Nitzy's Hockey Den

I have heard from a few people that they wish last night's Canada/ Russia game would have been closer, and were disappointed in the blowout. I could not disagree more, I was simply estatic with the whitewash of the Russians. In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined such an outcome and then I was surprised again later in the evening with the Slovakia victory over Sweden. Slovakia cannot be underestimated, but the results could not have been better overall for Canada. As well, Finland may very well beat the Americans. Myself, I have not been blown away by the U.S. so far. The near upset by the Swiss in the quarterfinals leaves me to think they are ripe for the picking by the Finns. I was at the surprisingly entertaining Belarus/ Switzerland Qualification game on Tuesday which the Swiss won in a shootout. I have been very impressed with attendance as even the noon games between less popular teams have been pretty close to sold out. Overall now I have seen the Swiss play three...

Well, here we go again. Canada is attempting to take the hard route to the medal round at the Olympics. It didn't work out so well in Torino. I'd like to say they ran into another hot goalie that stole the game (as was the case with Jonas Hiller of Switzerland), but honestly I wasn't all that impressed with Ryan Miller's play. He really didn't make an exceptional save (maybe once while spread eagle on his back in the third period). Miller simply seemed to have terrific postition making the Canadians seemingly hit him in the crest with most shots. The true difference was Martin Brodeur, he was definitely not up to par. Brodeur's puck-handling, usually one of his strong suits, was atrocious. On the second goal, he seemed to forget everything he has learned about the butterfly style of goaltending and opted for a 1979 style Mike Palmateer "two-pad stack". His baseball-style bat of the puck directly to Rafalski was highly uncharacteristic, and highly ill-...

Last night was perhaps one of the more entertaining games that I have ever personally attended. The atmosphere in the arena was electric from an hour before puckdrop, right through the game. I was able to get down to the glass for warm-ups and got some pretty good shots. Our seats weren't too bad either, a dozen rows up on the goal line. It's somewhat concerning that Canada couldn't quite get the powerplay going, and I really wish they'd start playing the body more. Playing Toews on the top line with Crosby and Nash was nice to see, and I really wish we'd see more of that combo. Doughty as well looked great for a kid his age, and I liked him getting some powerplay time. I have to say, I felt a lot more comfortable going into the shootout with Brodeur in net than if it was Luongo. Below is the sea of red on the way into the rink. Nice day in Vancouver as you can see, it was about 12 degrees at game time. Nice shot of Brodeur in warm up. Perry was the "puck-fr...

Pictured above is the view that my buddy Geoff and I had from our seats at the first Olympic hockey match. Overall, the game was not too bad and had alot more hitting than I would have expected. The U.S. seem to be a fairly physical bunch (at least against the smaller Swiss) with some nice big smacks delivered by the likes of Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan seemingly trying to stay out of the 13th forward slot through hard work and big hits. The second U.S. goal (David Backes blowing aound Swiss defender Yannick Weber before stuffing it past Hiller) was singled out by Bob McKenzie later in the evening as the goal of the night. It was an impressive goal, but I thought it was more a literal illustration of the talent differential between the teams. Backes, middle of the pack among the U.S. scoring threats coming down against perhaps Switzerland's second best blueliner Weber, looked like Mario Lemieux in his prime busting down the wing. There's a reason why Weber is still in the A...

Well, tomorrow is the opener of the Olympic hockey tournament, U.S.A. vs Switzerland and I'll be there watching. Looking forward to see if the Swiss can pull off another upset like they did in Torino when they beat Canada. Below are the top scoring forwards on each country's team since Jan 1. (GP-G-A-Pts) Canada Crosby 21 19 11 30 Marleau 21 13 10 23 Staal 19 12 11 23 Heatley 21 9 12 21 Getzlaf 18 7 13 20 Nash 21 9 11 20 Thornton 21 5 15 20 Iginla 22 7 12 19 Perry 22 6 12 18 Toews 21 7 9 16 Crosby's almost goal per game pace bodes well as does the San Jose trio coming in fairly hot. Iginla and Staal have picked up the pace of late with Staal having a somewhat surprising 12 goals in his last 19 games. And the coldest of Canada's forwards... Bergeron 15 1 6 7 Morrow 17 1 7 8 Richards 21 8 4 12 I have questioned the selection of Bergeron from the beginning, and I only hope Hockey Canada didn't make a mistake by including Crosby's old World Junior running mate. Bren...

I had lunch (a few beers) this week at Germany House, and yesterday at Ontario House. It's really quite surreal that after seven and a half years of anticipation, the Olympics are here. I checked out the rosters of the hockey teams that dwell outside of the Big Seven nations to find the stars of those teams. Norway Mathis Olimb ; plays with Frolunda in the Swedish Elite League and has 31 points in 48 games this season. Per-Age Skroder may be the Norwegians hidden gem, as he led the Swedish loop in scoring last season with 30 goals and 59 points playing for Modo. This season he has dropped off to 17 goals and 33 points in 47 games, but his mantle has been picked up by Modo and Norwegian team mate, Mats Zuccarello-Aasen . He has 51 points in 48 games to sit third in Elite League scoring. Another high-flying Nord is Tore Vikingstad (pictured above) who was a St.Louis sixth round pick in 1999. He currently has 55 points in 42 games for Hannover of the German League, good for third in...

One more chance to get in my Hockey Pool. Pick one player from each group,all games count (Qualification and Placement games too), most points wins. I'm heading to Short Track Speed Skating at the Pacific Coliseum this evening. Hoping to see Canada's first ever gold medal on home soil in the form of Charles Hamelin.

With a week to go before the Olympic tournament Team Canada may be faced with the prospect of replacing Ryan Getzlaf and his banged up ankle. A few days ago the U.S. replaced Mike Komisarek and Paul Martin with Ryan Whitney and Tim Gleason. Patrik Elias and Dan Boyle returned from 10 and 6 game layoffs this weekend, just in time to get a few games in before Vancouver. Lets check out who, among possible Olympic replacements has been the hottest since the new year. Canada Steven Stamkos In 17 games he has 11 goals, 13 assists for 24 points. Stamkos, in my mind should be the one called if Getzlaf is unable to go. Mike Green Having just served a three game suspension, Green has played 14 games scoring 4 goals and 11 assists since New Year's. He is an ideal replacement for one of Canada's offensively geared defenders such as Boyle or Doughty. Jeff Carter With 8 goals and 7 assists in 17 games, Carter may not be the hottest, but he was the last cut from the original roster selected b...

Here are the statistics for NHL goalies born in Canada since the start of the New Year. Minimum 10 games played. (GP W-L-OTL AVG) Martin Brodeur 17 8-8-1 2.44 Roberto Luongo 15 10-3-1 2.38 Marc-Andre Fleury 12 6-5-0 3.05 The three Olympians have been playing well if not spectacular. Luongo has the best numbers but has himself hardly been outstanding. This past weekend in Boston was the first time in a long while that the Canucks stole a win mainly due to Luongo. Brodeur's numbers are pedestrian for the likes of him. My theory on who starts game one of the Olympics is that Babcock will give Luongo the start in the first game against Norway to simply get it out of the way. Brodeur would then start against the Swiss and each subsequent game. I believe Babcock and the rest of Canada's brain-trust would like to roll with one 'tender, and they will after giving BobbyLu his one moment in the sun. So, if one of the Olympic three were to get hurt, who would be the injury replacement...

I wanted to check the career NHL stats of the 1980 Olympic hockey teams. Of course the Soviets and Czechs were not allowed to play in North America for almost a decade following Lake Placid, unless they were to defect. In fact of the seven Soviets who would play in the NHL only three played in more than one season. The Russians eventually came to the NHL by waiting out the fall of communism and the Czechoslovaks by mainly defecting (see Stastny's). There would be ten Czechs from the 1980 team to come to North America with six of them playing at least three seasons here (The Stastny's Three, Jiri Bubla, Miroslav Frycer and Jaroslav Pouzar). Each team's totals follow. The Russians are led by the late career jumps to the NHL by Sergei Makarov, Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov who came to North America in their late 20's. Of the seven Swedes to come to the NHL (a fairly low number explained by the fact that most of their top talent was already here), all would have fair...