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Where was Ovechkin vs Canada? |
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The Russians were prepared to beat out Canada and move into the Finals. Many Russian fans filled the ACC and they were energetic with their Russian chants and what not. Standing up in a crowd of team Canada fans, they continued to cheer for their country. The Russian team had a 2-1 lead towards the end of the second period; things were looking great for Russia and Bobrovsky was standing on his head making a number of spectacular saves. He really was the MVP for Russia in this tournament, easily the best and most confident hockey I’ve seen Bobrovsky play in a couple of seasons.
Columbus should be happy, Bob is back.
Big bad Bob saved 16 of 17 shots in the first period.
He saved 15 of 16 shots in the second period.
From my viewpoint, Kuznetsov and Kucherov were the two players that really stuck out for team Russia up front. They used their speed and skills to make plays happen, but without Bobrovsky, the Russians were a sunken ship.
So the real question was where was Russia’s captain, Alexander Ovechkin?
He was invisible.
The best player in Russia and captain of the team had one single shot on net, literally one; he only had one shot attempt on net. If I recall it was in the third period with about 12 minutes left.
Playing mostly with Kuznetsov and Tarasenko, you would think they would be a force on the ice. The trio of Toews, Couture and Perry completely shut down Ovechkin, to the point where he did basically nothing for 21 minutes of ice time. Seriously, that was one pathetic effort by Ovechkin, and Malkin wasn’t exactly a stand out by any means. He also had a single shot on goal, but at least registered an assist.
For some perspective, Kucherov had a goal, an assist and finished the game with eight shots in 16 minutes of ice time. Why he wasn’t given 21 minutes of ice time over Ovechkin, we will never know.
It’s almost as if Ovechkin gets into this struggle whenever he faces off against Crosby.
Russia will have to kick start Ovechkin’s engine next time he represents the country, this was a very abysmal effort by the great eight.
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed the World Cup.
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