Sochi 2014 - A glance at each team (Part 1/2)

Sochi 2014 - A glance at each team (Part 1/2)

In just over two weeks from now the elite nations in the world of hockey go at it for the dream of winning Olympic gold. Twelve teams, lowest ranked Slovenia (17th), go into three groups of four and do battle before being seeded for the single game knockout tournament, all available on the BBC through one platform or another. 

In these posts I'll be including previous appearances plus a look at who could be key players for each team, and each nations NHL representatives.

Note: if anyone wants to complain about the focus on the nations such as the US, Canada, Russia, Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden then I say, what did you expect? I'm not Austrian, Latvian, Norwegian, Slovakian, Slovenian, or Swiss.

So without further ado, let's get started. 

 

AUSTRIA - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 15th

13th appearance at the Olympics. One championship in their history. 1927 European Champions. Best Olympic campaign, 5th in 1928.



Captain Thomas Vanek.

They have eight of their 25 man squad that play outside the Eishockey Liga, Thomas Vanek & Michael Grabner (both New York Islanders) and Michael Raffl (Philadelphia Flyers) in the NHL, plus Stefan Ulmer, Raphael Herburger and Oliver Setzinger in the Swiss League system, Thomas Hundertpfund and Bernhard Starkbaum playing in the lower leagues of Sweden, yet still produce play that ranks them just outside the top nine who gain automatic berths into the tournament. 

Needless to say the danger men for their group B opponents will be the play in the NHL, Grabner, Raffl and Vanek. Grabner's speed, Vanek's hands, and Raffl's speed plus sense of the ice will be things all NHL fans, players and pundits will be aware of. 

One home based player with experience in North America is Thomas Pock, a former New York Ranger and Lake Erie Monster, could never settle and went back to Austria after his contract with Colorado ran out in the summer.

There aren't many more things to say about this team that do them any favours. They're the 3rd worst team in the competition on IIHF rankings and find themselves in a group with the powerhouses Canada and Finland, plus 9th ranked Norway. They'll likely finish in the bottom 4 at best and get knocked out in the first knockout round by a powerhouse nation.

CANADA - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 5th
Eight time gold medallists. 20th appearance. Medallists 14 times.




Sidney Crosby, captain and gold medal winning goal scorer
four years ago in Vancouver.

To hockey what England are to football. Winning it all is the national media's obsession. Coaches and captain constantly under the scrutiny if ever a slip up is made.
After the, UEFA Champions League draw style, long drawn out ceremony to announce the 25 man Olympic roster was made the internet was littered with Canadian rosters filled with 25 who were "snubbed" but their inclusion being as justified as the guys who did make it. One major difference between our nation of origin of football and the home nation of hockey.

Only four of the squad play for Canadian clubs (Luongo and Hamhuis of Vancouver & Price and Subban of Montreal), with the rest spread amongst 14 American clubs. Twelve members are survivors of the gold medal winning 2010 team, and only ten have experienced winning the Stanley Cup (four twice). 

The biggest issue facing Triple Gold Club member coach Mike Babcock is how best to deploy his stars. With Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews, the two best centres in the world, Toews more defensive but Crosby, best player in the world but was a passenger in 2010, impossible to find the right line mates. The one thing that seems to sort itself out is that their are three distinct pairs of club mates to be made on the attacking lines with, Crosby & Chris Kunitz (Pittsburgh), Toews & Patrick Sharp (Chicago), and Ryan Getzlaf & Corey Perry (Anaheim). Assuming these pairs, plus an extra winger, make up three of the four attacking lines, Babcock's next challenge would be how to fit others in, and who to leave out. Also assuming Crosby, Toews and Perry are the top three centres, the option for fouth would be a contest between John Tavares, Patrice Bergeron and Matt Duchene. Then that leaves four right wing spots and one left wing spot for the likes of Patrick Marleau, Jamie Benn, Rick Nash, Jeff Carter, and the in-human Steven Stamkos.

Not to mention the possible goalie controversy between Roberto Luongo and Carey Price. Both of which can go from best in the world to absolute worst in a space of 48 hours. Then there's the matter of which six defenseman start out of the eight selected. Though I'd pick Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty, P.K. Subban, Shea Weber, Alex Pietrangelo, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

For Canada gold is the target and the nation will go into national mourning if they come back with silver or less. Realistically, they should be guaranteed a bronze. 

CZECH REPUBLIC - (Group C) IIHF Rank: 4th
6th appearance as an independent nation. Two time medallists, gold in 98, bronze in 06.



Old man Jagr.

The Czechs boast the third highest number of NHLers on their roster with 17 spread amongst 13 teams. The two of the three oldest players the games in 42-year-old Petr Nedved and 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr. With Jagr being the only member of the only gold winning Czech team still playing. Of the 17 NHL players, six have won the Stanley Cup a combined eight times. Jagr and Patrik Elias the multiple winners. So for a team 4th in the world they don't have a lot of winning experience, but the 16 NHL skaters have accounted for a combined 399 points, or 24.9 per man, with David Krejci and Jagr leading the way, on 45 and 44 respectively.
The team has a terrific balance of young and old. The age gap between Nedved and the youngest member, Ondrej Palat, is 20 years. They'll to count on the youthful invention of players like Krejci, Palat, Radko Gudas, Jakub Voracek, and Michael Frolik. Mixed in with the experienced play of Nedved, Jagr, Elias, Marek Zidlicky, Thomas Plekanec, Michael Rozsival, Ales Hemsky, and Milan Michalek.

The of group of Sweden, Switzerland, and Latvia shouldn't be much of a concern. The winners of the Czechs and Sweden should win the group. It'll be very comfortable for them against the Swiss and Latvians.

FINLAND - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 2nd
14th appearance. Medal winners in five of the last seven tournaments. World champions in 1995 and 2011.

Tuukka Rask, on form best goalie in the world.

Along with Sweden and the USA, Finland have a group of three of the worlds elite goaltenders (Tuukka Rask, Kari Lehtonen, and Antti Niemi), and one left out due to injury in Pekka Rinne. 43-year-old Teemu Selanne is in the squad in what is the Anaheim Ducks man last go around as a professional.

Of the top six nations they have the joint most, with Russia, European based players. This will help as the ice in Europe is 15 feet wider than North American ice rinks.

The NHL contingent consists of Mikko Koivu, Jussi & Olli Jokinen, Tuomo Ruutu, Lauri Korpikoski, Valtteri Filppula, Sami Salo, Kimmo Timonen, plus the young talent group of Olli Maatta, Alex Barkov, Mikael Granlund, and Sami Vatanen.

Filppula leads the Finnish NHL players in scoring, putting up 40 points in an impressive debut season in Tampa since leaving Detroit as a UFA in 2013. 18-year-old rookie Alex Barkov has put up 24 points for the Florida Panthers, arguably one of the 3-4 worst teams in the league.

Like the Czech team it's a mix of experience and youth but on paper this team is a whole lot better. I'd be surprised if this team isn't in the gold medal game.

LATVIA - (Group C) IIHF Rank: 11th
5th appearance. Never finished higher than 9th (2002).

Buffalo Sabre, Zemgus Girgensens.

Conquerors of Team GB in the final qualifying tournament, Latvia head to Sochi with two NHL based players, Zemgus Girgensons and Kristers Gudlevskis of Buffalo and Tampa Bay respectively.

The goal for Latvia is to finish ahead of Austria and Slovenia, the only other teams that had to play qualifiers and the only two teams ranked lower than the Latvians.

There isn't much to say about this team.

NORWAY - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 9th
10th appearance. Finished 10th last time in Vancouver.

Mats Zuccarelo.

The lowest ranked of the nine automatic qualifiers, Norway have the bad luck of being lumped in with Canada and Finland. Mats Zuccarello completes the entire NHL representation on this team. Signed to the New York Rangers in 2010, Mats broke into the Rangers team last season and is having a fantastic 2013-14 season with 15 goals and 22 assists putting him 2nd in total points for the New York team.

The league most represented in the roster is the Swedish Hockey League including former NHLer Ole-Kristian Tollefsen who currently plays for 2011 SHL champs, Farjestad BK, and his club team mates Anders Bastiansen, Marius Holtet, and Martin Roymark. They also have two players for 2nd ranked Frolunda HC, Mathis Olimb and Mats Rosseli Olsen. One danger point for Group B defences to watch out for is Patrick Thoresen of the KHL's SKA St Petersburg who is a good hard checker and has averaged just under a point a game in the last three seasons including this season.

For me this team definitely makes the last 8. Then take your pick of which power house knocks them out.



The concludes part 1. Part 2 featuring Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA coming next week.

PODCAST - December 17th Edition

Between The Pipes - December 17th Edition

LISTEN HERE


Subscribe on iTunes!!!

First of all we'd like to apologise if any of our technical difficulties effect the quality of this weeks podcast.

In this edition Nick, Ross and Junaid go over the weeks headlines, including Shawn Thornton appealing his suspension, Stamkos skating a month after breaking his leg. We also give our picks for goals and saves of the week, and make our prediction league picks for this week. In "Four Teams" we talk about Boston, LA & Tampa Bay.

Saves of the week

Nick's pick - Josh Harding - Minnesota Wild vs Anaheim Ducks



Ross' pick - Kevin Poulin - New York Islanders vs Phoenix Coyotes



Junaid's pick - Martin Jones - Los Angeles Kings vs Montreal Canadiens



Goals of the week

Nick's pick - Matt Duchene - Colorado Avalanche vs Winnipeg Jets



Ross' pick - Benoit Pouliot (shootout goal) - New York Rangers vs Calgary Flames



Junaid's pick - Alex Ovechkin - Washington Capitals vs Philadelphia Flyers



Prediction League

TABLE

Nick - 14/18
Ross - 12/18
Junaid - 7/18

This weeks games/picks:
Nashville @ Tampa Bay
San Jose @ Los Angeles
NY Islanders @ NY Rangers
Detroit @ Toronto
Washington @ Carolina
Winnipeg @ Edmonton


Nick: NSH, LA, NYR, TOR, WSH, EDM
Ross: TB, LA, NYR, TOR, WSH, EDM
Junaid: TB, SJ, NYR, TOR, WSH, WPG



NEXT WEEK....... We are ACTUALLY doing our NHL themed 12 Days of Christmas. After neglecting it last week and our technical difficulties this week.



Email us any questions you'd like us to answer at betweenthepipespodcast@hotmail.com and we will answer them during recording. Also you can direct anything our way on twitter, @NickVarney90, @j_hussain & @MasonCooper4.

Podcast - December 10th Edition

Podcast - December 10th Edition

Between The Pipes - December 10th Edition

LISTEN HERE


Or subscribe on iTunes!!!

In this edition Nick, Ross and Junaid go over the weeks headlines, including the Orpik/Neal/Thornton incidents in Boston and the salary cap projections from the Board of Governors meetings. We also give our picks for goals and saves of the week, and make our prediction league picks for this week. In "Four Teams" we talk about Carolina, Minnesota, NY Islanders and Vancouver. Ross gives us his "Things that happened since the Red Wings last missed the playoffs" stat.

Saves of the week

Note: Junaid's pick wasn't on NHL.com or youtube. Another save from the same goalie and same game has been put in it's place.

Nick's pick - Jonas Gustavsson - Detroit Red Wings vs New Jersey Devils



Ross' pick - Craig Anderson - Ottawa Senators vs Philadelphia Flyers



Junaid's pick - James Reimer - Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ottawa Senators



Goals of the week

Nick's pick - James Neal - Pittsburgh Penguins vs Boston Bruins



Ross' pick - Rick Nash - New York Rangers vs Buffalo Sabres



Junaid's pick - Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Islanders



Prediction League

TABLE

Nick - 10/18
Ross - 10/18
Junaid - 5/18

This weeks games/picks:

Tampa Bay @ Washington
Columbus @ NY Rangers
Minnesota @ San Jose
Pittsburgh @ Detroit
Boston @ Vancouver
Los Angeles @ Chicago

Nick: WSH, NYR, SJ, PIT, BOS, CHI
Ross: TB, NYR, SJ, DET, VAN, LA
Junaid: WSH, NYR, SJ, DET, BOS, LA



THINGS THAT HAPPENED SINCE DETROIT LAST MISSED THE PLAYOFFS
by Ross Chaplin

The 1st Gulf War didn't start until after the last time Detroit missed the playoffs.


NEXT WEEK....... We are ACTUALLY doing our NHL themed 12 Days of Christmas. Email or tweet us any suggestions. Our email address and twitter handles are below.

Email us any questions you'd like us to answer at betweenthepipespodcast@hotmail.com and we will answer them during recording. Also you can direct anything our way on twitter, @NickVarney90, @j_hussain & @MasonCooper4.

Why I am a Rangers Fan

Why am I, well an obvious and easy answer to this question is that after accquiring NHL 09 for the Xbox 360 a few years ago I realized that the only thing I understood about the game was the goalie position, in that all I needed to do was to put it bluntly, "see puck, stop puck". So after realizing this I decided to start a be a pro career as a goalie.

But as I didn't have a team I decided to do a random selection. And by that I mean I started at the Ducks, and very quickly closed my eyes and hammered the right trigger on my controller to keep cycling through the teams, until I had lost track of how many times I'd pressed the button. Then after two minutes I stopped, opened my eyes and voila, waiting for me was the New York Rangers. In hindsight that was a terrible decision, I mean how the hell do I unseat Henrik Lundqvist?

The answer was very easily :P but enough of that, the story is after being promoted from the Hartford Wolfpack, (still think that is a better name than the Connecticut Whale, but I understand the new name)

After playing at the world famous MSG, and leading the team in the playoffs to a Stanley Cup, I grew an affinity with the club, and eventually led myself to choose them as my team, as I have the best memories playing for them.

But despite all this, I reckon there are reasons why if I hadn't stopped on the New York Rangers that I still may of ended up a Ranger or at the very least, An Islander. But mainly a Ranger.

1. The city itself, where the hell do I start here.... How about architecture? Good place as any to start, from the Empire State building, to the Chrysler building, to the near completion Freedom Tower. New York has always had some incredibly breathtaking architecture. (disclaimer, I like architecture) It's one of the main reasons I would love to go to the city, to see the incredible designs, to see someone literally build something from the ground up, (which is literally what people do in Manhattan anyway :P)

The beauty of Manhattan island architecture is amazing and can be described aptly twice a year, as the sun lines up perfectly with Manhattan as it sets.

2. World Famous Landmarks, St Louis has the Arch, LA has some sort of sign, Minnesota has snow.... Well NYC has yellow taxis, Central Park, a giant version of Paris' Statue of Liberty, All those building, Manhattan is a world wide icon, MSG, Wall Street, The UN are based there, Broadway. No other city has as many landmarks that are instantly recognisable to anyone world wide. How many people have ever seen the Arch in St Louis, Not many I'd wager, but how many people can tell you what the Empire State Building looks like, or the Statue of Liberty? A lot more I assure you.

3. I think it's the greatest city in the world. They have one thing that cities that Dubai simply lack. Sports, Dubai has spent billions on massive building, literally, massive building, like the Burj Kalifa, but Dubai simply doesn't have the sports teams that NYC has, sports teams that can divide a city, or simply unite the town together in that no matter where you are from, the entire city can come together in a common goal.

Dubai and I use them as an example because I think they're after that title of Greatest city in the world, their best and biggest sports event is a horse racing meeting. In Comparison NYC hosts the 48th Superbowl this year, and supposedly is the backdrop to a new Formula 1 race 2015 in June. Two outdoor NHL games, and a world famous marathon.

4. The Rangers colours. I am a fan of the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL, and they wear a blue shirt. I know blue is the colour of choice for a lot of NHL teams, Lightning, sabres, leafs, islanders, blue jackets, and many others. Blue is my favourite colour, so I almost definitely would have been towards the rangers at the very least.

5. Madison Square Gardens. To put it simply, it is the greatest arena in the world period. No contest, I have loved this place since as a little kid I watched Muhammad Ali fight Joe Frazier there. I've always wanted to go, and eventually I will someday. The fact that the Rangers play there is just a coincidence to me. And if the arena does have to move within the next ten years, then I want to go before it moves. It is an incredible arena and if you are a fan of sports, I can't recommend highly enough that you go to MSG and just soak in the sporting history that has happened there, even if a team of yours isn't playing, go and just soak in the history.

6. Henrik Lundqvist: He is one of the best in NHL 09, and I would of compared myself to him, and trying to overtake him, and in that time he became my favourite player, the man is just insanely good. He is also rather handsome if you didn't know, and I'm gonna drop this on Junaid Tuesday night. "Henrik Lundqvist, Junaid could he turn you?" Also The Colts had the worlds best player at his position in Peyton Manning so that would of helped draw me towards Lundqvist.

7. The way the Rangers played at the time under Tortorella. Believe it or not, I'm a very defensive person, no matter how good the Colts offense is on any given year of madden, I always try and improve the defense until its the best in the league. Don't get me wrong, the offense would still be good, I would just make that defense unbeliavbly good. The Rangers suited my personality at the time, being so defensive, it would have appealed to me. I'm a firm believer of the phrase "offense wins you a game, but a defense will win you a championship."

I'm not sure if there are any more reasons, I'm sure there are somewhere in the deepest darkest corners of my brain they're lurking somewhere. But these reasons above mean if fate hadn't landed me in The Hartford Wolf Pack at first, there is still a good to great chance that I still would end up as a New York Ranger.


So why are you a fan of the team that you are? Email to betweenthepipespodcast@hotmail.co.uk Tweet me at @MasonCooper4, or feel free to leave a comment.  

  
 

   

Bruins vs. Penguins: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Last night in Boston, two of the Eastern conference's elite went head to head, in what was as usual a feisty affair between the Pens and B's.

The game, unfortunately, was marred by a few nasty moments. Moments the majority of hockey fans felt sick watching. I'm talking about James Neal putting his knee into the head of Brad Marchand, and the Shawn Thornton "assault" on Brooks Orpik.

Let's set the scene. First we have what I believe was the incident that got Thornton's back up. At the twelve second mark of the 1st period Orpik lays a clean hit on Loui Eriksson, clean in the sense it was a shoulder to the chest. The only questionable part of the hit is, was Eriksson able to make a play on the puck before he was hit? It looks like he didn't, and judging on the speed and direction of the puck it could be called as interference on Orpik as at no point does Eriksson control the puck. The last player in possession prior to the hit was Patrice Bergeron. Now, Eriksson missed a lot of time this season with a concussion. On this hit he ended up hitting the ice with his head, struggled to get to the bench, and has another concussion (according to several reports). So, about five minutes later when Thornton, the Bruins enforcer, is on the ice at the same time as Orpik, he decides that Orpik should be held accountable and should not get away. He tries to engage in a fight and Orpik flat out refuses. Leading to a 2-minute roughing penalty on Thornton.

Next we move to later on, still in the 1st period, around five minutes after the roughing penalty, Thornton is coming off the bench for a line change when Pittsburgh winger James Neal skates through a prone Brad Marchand. Kneeing him in the head and shakes him up. He then proceeds to get to the bench to escape any Bruin retribution. The play is whistled for a penalty on Neal. Thornton, who didn't see the play, turns around and sees a teammate stricken. He then sees Orpik and another opportunity to make him pay for what he did to Eriksson. He slewfoots Orpik, who is already engaged with Gregory Campbell, then throws a couple punches in Orpik's face. Soft punches, but enough to knock Orpik out for a couple of seconds.

This is the video on NHL.com. It focuses more on the Thornton/Orpik incident but you see Neal knee Marchand at the start.

One common opinion I've seen brandished around about Thornton is that what he did was predetermined. Now, hold on a second. Isn't what Neal did worse than Thornton? The Bruins pay Thornton and expect the enforcer aspect of his game when it is needed. Neal's knee on Marchand was completely unprovoked, aside from the usual chirping that goes on in a hockey game. He skates in a straight line fom the "X" of the Xfinity sponsor board, makes no attempt to avoid contact, and runs away like a pussy.

 

I'm not condoning what Thornton did. It's a common part of hockey. Team mate gets hit. The enforcer wants to punish the hitter. In my opinion, Orpik was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The first incident with the roughing penalty should've been the end of it. The worst part about what Neal did is that he makes his getaway rather quickly. Well, I would too considering Zdeno Chara was on the ice behind Neal and most likely saw the whole thing.

 

Eriksson picked up a concussion. Marchand's status isn't known yet. Orpik was released from hospital and flew home on the Penguins team plane.

 

Thornton now has an in person with the NHL Department of Player Safety. Neal will just have a phone hearing.

 

The way I see it both incidents are as bad as each other. The only difference is the appearance of the stretcher. The fabled stretcher, making hockey injuries look worse than they are since the dawn of time.


You can email your opinion to betweenthepipespodcast@hotmail.co.uk and you can also tweet me @NickVarney90