The Cobra
01-05-2011, 04:15 PM
Cobra....
Who came in third? Who came in second? Who will remember?---NO ONE. Canada still singing the laurels of their incredible game with the USA should do well to remember that they aren`t finished yet and not a soul will remember their great game of a couple days ago---if they lose today. That`s sports !----"you`re only as good as your last game" will hold true today. And we`re that good. .........GO CANADA
As per Bob McKenzie..................TSN
Heading into the gold medal game at the World Junior Championships, head coach Dave Cameron, his staff and the entire Team Canada cannot afford to take their eyes off the prize and start thinking of themselves as favourites. They have one more game to win and it's against a very good Russian hockey team.
This is a group that had Canada tied 3-3 going into the third period of the first game of the preliminary round on Boxing Day. So Canada knows they're up against a formidable opponent.
The Canadians are going to have to employ basically the same gameplan that Brent Sutter used back in 2005 and 2006. During those tournaments, Alexander Ovechkin was physically targeted,literally taken out of the game, and a year later Team Canada heaped all kinds of physical abuse on Evgeni Malkin.
The same sort of approach is going to be used against the Russian skill players like Yevgeni Kuznetsov and Vladimir Tarasenko.
From Russia With Love
I don't want to say the Russians are a team of destiny, but it's interesting what's happened with the Russians since the Olympics.
Think about Canada-Russia at the Olympics, that was an absolute disaster in Russia. Russian hockey hasn't really been the same since, Ovechkin hasn't played well since then, Malkin's been up and down, Ilya Kovalchuk's had a bad run of it.
This group looked like they were going to get knocked out in the quarter-finals by Finland, then they have this unlikely comeback and get that extra layer of skin. Then they go up against Sweden, and again look like they are going to get knocked out and the next thing here they are against Canada.
Now everybody is going to write them off and everybody's going to say Canada's the favourite and that may well be true, but this looks like an emotional group of Russian kids that feel like they've got a chance to do soemthing special here. It won't make up for what happened in the Olympics, you can't erase that until Sochi, but it's a proud moment for those kids and they want to try to make this something special.
This Russian team, when they stand on their blue line and they belt out their anthem they way that they do, you can see the pride that they have and the chemistry that they have. They do have something special going on here and that's something Canada is going to have to guard against because that kind of thing can go a long way with a hockey team.
Pressure Treated
You have almost a Cinderella story happening with both with Russian team and with their goaltender Dmitri Shikin.
First it was 30-plus shots against Finland in the overtime win. Then 40-plus shots against Sweden and perfect in the shootout. That's a terrific job by a goaltender who most people hadn't even heard of when the tournament began.
Every time you go through a game like the Russians' win against the Fins or the Swedes, you get that little extra thick layer of tough skin that puts you in a good situation for dealing with gold medal pressure.
Who came in third? Who came in second? Who will remember?---NO ONE. Canada still singing the laurels of their incredible game with the USA should do well to remember that they aren`t finished yet and not a soul will remember their great game of a couple days ago---if they lose today. That`s sports !----"you`re only as good as your last game" will hold true today. And we`re that good. .........GO CANADA
As per Bob McKenzie..................TSN
Heading into the gold medal game at the World Junior Championships, head coach Dave Cameron, his staff and the entire Team Canada cannot afford to take their eyes off the prize and start thinking of themselves as favourites. They have one more game to win and it's against a very good Russian hockey team.
This is a group that had Canada tied 3-3 going into the third period of the first game of the preliminary round on Boxing Day. So Canada knows they're up against a formidable opponent.
The Canadians are going to have to employ basically the same gameplan that Brent Sutter used back in 2005 and 2006. During those tournaments, Alexander Ovechkin was physically targeted,literally taken out of the game, and a year later Team Canada heaped all kinds of physical abuse on Evgeni Malkin.
The same sort of approach is going to be used against the Russian skill players like Yevgeni Kuznetsov and Vladimir Tarasenko.
From Russia With Love
I don't want to say the Russians are a team of destiny, but it's interesting what's happened with the Russians since the Olympics.
Think about Canada-Russia at the Olympics, that was an absolute disaster in Russia. Russian hockey hasn't really been the same since, Ovechkin hasn't played well since then, Malkin's been up and down, Ilya Kovalchuk's had a bad run of it.
This group looked like they were going to get knocked out in the quarter-finals by Finland, then they have this unlikely comeback and get that extra layer of skin. Then they go up against Sweden, and again look like they are going to get knocked out and the next thing here they are against Canada.
Now everybody is going to write them off and everybody's going to say Canada's the favourite and that may well be true, but this looks like an emotional group of Russian kids that feel like they've got a chance to do soemthing special here. It won't make up for what happened in the Olympics, you can't erase that until Sochi, but it's a proud moment for those kids and they want to try to make this something special.
This Russian team, when they stand on their blue line and they belt out their anthem they way that they do, you can see the pride that they have and the chemistry that they have. They do have something special going on here and that's something Canada is going to have to guard against because that kind of thing can go a long way with a hockey team.
Pressure Treated
You have almost a Cinderella story happening with both with Russian team and with their goaltender Dmitri Shikin.
First it was 30-plus shots against Finland in the overtime win. Then 40-plus shots against Sweden and perfect in the shootout. That's a terrific job by a goaltender who most people hadn't even heard of when the tournament began.
Every time you go through a game like the Russians' win against the Fins or the Swedes, you get that little extra thick layer of tough skin that puts you in a good situation for dealing with gold medal pressure.