Olympic Hockey: Latvia Upsets Switzerland

Latvia and Slovenia among the final 8 teams at the Olympics. How great is that? In 2010 Latvia finished 12th in the Olympics. Slovenia didn't even qualify. Latvia advanced the the quarterfinals by beating Switzerland 3-1.

Who is Daniel Alfredsson? A great NHL player who is an icon in Ottawa and currently plays for the Red Wings. He's won an Olympic gold medal and will probably be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Who is Lauris Darzins? Let me look him up because before today I had no idea...

(Doing legitimate research)

He's a 29 year old winger from Riga, Latvia. He currently plays in the KHL. He played as a kid in a Finnish league. He was drafted in the 9th round of the 2003 NHL Draft by Nashville. He played juniors in Canada's Western Hockey League. He was never signed by Nashville. He returned to Europe to briefly play in the Finnish SM-Liiga, then the Czech Extraliga. He played in Belarus, then Dinamo Riga (Latvian KHL team), and he's still in the KHL playing for a team in Russia.

So he's not Daniel Alfredsson, who has over 1,000 NHL points. Why the comparison then?

Before this game, Alfredsson was the only player in these Olympics to score against Switzerland. In this game, Latvia's Darzins scored twice.

I could go on a tangent about Darzins because Nashville expressed interest in signing him a few years ago, but like many other European players, he'd rather be an established player in the KHL near home than struggle to even get a shot at making the NHL thousands of miles away. This is a trend in European hockey the last few years, and it's hurting NHL roster depth. The star Europeans play in the NHL, the depth guys would rather make more money in the KHL then slog through the AHL ranks.

Back to the game...

Switzerland, similar to other Germanic teams like Austria and Germany, plays well when the games goes according to plan. Switzerland plays to a script. They play very well in 0-0, 1-0 games. However they struggle to improvise when the game deviates from that script. They don't know how to react when, for instance, they fall behind 2-0.

That's what happened against Latvia. Oskars Bartulis beat Jonas Hiller thanks to a screen to put Latvia up 1-0. Lauris Darzins made it 2-0 with some exquisite patience by both himself and Mikelis Redlihs, who set him up. Darzins added an empty-netter.

Martin Pluss scored for Switzerland in the 2nd period, only the third goal scored by the Swiss in the tournament.

Latvia's reward is to play Canada, who collectively sighed with relief once they realized they wouldn't have to face Jonas Hiller.

It will be tough for the Latvians to beat Canada, but they should be proud of how well they've played in this tournament, with only one NHL player on their roster.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

Bruins Sign Iginla, Salary Cap Threatens NHL Success

The Bruins finally got Jarome Iginla. They had been pursuing Daniel Alfredsson, but the Red Wings secured the Swede for a 1-year $5.5 million bounty. So just like Jaromir Jagr was the silver medal when Peter Chiarelli failed to get Iginla at the deadline, Iginla is now the silver medal after pursuing Alfredsson.

Iginla will have a base salary of $1.8 million, with up to $4.2 million more incentives. It's a 1-year deal. Similar to Alfredsson, Iginla is a veteran that is looking for a Cup.

The guy has scored 30+ goals for 11 straight seasons. And with the departure of Horton and Seguin, the Bruins desperately need wingers. Wingers who can score.

The Bruins have 6 legitimate top-6 forwards. Krejci and Bergeron are excellent centers, you hang on to Lucic and Marchand, you add Eriksson and Iginla. It isn't a bad top-6 at all.

There's been a lot of movement in the NHL, thanks to the salary cap. Which means that while this off-season has been more interesting, it also means that fans must re-learn their teams rosters once the regular season starts. It also means that successful big market teams like Boston and Chicago can't retain the talent that they've developed. And that's bad for the NHL. The TV ratings were great for the 2013 Finals because two big markets that cared about hockey were involved.

Seguin and Horton were both popular players in Boston. Local stars. People bought their t-shirts, both from the Pro Shop and from street vendors.

Who in Dallas will care about whether Tyler Seguin scores or not? Who in Columbus will care about how physical Nathan Horton is playing?

Location, location, location. Seguin and Horton were stars in Boston. But because of the cap they need to be shipped elsewhere, where teams do poorly and nobody cares about hockey.

The salary cap is intended to prevent big market teams from overspending and pricing out medium/small market teams, making it difficult for the big teams to buy success. But in the NHL there are a handful of micro markets, like Phoenix and Miami, that lower the cap number for everyone, and also absorb talented NHL players that would draw a crowd (and TV ratings) in hockey-interested markets.

The NHL's biggest strength since the '04-'05 lockout has been the success of teams in big markets and in hockey-interested markets. LA, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York. However, the NHL has developed a system that focuses on putting dying franchises on life support, in markets that cannot support them, at the expense of teams that succeed.

It's like having a popular, successful restaurant in downtown Boston, then not allowing them to pay their best cooks and servers, and sending those quality employees to some crappy diner nobody goes to in north Texas or central Ohio.

Team Chara 12, Team Alfredsson 9

When Zdeno Chara retires as a player, maybe he should consider being a GM. His top 6 forwards in this game were Corey Perry, Jarome Iginla, Evgeni Malkin, Marian Gaborik, Marian Hossa, and Pavel Datsyuk. That's pretty impressive, even for an All-Star team.

There was also a line that featured Tyler Seguin alongside Phil Kessel. They both had an assist on Team Chara's 12th goal, scored by Maple Leaf Joffrey Lupul.

The star of the show was Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson, who scored twice in a losing effort.

The show was slightly stolen by the Trencin Express. That's what I'm calling the combination of Hossa, Gaborik, and Chara. All three of whom are from Trencin, Slovakia. Gaborik won the MVP with 3 goals and an assist. And Chara was +7. Chara also won the hardest shot contest, once again breaking his own record with a 108.8 mph blast.

The All-Star Game is usually a torturous snuff film for goalies, but Tim Thomas held his own. He's now 4-0 in All-Star Games, getting the 'W' in all 4 he's played in. He allowed 3 goals on 21 shots, which doesn't sound great, but his 18 saves were the most among all six goalies. His .857 save percentage was also the highest. Only he and Carey Price broke the .800 barrier. And some of his saves were simply brilliant. You could tell he wanted to show off his talent as much as the forwards.

As unpolished and even awkward as he seems when answering questions from the press, he is comfortable to the utmost when between the pipes.

Bruins host the Senators Tuesday night.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

NHL All-Star Teams Selected

There's really only two interesting parts of the NHL's All-Star weekend: the draft, and seeing whether or not Chara can break his own fastest shot record. Last night was the draft, with Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson and former Senator Zdeno Chara picking teams.

Not surprisingly, all the Slovaks and Bruins wound up on Chara's team. All the Swedes and Senators found their way to Alfredsson's team. Carey Price will also be on Team Chara. So will Dennis Wideman. No Canucks wound up with Chara.

But Phil Kessel did. I'm so glad Kessel is not on the Bruins. He puts up impressive numbers (except against the B's), but he's such an awkward creep. Chara's assistant captain for the draft was Toronto's Joffrey Lupul, so the Maple Leaf connection saved PK81 from more shame.

So Tim Thomas, Tyler Seguin, and Zdeno Chara will be on the same team. I'm going to predict that Thomas will allow 4 or 5 goals (no defense in the All-Star Game), Chara will win Fastest Shot, and Seguin will get a hat-trick.