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The Pittsburgh area can’t get enough of Olympic hockey. Ratings came out for the Saturday morning USA-Russia classic and Pittsburgh was tops amongst all USA markets.
Here were the other cities who were tuned in (
courtesy of Awful Announcing )
Locally, the typical NHL standbys came through. The top 10 markets were Pittsburgh, Boston, Buffalo, Providence, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore.
Evgeni Malkin and his Russian counterparts are scheduled to take on Olli Maatta, Jussi Jokinen, and the rest of the pesky Finland squad in a quarterfinal match tomorrow. Russia defeated Norway 4-0 to earn the right to play Finland.
Russia was led by Alexander Radulov, Pavel Datsyuk, and Ilya Kovalchuk. Once again at even strength the combo of Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin were underwhelming. Neither player has been able to generate speed in the neutral zone and attack the opposing defense like we have all seen so often in NHL action. There are other players in this tournament who aren’t putting up big numbers (IE Crosby) but I can’t say that Ovechkin or Malkin have looked even close to dangerous to this point.
The Russian power play which was supposed to bombard opposition PK units has been rather quiet. The Russian power play is just 2 for 16 after their game against Norway today. The Russians lead the tournament with their 16 power play opportunities.
Evgeni Malkin continues to rot away on the team’s 2nd power play unit.
If one was to use logic you would think that having Ovechkin on the left side of the umbrella with Malkin on the right side would give a goaltender endless nightmares. Ovechkin and Malkin might possess the two deadliest one timer shots on the power play (Stamkos obviously in the discussion) in the world and Russia continues to bench one of them. Will their lackluster power play cost them against Finland? We shall see.
The bigger ice surface was thought to facilitate more offense but what it has done so far in the 2014 Sochi Games is turn into a trap fest. Teams are so scared of the open ice that they have packed it in and are not pressing the issue on their forecheck. This has given fits the world’s best players and it shows in the goal scoring department:
For Russia to move on past Finland they are going to have to get some of that dynamic offensive ability to show through on the scoreboard from Malkin and Ovechkin. Finland will be more than content to pack it in like they did against Canada and bide their time for a transition goal.
Shifting focus to Canada it looks like Mike Babcock’s new line combos are not going to quiet the second guessing. Babcock’s recent practice lines have Chris Kunitz playing with Sidney Crosby again and Patrice Bergeron will be the one to join them in their quarterfinals matchup against Switzerland or Latvia.
If Canada is going to elect to go with Kunitz on Crosby’s wing again perhaps they should at least try to mimic the dynamic that Crosby/Kunitz share with Pascal Dupuis. I would place a player with speed to burn on that right side, that player would be either Matt Duchene or Martin St. Louis for me.
The forward I would leave on the outside looking in would be Rick Nash. It appears it is going to be Matt Duchene.
Whatever the line combos end up being I stand by my assertion yesterday that Sidney Crosby’s line has to see upwards of 20 minutes of ice time. The time to spread shifts evenly amongst their 4 forward lines is over. The Russians continue to roll 4 lines and their top players have looked ordinary as described above.
Slovakia will take on the Czech Republic in a huge hockey game for obvious reasons. Who should the Americans be rooting for? According to Josh Yohe #JagrBombs have been deadly against Bylsma.
Thanks for reading!
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