Canada vs USA - 4 nations Cup Canada - Cup Final 8pm Thursday! Revenge will be served ice cold.
- Thread starter MikelArteta
- Start date
The way he brutalized Kris Draper's face
Cheek looking like Hasim Rahman's forehead
Soldier
not redeemed with gold but with His Blood
@thatrapsfan
@MikelArteta
@BlackXCL
Canada’s goaltending is not as good as it used to, there’s no Roberto Luongo and Carey Price like in the two last best on best international competitions to save us winter the last two winter Olympics(2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi)
This 4 nations face off tournament is eerily similar to 1996 World Cup of hockey…Canadian hockey just like right now was in a transition period and we lost to the Yanks who iced their best team in their history
Richter outplayed Cujo big time in the 1996 World Cup of hockey final
en.m.wikipedia.org
@MikelArteta
@BlackXCL
Canada’s goaltending is not as good as it used to, there’s no Roberto Luongo and Carey Price like in the two last best on best international competitions to save us winter the last two winter Olympics(2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi)
This 4 nations face off tournament is eerily similar to 1996 World Cup of hockey…Canadian hockey just like right now was in a transition period and we lost to the Yanks who iced their best team in their history
Richter outplayed Cujo big time in the 1996 World Cup of hockey final
1996 World Cup of Hockey - Wikipedia
@thatrapsfan
@MikelArteta
@BlackXCL
Canada’s goaltending is not as good as it used to, there’s no Roberto Luongo and Carey Price like in the two last best on best international competitions to save us winter the last two winter Olympics(2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi)
This 4 nations face off tournament is eerily similar to 1996 World Cup of hockey…Canadian hockey just like right now was in a transition period and we lost to the Yanks who iced their best team in their history
Richter outplayed Cujo big time in the 1996 World Cup of hockey final
1996 World Cup of Hockey - Wikipedia
still canada has the two best players in the league mackinnon and mcdavid
the thing that always burns canada is roster selction
drew doughty been in jured all year has played 6 games and has 1 point and they have dude playing all these minutes when hes washed
taking that bum ass tampa bay line (outside of point) instead of guys like bedard and scheiffele
why do you need cirelli, sam bennett and hagel
thatrapsfan
Superstar
I remember watching this tournament as a kid. Hype was huge at the time. Richter wasn’t far removed from 1994 Cup. So many household names@thatrapsfan
@MikelArteta
@BlackXCL
Canada’s goaltending is not as good as it used to, there’s no Roberto Luongo and Carey Price like in the two last best on best international competitions to save us winter the last two winter Olympics(2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi)
This 4 nations face off tournament is eerily similar to 1996 World Cup of hockey…Canadian hockey just like right now was in a transition period and we lost to the Yanks who iced their best team in their history
Richter outplayed Cujo big time in the 1996 World Cup of hockey final
1996 World Cup of Hockey - Wikipedia
I remember watching this tournament as a kid. Hype was huge at the time. Richter wasn’t far removed from 1994 Cup. So many household names
Early nineties NHL was just as popular as the NBA but they blew it
Soldier
not redeemed with gold but with His Blood
That's Team Canada for you. They will go for the corporate players/established players over the fresh blood Everytime. Jon Cooper is the lightning coach, he has deep loyalty to his own players, that’s why Cirelli and hagel are on the roster. Team Canada management has a good old boy corporate mentality, they hate taking risks and prefer to keep it safe with proven veterans
These players are past their prime but they still chose them because they trust their winning experience in elite international competitions like this. They believe they can win again with these old players.
Team Canada management in the Turin 2006 Olympics selected Todd bertuzzi, Shane doan and Ryan smith instead of two young players, phenomenal rookie center Sidney Crosby and elite center Jason Spezza who both were leading the league in scoring at the time, if I recall correctly.
Nagano took Rob zamuner over Mark Messier
2006 took Kris draper over Crosby
2014 played Dan hamhuis over pk Subban
Mark scheifelle 3rd in goals not on the team
Look at team USA they didn't take Patrick kane, John Carlson
Canada continues to take grit and sandpaper, and old guys over the best
Bettman showed his lack of business acumen by having a lockout after the Rangers 94 Cup Win. All time dumb fumble of momentum, clear he was only there to get a cap and failed miserably until nobody cared about the NHL.
Soldier
not redeemed with gold but with His Blood
Warning
It’s popular to rag on the Rob Zamuner selection made by team Canada, but I think it’s unfair. I know on paper that selection doesn’t make any sense. Taking Rob Zamuner over Paul Kariya/Mark Messier/Pierre Turgeon/Doug Gilmour/Vincent Damphousse ? What a ridiculous decision.
but you have to look back at the era and study and understand the context. The 1996-97 and early part of the 1997-98 season saw a huge emphasis placed on defensive ability and everything else that you’d want a defensive forward to do. Remember, the 1996/97-2004 period of NHL history was the dead puck era. The 1990s Expansion to the non-traditional hockey markets like California, Arizona, Tennessee and Florida that diluted the talent pool in the league and shaky individual franchise economics allowed the emergence of the dead puck era too. It was cheaper and easier for most teams, especially financially struggling franchises located in less than desirable cities to build a team full of talentless but hard working defensive players than build a team with high end talent. It’s hard to find, draft, develop and financially retain talented offensive players for any team anyway, doubly so for poor teams in undesirable free agent destinations like Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary etc.
The Devils winning the stanley cup in 1995 and especially the low-skilled/offensively challenged panthers making a Cinderella cup run to the finals in 1996 also helped to make the trap and defensive-oriented hockey trendy.
Referees didnt call obvious penalties like obstruction, hooking, interference as much as before etc. Didn’t help that a vocal set of people among the nhl thought the referees should let the players play without calling everything in the book.
As a result of all these things, hooking/obstruction/interference/holding/grabbing increased and scoring dried up big time after 1997. Goaltenders dominated the league back then (Dominik Hasek was easily the most dominant player in hockey during that time, between 1993 and 2002, he won straight 2 Hart MVP trophies in 1998 and 1999, 6 Vézina trophies as best goaltender of the year, 1 Olympic gold medal in 1998 Nagano, and 1 Stanley cup with Detroit in 2002. )Teams with strong enough Defense and elite goaltending could succeed by grinding and trapping opposing teams to death. The official gameplan for most teams back then was : wait for their opponents to make mistakes and take advantage of them. Rope a dope counter attack tactics. Pack as many players in the neutral zone and patiently wait for the other teams to turn the puck over. The more aggressive teams would put pressure on the opposing puck carriers. A very slow and boring but effective brand of hockey to win. Only a few teams in the league- for example Colorado under Bob Hartley and Toronto under Pat Quinn played a open-ice, quick, free-wheeling offense-first style of hockey. Of course even these teams had elite goalies to bail them out when they took too many risks(cujo/belfour and patrick roy) The other teams used the neutral zone trap and were defense-first.
Rob Zamuner could kill penalties like crazy, and his scoring had finally come around. In 1996-97, on a terrible Tampa Bay Lightning team that missed the playoffs by double digits, he produced 17 goals and 33 assists - none of which was on the power play. It was 50 points scored the hard way, all at even strength and on the penalty kill.
In addition, the Canadians were putting together a team that had two goals: keep up on the big Olympic sized ice, and beat the Americans. Team Canada’s defeat in the 1996 World Cup to team USA was still very fresh in their minds, they obviously wanted revenge for that. They also accurately saw that Team USA put together an actual team with chemistry and proper parts instead of just taking the best players available, and role players excelling at that role for team USA made all the difference in the 1996 tournament. Canada’s 1998 Olympic team was assembled with an eye toward that type of construction. Bobby Clarke wanted to beat them with their own playbook and beat them at their own game.
Rob Zamuner brought to team Canada elite PK ability, speed, counterattack punch, shutdown defensive skill, a bit of offense, and leadership. He was a tall and big true defensive specialist in a time when these kind of players were highly wanted and valued by all teams in the league. That’s exactly the type of player that any team would want even today, and the opportunity to throw him out there against opposing star forwards and be able to rely on him defensively is pretty valuable.
The problem is that Canada didn’t win gold in the 1998 gold medal game because they were denied that day by a dominik hasek in his prime. and every selection that wasn’t made was turned very quickly into “Player X wasn’t taken because they took Rob Zamuner”. And the contrast of the triumphant and spectacular 2002 gold medal winning team who won the gold in the following winter Olympics also made the 1998 team look bad by comparaison. It’s totally dishonest, but it’s been two decades and it shows no signs of being re-examined. Maybe it’s time that the narrative changes. Zamuner was ultimately a product of his time and environnment and he shouldnt be the scapegoat for that loss to the Czechs in the 1998 olympics. If Marc Crawford, the head coach of team Canada, put the great one, Wayne Gretzky in the shootout they still might have won anyway with or without Zamuner . Instead he decided to not put him (Gretzky) in there and the czechs won as a result. You always send your best/ most skilled firward in the shootout….what a terrible decision by Crawford.
Last edited:
Didn't watch .. .. ,- highlights this morning
CACanada got their ass kicked
And lost
CACanada Ben treated like bytches they are last couple weeks .
Keep booing the anthem
Fun is over brehs
lol
The God Poster
LWO representa
Nitro Tuggle
All Star
BOOOOOO
