The Olympic Oilers have all made their debuts now so we can recap things just a bit.
1) Ales Hemsky plays about 14 seconds for the Czech Republic as his coach and GM prove political points to the tune of a 4-2 Loss to Sweden. Actually he played about 7 minutes in total that game, but still. This is a squad that was apparently put together with the notes from the Nagano team so it features players about 8 years past their time and players like Hemsky are lucky to even crack the team. I mean you cant feature too many youngsters (players under 35).
Naturally when he did play he looked great out there, and to some he may have even been their most dynamic player. There are some even suggesting that the decision to bench or sit a few players was because they turned down the Czech team at the World Championships. Maybe now would be a good time to note that Hemsky had a broken foot when he ended the season last year.
2) Martin Marincin appeared in his first ever Olympics for Slovakia and was thoroughly trounced by a US squad that wasn’t supposed to have the scoring depth to do just that. Marincin’s pairing was abused all game but his partner looked worse than he did, so that’s the silver lining. He played a little less than 15 minutes and considering his age and Pro Experience I think it went as expected against a quality team like the US.
I’m interested to see if he has enough time in this short tournament to move up the pecking order at all. I’m not holding my breath about it, but he has been so impressive in his time at the NHL that I really hope it can translate into a solid Olympics for him.
3) Belov matches his NHL Goal Scoring Total. Yup, he scored once. *Sigh*
There’s your big Olympic Oiler Recap so far.
1) What The What? 2) It’ll Get Better 3) *Eye Roll* Of Course He Did
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