Olympic Hockey

[Interpol76]

Originally Posted by slapmatt

I've only been following hockey for about a month.

One thing that puzzles me though, can someone tell me why the USA and Canada did so badly at the Olympics last time around? Both scrapped through their group stage and then were knocked out in the quarter finals.

Team USA had a very young and inexperienced team in Torino. Team Canada just bombed...

[nb1968]

It is tough when you put the best players/prima donnas together, when each is used to having a team built around them.

[TrexDigit]

There's also the added benefit of being surrounded by truly talented skaters and shooters. Forces you to push and 'up' your game a bit.

With the constant grind of a long NHL schedule, players can sometimes get complacent or worn down. What the Games lack in team-building prep, they make up for with an electric atmosphere that can't be replicated.

[Cornerguy1]

Don't discount the effect of the "new" NHL officiating standard on the showing several teams.

2006 was the first year the NHL enforced much more stringent penalties for things like holding, hooking and interference. Leagues operating under the IIHF rules did not adopt this officiating standard until 2 seasons later.

It was fairly evident from watching the Group stage games in 2006 that many NHL players were having difficulty transitioning back to the more lenient standards for offenses like hooking, holding, etc. and struggled in the more clutch-and-grab atmosphere.


All of the supposed top teams who drew the majority of their players from the NHL had lackluster preliminary rounds: Sweden (3W,2L), USA (2W,3L), Canada (3W,2L), Russia (4W, 1L but a 1-0 win over feeble Kazakhstan).

Teams that did well in Group play? : Slovakia (5 W OL), Finland (5W 0L), Switzerland (4W 0L)

Teams were starting to adjust by the time the medal round rolled around and Sweden took advantage of a relatively easy (SUI and CZE) schedule to get to the gold medal game against the Finns. The Swedish/Finnish rivalry then took over and made for a fantastic game.

[DrummerBoy]

Originally Posted by Oildog

I liked the college kids also, but the Eastern Block teams were using 'pros', and were quite dominant.

Yeah, I agree. But I think the main reason that it's always going to be very difficult for the USA to excell in Olympic hockey is simply the structure of hockey in our country, as opposed to how it's run in Russia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and all those other places. See, here in American it's a sort of "damned if we do, damned if we don't" deal. If we use our college kids like we used to, they're not likely to stack-up talent-wise against those other countries' national teams, since they're "amateurs" are really treated like, and trained like, and equipped like our NHLers. (Yeah, I remember Lake Placid, but that was, sadly, a one-in-a-lifetime "miracle.") But, if on the other hand we use our pros from the NHL, sure, the talent will be there, but they're only going to be able to play and practice together for a fraction of the time as those guys form the Scandanavian countries and Europe.
Also, the NHL style is just different from Olympic hockey, where team play and passing and finesse are stressed as opposed to wicked slap shots, physical prowess, and thuggery. Most of the enforcers in the NHL couldn't even make a team from, say, Sweden or Russia.

[BigSwede]

Originally Posted by DrummerBoy

Most of the enforcers in the NHL couldn't even make a team from, say, Sweden or Russia.

The russian league have been stacking up on enforcers and a couple have also been playing in Sweden.