Lots has happened since I last looked in on the tournament, as the preliminary round wound up, and elimination play began yesterday as the Finns fought off a determined German squad, 2-1. That win puts the Finns in the semifinal, where they'll face the winner of tonight's match between Team USA and Russia in St. Paul. Despite the on-ice success, not all is well in the Finnish camp, as defenseman Janne Niinimaa has left the team over differences with his head coach.
Perhaps my friends at Avokatsomo might be able to shed a little light on the subject?
Back in the North American pool, the biggest news over the weekend came from Team USA's camp on Sunday, as Brett Hull, a healthy scratch for last week's win over Slovakia, stormed out of the team's practice 10 minutes early after being assigned a green jersey -- the color usually reserved for players who will be watching the next game from the stands:
``Got a minute to talk to reporters, Brett?'' Hull was asked in a corridor outside the dressing room.``What would I have to talk about?'' he replied.
``Fans want to know how you're doing,'' said the reporter.
``I don't give a (deleted) about the fans anymore,'' said Hull.
To be fair, Hull indeed has sacrificed a lot for Team USA, and the cause of hockey in the U.S. Last week in Montreal, the only moment when I felt tempers were really about to flare came sometime in the second period when Hull touched the puck and the native of Belleville, Ontario was greeted with a chorus of boos.
Despite the fact that Hull was playing poorly, it was really all I could take sitting there in the Bell Centre. So I steeled myself and shouted out: "Maybe you shouldn't have kept his Dad off Team Canada in '72."
Granted, it wasn't the best of answers, as Hull has said on more than one occassion that the snub of WHA players that kept Bobby Hull off the roster for the Summit Series in 1972 had nothing to do with him playing for Team USA (though I wonder). Still, it stuck in my craw. Even worse, the fact is that Hull wanted to play for Team Canada in his younger days, but was rebuffed, leading directly to his involvement with USA Hockey and his appearances for Team USA in the 1991 Canada Cup, the 1996 World Cup and the Olympics in 1998 and 2002.
The bottom line for me: Hull has bled for USA Hockey, and deserved to be defended (much as Bryan Trottier deserved to be defended when he decided to play for Team USA in the Canada Cup back in the 70s).
Defended personally, that is. Because as it stands right now, his play in the first two games of the tournament was simply indefensible.
Has Hull hung on too long? Perhaps. But is two games enough to judge? Probably not.
Team USA head coach Ron Wilson hasn't said whether or not Hull will play tonight against Russia. And we can't know if his decision to scratch Hull from the lineup against Slovakia last week was a recognition that Hull's best years were behind him, or simply a clever ploy to wring one more brilliant performance out of one of the greatest goal scorers in history.
In the other quarterfinal matches, Sweden meets the Czech Republic again this afternoon in Stockholm, while Canada hosts Slovakia in Toronto tomorrow night. In Stockholm, questions are lingering about Sweden's problems in goal. The last time they met the Czechs, the Swedes led 4-0 heading into the third period, but had to battle furiously to hold on for a 4-3 victory behind Mikael Telkvist. And Telkvist hardly looked unbeatable in the 4-4 tie on Friday that gave Finland the top spot in the European pool and the matchup with the Germans.
Then again, without Sweden's poor goaltending, this might have been a far less interesting tournament, as those two games were probably the most entertaining we've seen so far.
AS for Canada, they're reportedly trying to fight against overconfidence before their game with Slovakia, but I think this might be one game we could all afford to miss.
And speaking about missing games, yesterday's Finaland-Germany match was only available in the States on ESPN Broadband. And since I don't use a Windows-based PC, I couldn't access the feed. Can anyone tell me how the broadcast went off?
UPDATE: Brian List at On The Wings takes a hard look at Hull's production and behavior over the past few seasons, and doesn't like what he sees. And in Stockholm, the Czechs have jumped all over the Swedes, leading 2-0 after the end of the first period.
UPSET UPDATE: Make that 3-0 Czech Republic, who seem to have picked up where they left off from their last match with the Swedes.
I watched most of the Espn broadband broadcasts this weekend. They were great! No commericals. You could hear the color and play by play guys discussing hockey stuff with one another while the game was stopped for commericals. Only a few times did the feed lag but only the video the audio was always on time. As for the game itself…well after dominating the 1st the Finns went to sleep and almost lost themselves the game. While not deep the Germans are determined and focused which can get you far especially in nhl rules hockey. I wish they were showing all the games on broadband that way I wouldn’t have to leave my house!
To date the US is a one horse sled. Guerin, alone, accounts for 40% of US goal production, reminiscent of ‘02 when LeClair and Guerin tallied the lion share of US goal production. Where as the Russians spred it around. Kovalev’s got 2, while Yashin, Samsonov, Kozlov, Datsyuk and Ovechkin all have one each.
The Swedes have more problems than goaltending. If the Czechs shutdown the Sundin, Modin, Alfredsson line (accounting for 40% of Swedish goal production) there’s trouble in River City.
Take away the the 5 goals (which accounts for St. Louis’, Thornton’s, Smyth’s and Gagne’s total production for the series so far) Canada tallied against this battered Slovak team and the Canadian goal output only equals the US. LeCavalier, LeMieux, Iginla, and Heatley have all been quiet. Considering the fix is in for Canada, (all games on home turf, no travel and NHL size rinks) their performance has been rather lacklustre. If the Slovaks can shut down Sakic, these boys are in the game.
You’re a Mac guy? I didn’t think they allowed them in D.C….
Good to see everyone coming around on the Sweden goal problems. Tellqvist is not the answer. It certainly looks as if this is Canada’s tournament to win by default.
Bobby Hull played for Canada in the original 1976 Canada Cup and even scored a goal in o/t in the final game which was disallowed because the net had come off the posts.
Canadian fans have always been frosty to dual nationality players who opted to play for the USA. When Tony Esposito played goal for the USA in the 1981 Canada Cup a sign was hung from the end balcony of the Montreal Forum reading “Tony the Traitor”.
Finnish head coach Raimo Summanen and his character have become the topic of the week here in Finland. The first rumours about Summanen’s position came in the beginning of the tournament. One magazine said that Summanen will be fired after the tournament because of having too hot temper.
After Niinimaa left the team, Kalervo Kummola, the chairman of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, stated that Summanen was known to have hot temper but they hired him anyway because of good coaching skills. Now it’s believed that Summanen went too far in his comments to Niinimaa. Some even think Summanen made a physical attack against Niinimaa.
Finnish players have said that this whole incident will be dealt after the tournament is over. Saku Koivu admitted that the poor performance we saw in the game against Germany was caused by the things happened on Sunday.
It’s generally believed that, after all this, Summanen will resign. Let’s see what happens.