Tuukka Rask Finnishes Off Russia

Apart from Pavel Datsyuk, and Evgeni Malkin kind of, Russian hockey players typically fail to do the little things. Alex Ovechkin, for instance. He's a great scorer, he's strong on the puck, yet he doesn't do the small things that you see star players on other teams do. And that's a theme in Russian hockey. It's also the reason why they lost 3-1 to Finland.

Russia also struggles to build on plays as a team. This is an extension of the lack-of-little-things issue. The Russians don't string together small plays and turn them into big opportunities.

What Russia lacks as a team, Finland has in abundance. They attack as a team, they defend as a team, they line up in the neutral zone as a team. Everyone's on the same page.

This game was a series of Russian mistakes. Their first mistake was to continue with their strange goalie rotation and keep Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky on the bench. Semyon Varlamov got the start and allowed 2 soft goals. He was eventually pulled. Bobrovsky looked good in his two games before this. Why bench him in the most important game against a tough opponent?

Ilya Kovalchuk gave Russia a 1-0 lead with a power play goal. His celebration was so exuberant, it was almost too much. He jumped up as if he had scored an overtime game winner. I know emotions were riding high, but it was the first period. Russia played this entire tournament unable to control their emotions.

Finland scored their first goal after Russia needlessly iced the puck in an attempt to make a big play. Juhamatti Aaltonen weaved through Russians who stood around like cones. Then Varlamov failed to make a routine save.

A bad bounce on chipped ice resulted in a Teemu Selanne breakaway goal. So that means the Russians were betrayed by their own flimsy post against Team USA and now by their imperfect ice surface. Russia, you're supposed to have an advantage at home. Your own building shouldn't be sabotaging you.

Penalty killing requires players who do little things and who work as a team. Since those are two things Russia struggles with, it's not surprising that they allowed a power play goal. The penalty itself was unforced and unnecessary.

Tuukka Rask played a great game. He stopped 37 of 38 shots. The one goal he did allow was slightly soft, but he more than made up for it by making two or three incredible stops. That's usually the story with Rask. He will let in the occasional bad goal. His big saves usually outnumber those soft goals.

Russia is out of their own Olympics. That pleases me greatly.

Finland plays Sweden in the semifinals Friday morning at 6:30am (Eastern) on NBC Sports. So we have a European semifinal and a North American semifinal.

Photo Credit:
Alexander Nemenov /AFP/Getty Images

Olympic Hockey: Norway vs. Russia Recap

One story surrounding this game has been that the Russian team isn't playing to its potential. Some have suggested that there is division on the roster due to the mixture of NHL and KHL players. Russian media outlets are questioning where the "Big Red Machine" is. But I think these stories about Russia not playing well are exaggerated, even imagined.

Russia has played very well. Under NHL rules, they would have beaten the US in that epic game Saturday morning. And they were still just one shot or one save away from winning. The US needed 8 shootout rounds to beat them, and the US is a damn good team.

Russia beat Norway 4-0 and potentially quieted those doubters, at least for one day.

The game was closer than the score suggests. It was 2-0 before Norway pulled their goalie. It was 0-0 after the first period until Alexander Radulov was credited with a goal that bounced off a Norwegian skate and into the net. Pavel Datsyuk got the assist. Datsyuk tallied three assists in the game. Radulov also scored an empty-netter in the 3rd and had an assist. Ilya Kovalchuk scored late in the 2nd. Alexei Tereshenchenko scored with 40 seconds left in the 3rd.

All 4 of Russia's goals were scored by KHLers. Datsyuk and Vladimir Tarasenko were the only NHLers with assists.

Norway played a conservative game, trying to make everything difficult for Russia. That strategy is always a double edged sword because it makes offense hard to generate. You purposely reduce the number of offensive chances you'll get, and a team that lacks talent (relative to Russia) like Norway should play for as many offensive opportunities as possible, and hope Russia makes defensive mistakes (which they tend to do), and pray that Russia doesn't finish its offensive chances.

In hindsight, it's easy for me to say that. Norway played a great game against a great team in front of a hostile crowd. Had Norway managed to score first, maybe the supposed tension and rifts on Team Russia would have expressed themselves on the ice. Maybe a sour crowd would have made those tensions worse. Russia does seem like a team that doesn't handle adversity well.

And Russia will likely face adversity when they play against Finland in the quarterfinals.

Photo Credit:
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

USA vs. Russia Demonstrates Why NHL Players Should Play in Olympics

I wanted to wake up for the 7:30am start of US vs. Russia Saturday morning. Just in case I didn't, I set my DVR to record the game. I'm glad I did because I slept through most of it. And when I woke up, Facebook and Twitter were ablaze with patriotism and the word "Oshie." There were 530,000+ tweets with the word "Oshie" in them on Saturday.

When was the last time that such a thing has ever happened for hockey? When was the last time that the entire country focused on a hockey game, the way a city focuses on a Stanley Cup game? The game was even featured on SportsCenter, on NBA All-Star weekend, and we know how rare it is for SportsCenter to feature hockey.

That's the power of Olympic hockey. You get the best players in the world, you put medals, prestige, and pride on the line, and then you play 60 minutes of great hockey. Or more.

And just a few words to Russian players like Alex Ovechkin complaining about their disallowed goal when the net got dislodged: It's your country, your Olympics, your rink, your net, your moorings. Either build stronger nets, or build stronger character and accept the result and move on with your life.

The NHL doesn't make any money off the Olympics. Not directly. The NHL teams stop playing, and NHL players risk injury only a few weeks before the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The NHL doesn't get a dime from ticket sales or TV advertising, even though everyone is watching the League's players play.

By the way, the injury risk argument is lame. The NHL plays 4,920 regular season games every 4 years, along with 60 playoff series. There are 30 Olympic hockey games every 4 years. You can't schedule 82 regular season games then argue that an athlete playing 6-7 more is an unacceptable risk.

The way the NHL should view Olympic hockey is like a really popular and convincing infomercial. It's free advertising. The NHL spends huge amounts of money trying to promote the game, particularly to kids. The Olympics do that for free. And do so with more success.

How many kids out there saw TJ Oshie on Saturday then wanted to develop shooting moves like him? How many young goalies out there saw Jonathan Quick in net and wanted to learn how to stop shots like him?

Before the Olympics only a handful of people knew who TJ Oshie was. The Olympics turned him into a star. And the NHL desperately lacks famous star player, particularly American star players.

The NHL needs to realize that hockey is a regional, niche sport. It has a cult following. Which is a polite way of saying that it doesn't have broad appeal but the relatively small number of fans it has are fanatics.

The Olympics don't convert millions of new fans, just like the World Cup doesn't create armies of new soccer fans when the US does well. However, the Olympics do recruit a number new followers to the cult. More kids will want to play, will ask their parents to take them to a game, will watch highlights online. They'll want a TJ Oshie shirt for their birthday. And guess what, NHL, you get money from that. And when more people play hockey, more people watch hockey. You make money from that too, NHL.

So instead of focusing on the short term buck, and the immediate revenue you don't make from the Olympics, think of them as free advertising/recruiting for your game/cult.

Look at it like this. If NBC Sports had said to the NHL "We're going to promote the game of hockey for hours and hours in the next few weeks. We'll use NBC, NBC Sports, CNBC, MSNBC, USA. We'll put the women's finals on NBC. We'll put USA on NBC Sports and Canada on USA. We'll show Sweden and Finland and the Czech Republic and Switzerland and Russia and Slovakia. We'll promote the game of hockey for free, we'll get countries riled up, we'll stir national pride, we'll make everyone wake up at 7:30am on a Saturday just to watch hockey, and all we want in return is 6-7 games from NHL players...

The NHL would be dumb not to take that deal.

The NHL will be dumb not to take that deal.

Photo Credit:
Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Olympic Hockey Elimination Round Matchups

For the US to advance to the gold medal game, they'll have to get through some quality competition. They will face the winner of the Slovakia/Czech Republic game, then most likely play Canada in the semifinals. However they won't have to play Sweden, Russia, or Finland until the gold medal game.

Here's a quick preview of the opening round of the elimination stage, which will be played on Tuesday (starting at 3:00am), all times are Eastern:

Austria vs. Slovenia - winner faces Sweden
3:00am - NBC Sports
Each team won a game in the group stages. Austria beat Norway (so did everyone else). Slovenia beat Slovakia, and gave all their opponents a respectable fight. I think Slovenia wins this one before being crushed by the Swedes in the quarterfinals.

Russia vs. Norway - winner faces Finland
7:00am - NBC Sports
Norway lost all 3 of their games and only scored 3 goals. The Russians were a few bounces from winning their group. Russia wins this game, then I think they'll beat the Finns to advance to the semis against Sweden.

Switzerland vs. Latvia - winner faces Canada
12:00pm - MSNBC
The Swiss should scare everyone in this tournament. They won two games 1-0 in the group stage and lost to Sweden 1-0. They've allowed a single goal, thanks in no small part to goalie Jonas Hiller (who didn't play in the game against Sweden, so he has yet to allow a goal). They should beat Latvia (again), and give Canada a run for their money. I want to be bold/stupid and pick them to beat Canada, but I don't think they'll score more than a goal against the Canadians, which won't be enough

Slovakia vs. Czech Republic - winner faces USA
12:00pm - NBC Sports
Both teams should be disappointed with their group stage performances. Both were in tough groups. But Slovakia shouldn't be losing to Slovenia. The Czechs have 18 NHL players, the Slovaks have 12. Jaroslav Halak might be able to carry his Slovakian teammates, but I can't pick against the Czechs, who have been playing much better hockey in this tournament than their Slovakian rivals.

And of course, Team USA will defeat whoever they face in the quarterfinals.

So this sets up semifinal matchups of Sweden/Russia and Canada/USA, with a Europe vs. North America gold medal game. I think Sweden is playing great, has great scorers,  fantastic speed, and amazing goaltending. I think they beat Russia, the US narrowly beats Canada, and why not pick Team USA to win the gold.

America. Fuck yeah.

Team USA Hockey Invites 48 Players to Camp

Tim Thomas was not one of the 6 goalies invited to Team USA's camp. Jonathan Quick, Jimmy Howard, Ryan Miller, Cory Schneider, Craig Anderson, and 20-year old Josh Gibson were the netminders invited. Gibson was the MVP of the 2013 World Juniors, leading the US to a gold medal.

No Bruins were invited. Which isn't much of a surprise since Torey Krug was the only American on their roster last year. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Milan Lucic were invited to Canada's camp. Claude Julien will be an assistant coach for Team Canada.

Two players from Massachusetts will participate in the US's camp: the aforementioned Cory Schneider from Marblehead, and Keith Yandle from Boston.

Other New England natives involved will be Jonathan Quick from Milford, CT (he also went to UMass), defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk from Greenwich, CT (also went to BU, also has the best last name ever), and forward Max Pacioretty from New Canaan, CT. That's right, the Montreal Canadiens are more American than the Boston Bruins. The Habs have two invitees to the camp.

As you'd expect, there are some great players on the team. The question is will they be great enough to match the likes of Canada and Russia. With Quick and/or Miller in net, anything is possible. Then there's some talented forwards like Phil Kessel, Patrick Kane, Dustin Brown, and Bobby Ryan that will be relied on for the scoring.

Unfortunately, the US's talent isn't as deep as Canada's (Bergeron, Crosby, Toews, Sharp, Green, Subban, Weber, Letang, Nash, St. Louis, Stamkos, Staal, Staal, and Staal) nor is it as strong at the top as Russia's (Malkin, Datsyuk, and Ovechkin).

So goaltending will have to be the difference for the US to win. Relatively speaking, Canada's goaltending isn't that good. They invited Corey Crawford, Roberto Luongo, Braden Holtby, Carey Price, and Mike Smith. Russia, on the other hand, has Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky.

Then there's Sweden, who will have Henrik Lundqvist. And Finland will probably start Tuukka Rask or Antti Niemi.

So Canada has the most talented skaters, but some questionable goaltenders. Russia has a goalie, and some studs, then a lot of guys you've never heard of. USA has goaltending, and some solid players, but not the firepower that Canada has. And Finland gets to choose between a Vezina finalist (Niemi) and a Conn Smythe contender (Rask).

Plus there's Sweden, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

This should be a good tournament.

Full Team USA invitees

Euro 2012 Update*

Euro 2012 has been full of surprises already. Four teams are in the quarterfinals, not all of them expected to be there. Four teams have been eliminated. Some of them anticipated longer stays in Poland and the Ukraine.

One thing I really like is that teams are winning their way into the quarterfinals. There were no draws this weekend, no tie-breakers needed. Teams that won advanced, teams that lost were eliminated.

Czech Republic 1, Poland 0

When the Czechs are expected to do well, they fail. When they're expected to fail, they do well. It's not a complete shock that they advanced to the quarterfinals, but it is a surprise that they won their group. They'll play Portugal on Thursday.

Greece 1, Russia 0

The good news for Polish police is that the Russians are leaving. No more marches through Warsaw. Greece was in 4th at the start of this match, and needed to win to advance. That's what they did. It's amazing what happens when people have to work to get by. Maybe the Greek people will learn what a work ethic is. They'll play Germany on Friday.

Portugal 2, Netherlands 1

The Group of Death was a confused mess before Sunday's games. The permutations were too complicated for even the most advanced supercomputers to calculate. But the teams knew their jobs: win. Cristiano Ronaldo did his job: score. He netted both goals for Portugal, silencing his critics. I picked the Netherlands to win this tournament, and now they exit having lost all 3 of their games.

Germany 2, Denmark 1

The Germans won all 3 of their group games for the first time ever in this tournament. What's kind of scary is that they never played to the absolute best of their ability. Guys like Thomas Müller are still struggling to find their form. And if they do, Achtung! (warning).

Germany faces Greece on Friday in a battle between creditor and debtor. North Sea vs. Mediterranean. Work ethic vs. vacation 8 weeks a year.

Today's games:
Croatia vs. Spain
Italy vs. Ireland

Italy should beat the Irish, which would give them 5 points. Croatia and Spain each have 4 points, so a draw would give each of them 1 point. With the tie-breakers, a 2-2 draw between Spain and Croatia will see both teams advance. Both teams should and probably will play for the win. And Spain should win.

That being said, if it's 2-2 between them with 15 minutes left, don't expect to see either team take any chances. And don't write off the Irish, who could make Spain and Croatia very happy by drawing with Italy.

Euro 2012 Update*

Germany continues to roll, Portugal got a win, and Russia was fined $150k for the violence of their fans at the tournament.

PORTUGAL 3, DENMARK 2

Whether they advance or not, the Danes are putting on one hell of a show. They beat the Netherlands, and were tied 2-2 with Portugal until the 87th minute. The Danish play the Germans next, and they're probably going to be the toughest test for Germany so far. But give credit to Portugal for getting a big goal and a big win when they really needed one.

GERMANY 2, NETHERLANDS 1

I picked the Dutch to win this tournament because of their talent up front. But their lack of talent and experience in the back is really showing. Mario Gomez took full advantage of the Netherlands' defensive weaknesses, scoring his 2nd and 3rd goals of the tournament. The Dutch left Bastian Schweinsteiger uncovered, and that's like allowing Rajon Rondo to pass to whoever he wants. Only Schweinsteiger's name is much more fun to say than Rondo's. The German defenders don't look very sharp, though, and that might be what prevents the team from winning the tournament.

UEFA fined the Russian soccer association $150,000 because Russian fans attacked stadium staff after Russia's win over the Czech Republic. Here's a clip of the incident in question:

In soccer, the team is punished for actions of the fans. Essentially, the actions of the fans involved in this incident have cost their soccer federation $150,000. UEFA also issued a suspended punishment for future violations. If Russian fans cause any more trouble in this tournament, the team will be deducted 6 points (they have 4 now), and will likely not advance to the next round.

Hopefully it will be an effective deterrent to prevent any further trouble.

Euro 2012 Violence

After years of playing nothing but soccer, some of these Europeans have no idea how to use their hands in a fight.

It was a randomized process that selected the groups for Euro 2012. And it was an arbitrary scheduling that determined the dates that games would be played on. And when this resulted in Poland and Russia being matched together in a group, and playing their game on Russia Day (equivalent to a Russian Independence Day), I'm sure many organizers of Euro 2012 collectively said "oh shit" in their native languages.

Russia and Poland have a long and complex history. Poland and the USSR fought a war against each other from 1919 to 1921. Over 100,000 people died. In 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland as part of an agreement with Nazi Germany. Germany and the USSR then divided and occupied Poland.

In 1944, Polish nationalists rose up against the German occupiers (who had conquered all of Poland in 1941) of Warsaw. They'd hoped this uprising would be assisted by Soviet troops, who were less than 10 miles from the city. The Russians stopped their advance and refused to aid the uprising, which was eventually crushed. An estimated 200,000 Polish civilians died in the failed uprising.

After World War II, Poland was politically dominated by the Soviet Union until 1989.

There's a very long and very recent history between these two countries. Even now, Poland is paranoid about Russia attempting to violate their sovereignty, and Russia is wary of Poland's close ties to NATO and the West.

Before Russia and Poland played to a 1-1 draw yesterday, 5,000 Russian fans marched through Warsaw and to the stadium as a celebration of their team and to celebrate Russia Day. They had permission from Polish authorities to do so. But considering the history between these two countries, maybe it was more than a little insensitive of the Russians to stage such a display of Russian pride on Polish soil. Then again, Russians have never been noted for their sensitivity.

Sporadic fighting broke out between Poles, Russians, and police during the march. Over 50 were arrested, and more than 10 people were hospitalized.

What's aggravating me is that it could have been avoided, and it's overshadowing what should be a great soccer tournament, with battles being fought by 22 men on a field with a ball, not a few dozen thugs in ski masks throwing chairs at each other.

The Polish authorities probably shouldn't have let the Russians march. Then again, maybe they figured that having all the Russian fans in one place would allow them to focus their Police in those areas.

The Russians shouldn't have staged the march at all. It was very antagonistic of them.

Some countries in Europe, Germany for instance, acknowledge the horrible things they've done in their history. Some countries, Russia for instance, don't spend much time discussing the unpleasant things they've done in their history. Russia were partners with the Nazis in conquering Poland in 1939. They didn't help the Poles in 1944 because they wanted to install their own communist government in Warsaw, and not allow the Polish to form their own government. And for 45 years Moscow ran Poland as subservient to the Soviet Union and Russian interests.

So I can't blame the Poles for being angry that a few thousand Russians decided to march through Warsaw. It doesn't excuse the violence, but I understand the rage.

Sweden Wins World Juniors

I don't speak Swedish, but I think these guys are happy that Sweden won. Mika Zibanejad scored the game-winner a little more than 10 minutes into OT, and Sweden won its first Juniors title in 31 years. It was Sweden's 58th shot on net. The previous 57 had been stopped by Russian goalie Andrei Markarov. Sweden outshot Russia 58-17.

It was a thrilling end to an exciting tournament. And anytime Canada doesn't win makes me happy.