We're a few hours before puck drop on night 2 of round 3. Now's a good time to nominate the Conn Smythe Trophy candidates for each remaining team:
- Jaroslav Halak, Montreal - Mike Cammalleri is having a great post-season, too. But there can be no doubt that the Slovakian goaltender is the playoffs MVP so far.
- Jonathan Toews, Chicago - Antti Niemi has been very good in getting the job done in Chicago. But of all of Chicago's star players, it is Toews, the 2010 playoffs leading scorer, that has risen his game the most.
- Joe Pavelski, San Jose - Where would the Sharks be without Little Joe? Time and again he has played spring hero out west.
- Mike Richards, Philadelphia - While Danny Briere has quietly had strong playoffs, leading the team in scoring, it is Richards who stirs the drink in Philly. His Time On Ice is huge (over 22 minutes as a forward), and always in key situations. 12 of Richards' 17 points have come on the road, too.
Here's some more Slap Shots from the World Championships in Germany:
- Over at the World Championships, Canada lost again, this time 3-2 to Czech Republic. This is turning into a bit of an embarrassment, although most Canadians don't care too much about the Worlds.
- It could be worse. Team USA's tournament is already over, and they finished 13th out of 16 teams. They were perilously close to a 15th or 16th place finish. Had they not beaten Italy in a shootout, they would have been relegated to the B Pool for next year.
- I still think the future for USA hockey is brighter than ever. They will be serious contenders at every international tourney for years to come. The arriving generation is something special.
- Canada now has to play a revved up Russian team in a win or go home scenario. This will be like the Soviet Red Army vs. Father Bauer's or Dave King's national team. There's not much hope of actually winning this game for the Canadians. Russia has won 25 consecutive games at the Worlds.
- Mark Messier has called out his team, saying they need to play with more heart. As a Vancouver fan, I will always question the leadership role of Mark Messier no matter where he goes now, including here at the Worlds.
As always, join me for more thoughts and conversation on Twitter
@HockeyLegends.
2 comments:
"Had they not beaten Italy in a shootout, they would have been relegated to the B Pool for next year."
I don't think the Americans were as close to relegation as that. A single point garnered from an OT loss would have been sufficient.
Even a regulation loss to Italy probably wouldn't have relegated the Americans -- it would have resulted into a three-way tie with Italy and France, and on goal differential USA would still have advanced unless Italy had pulled off a miraculous 8 goal victory.
But no question, the fact that the US was in the relegation round -- pretty shocking.
Incidentally, all the USA games were televised (some live, some on same day delay) by Universal Sports, including all three relegation matches. I wasn't sure whether they would actually show relegation round games -- it was sort of a novelty, although the 10-0 Kazakhstan game was pretty dull.
Jeremy
Canada´s embarassment? Of course. But not because of couple of losses. It´s because of very low level of emotional intelligence canadian players show when losing games. Unless they learn how to accept losses, they´ll get little respect here in Europe.
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