Olympic Hockey News

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,386
Aren't most countries in the same boat though? Or is this going to hit the US and Canada particularly hard?
 

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
SoSH Member
Jul 12, 2005
9,528
The Island
Aren't most countries in the same boat though? Or is this going to hit the US and Canada particularly hard?
It doesn’t help anyone, but the US and Canada can probably put together an A and B team from the NHL. I think the country with the biggest net gain is likely Russia, since their B team would be KHL-heavy, and the US and Canada won’t be able to send a roster that can compete.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,386
It doesn’t help anyone, but the US and Canada can probably put together an A and B team from the NHL. I think the country with the biggest net gain is likely Russia, since their B team would be KHL-heavy, and the US and Canada won’t be able to send a roster that can compete.
That makes sense. I figured Russia would still be able to field a really good team.
 
Clode is coaching Team Canada
And David Krejci is playing for the Czechs, FWIW - their roster was announced on Thursday as well. (He's now playing for HC Olomouc in the Czech Extraliga.)
It doesn’t help anyone, but the US and Canada can probably put together an A and B team from the NHL. I think the country with the biggest net gain is likely Russia, since their B team would be KHL-heavy, and the US and Canada won’t be able to send a roster that can compete.
Absolutely right, although the US again seems a bit narrow-minded to me in taking so many college kids when there are some seasoned vets with proven track records across Europe they could be picking. For example, my Champions Hockey League commentary binkie Ryan Lasch is leading the SHL (Sweden) in scoring for Frölunda Gothenburg and is a very good playmaker. He's 34 years old now, and he's only 5'7", but he's proven himself at the highest non-KHL levels of hockey everywhere he's gone - Sweden, Finland, Switzerland - for a good seven or eight years. I wonder if he was even under consideration for selection?

I think Canada has so many good players in the KHL and across Europe that they should almost be able to match the Russians. But Russia will rightly be the favorites, again.
 
Btw, if anyone was unaware from my Diary thread in the Media forum, I'm going to Beijing to commentate on the Winter Olympic hockey for OBS. I'm currently scheduled to call 4 women's games (including one semifinal and the bronze medal game) and 14 men's games (including both semifinals and the bronze medal game), although particularly if COVID forces other commentators out of action, that preliminary schedule could well change. Sucks that no NHL players will be there, but I'm still looking forward to it tremendously, and I've already got my nose to the grindstone researching players and coaches, etc.
 
Russia's men's roster is out, and it's...kinda weird? Ilya Kovalchuk is the team's GM - his first non-playing job in hockey of any type - and of the five Russians currently in the top 10 in KHL scoring this season, he's only picked one (#1 Vadim Shipachyov). And of the eight Russian goalies in the top 14 in KHL save percentage, he's picked precisely zero: two of them have virtually no international experience at all, and the third - Alexander Samonov - was very good for Russia in last year's World Championships but has played only 9 games this season, with a 3.01 GAA (which would be 43rd out of 47 goalies if he'd played enough games to qualify) and an .886 save percentage (46th out of 47). I mean, maybe Kovalchuk is a team-building savant...or maybe he's out of his depth, and quite a few other countries have to like their gold medal-winning chances a lot more than they otherwise might have.
 

RS Union Local 282

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 10, 2002
186
Forest Hills, NY
Russia's men's roster is out, and it's...kinda weird? Ilya Kovalchuk is the team's GM - his first non-playing job in hockey of any type - and of the five Russians currently in the top 10 in KHL scoring this season, he's only picked one (#1 Vadim Shipachyov). And of the eight Russian goalies in the top 14 in KHL save percentage, he's picked precisely zero: two of them have virtually no international experience at all, and the third - Alexander Samonov - was very good for Russia in last year's World Championships but has played only 9 games this season, with a 3.01 GAA (which would be 43rd out of 47 goalies if he'd played enough games to qualify) and an .886 save percentage (46th out of 47). I mean, maybe Kovalchuk is a team-building savant...or maybe he's out of his depth, and quite a few other countries have to like their gold medal-winning chances a lot more than they otherwise might have.
I asked an impeccable source, my sports-obsessed Russian nephew, what was up with the forward selection and his comment was "They picked just big names from the league don’t care about current form".
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,567
Was hoping Levi and Demers would say no to Canada and instead get Team Israel to qualify.