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The great news around the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday was that Tomas Vokoun has been medically cleared and can start participating in practice in a full capacity.
This certainly helps the Penguins on ice product but more importantly it means that the treatment Vokoun had been receiving has been working as planned. Long term post career health was always the more important issue with Vokoun and if he has actively made the choice to try and play again, that means the long term health prognosis is very good.
Here is what Vokoun had to say:
“My agenda is practice and see how I feel and how it goes. Take it one day at a time,… Vokoun said. “It’s pretty much left open. I’m trying to get back, see how I feel. Make sure (it) holds up.…
There will be some salary cap and roster implications if Vokoun returns but I will save those issues for another day. For now it’s just nice to see a return to health for Vokoun.
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On the Olympic front we will be treated to another USA Canada showdown at the Olympic Games. This time it will be to see who has the right to play for the Gold as opposed to outright winning the Gold.
Plenty of Penguins ties in this one with Dan Bylsma, Ray Shero,Paul Martin, Brooks Orpik, and Tony Granato going up against Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz.
Judging by Canada’s practice today the only line change was placing Matt Duchene in for the injured John Tavares.
That means Crosby and Kunitz will be playing with Bergeron again. My assumption is that Dan Bylsma will be giving that line a healthy dose of Martin and Orpik.
The Canadians may have found themselves in a tight game score wise yesterday but I don’t feel as though they played bad. Outshooting a team 57-16 seems like an awful lot of bad puck luck to me.
If the United States cannot limit Canada’s chances tomorrow the puck will find the back of their net. It’s only a matter of time with the kind of talent Canada has.
Will anybody be surprised if the Crosby line goes off tomorrow? I won't.
The good news for the United States is that they have the ability to press back against Canada, definitely more so than any other opponent they have faced up to this point.
Tomorrow’s game will be hockey played at its highest level. It will include a majority of the world’s best players and they will be supremely motivated. This matchup is the kind of game that makes you excited for Olympic hockey 3 years in advance.
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Evgeni Malkin and his Russian counterparts will go down as a huge failure at these Olympic Games. Malkin and Ovechkin did little to nothing for the entire tournament after scoring 1st period goals in Russia’s first game against Slovenia.
Malkin and Ovechkin will have to take some ownership of their shortcomings, their talent should have been good enough to sustain more quality even strength offense. I do however think that the Russian Head Coach was in over his head.
Alex Ovechkin has gone through an amazing renascence recently and he is back to scoring goals at a torrid pace. A huge part of his return to success was the switch to right wing and going back to playing the left circle on the power play. The Russian coach insisted on playing Ovechkin at left wing and on the power play point.
The reason I highlight the coach’s shortcomings with Ovechkin is because it affected Evgeni Malkin as well. Malkin never played on Russia’s top power play. Russia must be pretty special to be the only team in the world where Evgeni Malkin is not good enough to play the right circle or point on the power play. Going 3 for 19 on the power play probably wasn’t what Russia had in mind.
Russia also played 4 lines evenly throughout the tournament until it was too late. Russia loves to make statements by using their KHL guys, but that statement rings loud and clear with no medals for Russia since 2002.
The Russians played a passive 1-4 forecheck because their defense corp. was miserable. This neutered their star player’s ability to strike at even strength. The fact that Russia could not play a more aggressive style of play against teams like Norway and Slovenia were a true sign of poor roster management.
It was also a damning statement about the quality of Russian defensemen who have come through the ranks. Until the Russians can develop some more Vladimir Konstantinovs and Sergei Gonchars they will not be able to rise to the top of international hockey again. Perhaps Sabres prospect Nikita Zadorov is a start, we’ll see.
Ovechkin and Malkin were not impressed with their team’s situation in Sochi:
Told there was heated friction between Malkin/Ovechkin and Russian coaches. Subjects were KHL bias, lines, and situational usage
— Rob Rossi (@RobRossi_Trib) February 19, 2014That didn’t stop Malkin from trying to help out his head coach in crunch time:
Malkin had to tell Bilyaletdinov to get Bobrovsky off the ice. Malkin had to tell the coach. I repeat, Malkin had to tell the coach.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) February 19, 2014That Geno is a good guy.
Some people are of the opinion that Russia’s shortcomings are going to affect those players for the rest of the year in the NHL, and I agree. I think those players are going to get a huge boost from not being under the intense scrutiny that they faced with their home country hosting the Olympics.
Not playing for Russia will be a relief for Malkin, Ovechkin, and Datsyuk. Look for Geno Machino to take over for the rest of the season.
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As for Finland, they continue to have the opportunity to play for medals in Olympic hockey. They play as a team and stick to their own script. A perceived lack of high end talent does not bother them.
Olli Maatta led all Finnish players yesterday with 19:54 of ice time. For those that watch a lot of Penguins games this is not very surprising. For those that are new to his game, he has been this good all season long. In the 3rd period against Russia no Finnish player played 7 minutes, Olli Maatta played 8:18 of that period. That is quite the show of confidence in the youngster.
With all the injuries to Finnish forwards Jussi Jokinen was promoted to play on a line with his namesake Olli and Tuomu Ruutu. Selanne, Granlund, and Immonen will remain Finland’s top line.
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I proposed a playoff setup that would allow top seeded teams to choose their own opponents, here were the results of that proposal:
Thanks for reading!
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