor performance. In these Olympics, otoh, they're playing more freely and the result is visible

[hckošice 14,899]

14 minutes ago, Майкл said:

 

They were put under abnormal pressure in Sochi, which resulted in poor performance. In these Olympics, otoh, they're playing more freely and the result is visible

 

The problem of Sochi was exactly the same as for Vancouver, too many top stars in a team like Russia, this is never a good thing, the Russians are famous for their great skills and love for the pure play and scoring, if there one thing that can irritate Russian top stars hockey players is to play collectively.

And the rest of the team ? they need to have only one leader not so many, in the end no one knew who to follow if Ovechkin or Malkin, Kovalchuk or Datsyuk or even "his majesty I am the best and the only one"  Radulov etc.. there were too many small groups within the team and add to that a coach like Zinetula and consequently you had the most expected outcome in Sochi

 

Now it is clearly different, even Kovalchuk is playing for Team that´s something unimaginable few times back.  Znarok know how to handle these players, he is the best thing that happened to Russian hockey

 

 

[heywoodu 15,174]

35 minutes ago, dcro said:

Meh, I predicted victory for CZE, hoping to be the only one who'll see the secret connection in Czechoslovakian teams being the only ones able to defeat the Russians.

For a moment I thought I went for CZE too, but apparently I chose the Germans going for another shocker