canada russia in the finals....
someone said here that the russians will enjoy a crowd support. not true. first of all czechs hate russians. really hate. they'd rather support north koreans if they had the ice hockey team than the russians. they'd rather support slovakians than russians. it is not only politicl - it is a hockey hate. in the past - the days of soviet union - the most heated rivalry was between the czechs and the soviets. and the czechs mostly were beating the mighty soviets but usually losing to swedes who were losing to russians and the fins who were losing to everyone but the swedes - so the soviets were always at the advantage. 8 or 9 consecutive world championships in era when it really counted.
then came the nhl challenge games and the games in a row in world championship finals when it was always the thrill of 6-5 4-3 games till the last second of the ot's.
so, the russinas won't have any crowd support. anyways - average number of the attendants in games with russia stands at 8726 person per game while the canadians are only second to the czechs with 16220. almost twice as many.
so, home crowd advantage as well as the ice rink familiarity at q2 arena is not on russia's side.
now, i am following this thread from day one and anted to write few times but thought that it won't be fair to be half attentive and preach here while i was all busy with nba circus. since the hockey is among the few sports left where the vegas and other influences are minimal and we can still enjoy the sports - i had to clear my had to contribute here.
so, some said here that the weak spot of canada is goaltending - not true according to the numbers and recent games especially.
canada only conceded 14 goals in the whole 9 games with 3 shot outs.
russia conceded 18 with so's.
canada scored 60 (!!!), russia 39.
canada beat the local team the czhechs twice in 10 days (!!!) shutting them out in semis 2-0.
russia beat usa revenging on the first round loss (4-0).
russians are strong but their leading scorers are mozyakin and dadonov with 11 points at the places 6 and 7 while the canadioans occupy first 4 spots (spezza with 14 followed by hall, eberle and duchene all with 12 points).
in addition - canada is the only team in the tournament so far to win all games and win them in regulation time. they have a shot at 1,000,000 swiss franks (more or less 1,000,000$)
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