Finland marches on....

[the rusty tromb]

The Finns just finished up beating on the Russians to the romantic tune of 4-0. Finland is looking like a lean mean dream Olympic dream crushing machine.

Much like everyone else who has been unfortunate enough to run into the Finns, the Russians looked completely clueless against a Finnish team that has dominated their opposition like none other.

Here's hoping Suomi beats the shit out of Sweden on Sunday.

SUOMI!!!!!

SUOMI!!!!!

SUOMI!!!!!

 

[Hard Idle]

Clockwork with speed

This is the best and most cohesive technical hockey played by a National team since Canada's 1991 CanadaCup team - but even they rellied on Ranford more than the Finns need their goalies in Torino.

When was the last time a counrty won 7 games with their goalie being mostly a spectator? I'd say you need to go back to the Soviets in the '83 Worlds and '84 Olympics.

It must have difficult for Ken Hitchcock to resist going to the Finnish dressing room and personally offering BBBJ to the entire team and coaching staff!

The way they time and pick-off breakout rushes outside the opponents blueline is the apotheosis of Hitchcock's Dallas style, also influenced by the active stick-checking which TBay & Calgary practiced in the '04 playoffs.

But the speed and flair of their counter attack is much more dynamic than Hitch's safe chanelling of the puck along the boards through the neutral zone.

It is amazing to have dominated so much that other teams have not had enough possesion to exploit Aki Berg, which did happen to them in the WorldCup and World Champoinhips.

I've watched alot of Finland in these olympics and with the exception of 5 or 6 shifts, the line combinations have remained the same all the time. I've always believed this is vital when a team has had only a short tim to prepare.

 

[Hard Idle]

This is the best international tournament by a Russian team in over 12 years. They may not win a medal, but for the first time since the brake up of USSR /CIS, they have played a tournament in which they don't have a single game to be ashamed of.

With Canada, they met fire with fire and won. They tried it again against the Finn's, coming out hitting like no Russian team before them and playing respectable defensively. They just got caught in the teeth of a well-oilled machine that would make Jaques Lemaire green with envy (Lemaire's TV's must be splatered from masturbating to Finland's games!)

Medal or not, I consider this a real "statement" tournament by the Russians, I just hope the setback doesn't discourage them from playing this hard next time.

 

[Ranger68]

Nothing to be ashamed of, except the pissy, suck plays of Kovalchuk and Kasparaitis when the game was out of reach ........

 

[Hard Idle]

Nothing to be ashamed of, except the pissy, suck plays of Kovalchuk and Kasparaitis when the game was out of reach ........

True, but the glass is half full. In past tournaments, it took alot less to break the Russians dow- the whole team! This was really a miserable team to play against coming off the euphoric win over Canada.

Besides, those two are always sucks, win, lose or draw.