Finland has no choice but to play a strict system...and relatively speaking....the systems are beating the stars at this tourney so far. Gotta admit....it would be really nice to see Teemu wrap up his career with a gold medal. I'm guessing that might be the main reason he decided to play another season. What an incredible career that guy's had....and he seems to be one of the most well-liked guys too.
Offensive zone cycling is not working. The rink is too wide to cycle along the boards in a way that results in quality chances. You really have to score on the rush which is why I think Kessel is having so much success. Like we talked about before....I think teams have to do alot more circling. If the rush doesn't look good then reload. There were times in the Canada/Latvia game where we had a cycling-type possession in the offensive zone and I really wanted them to pass the puck back to their goalie and reload for the rush. They just weren't generating chances. The euro teams know how to contain the cycle to the outside. It's second-nature to them. The blue line being closer to the net makes matters worse. So the offensive zone is both wider and shorter....I think both those things combined basically kill the cycling strategy. And let's face it....Canada's whole style of play since the beginning of time has been heavy on cycling. With all that in mind....Duschene should definitely replace Tavares. They need another rush guy.
It's interesting...alot of canadian analysts are saying that Canada might be better off playing the US cause neither team is used to the game format. Perhaps the states won't be able to neutralize our cycling like the other teams have. So there's an argument that they should stay the course for the next game and then make changes for the gold/bronze game.
What do you think the States need to do? Not sure if they should change anything at this point. I'd say they're the favorite at this point...then Finland, Canada and Sweden respectively. One thing's for sure in my mind though...this is the last nhl olympics so the US won't have another shot at gold.