Euro Hockey Tour Finals

[ch_nl]

I don't know if north american gives this a tought but after Rozno Cup in Russia, Karjala Cup in Finlad, Czeska Tournament in Czech Republic and Sweden Hockey Games it's time for the finals in Euro Hockey Tour.

Sweden face Russia and the first final has allready been played in Globe Arena, Sweden. Russia won 2-1. Good game from both teams.

Kovalchuck and Malkin scored for Russia while the swedish goal was scored by Henrik Sedin.

Right now Russia has a solid 5-2 lead in Moscow and I haven't seen a Russian team this good in a lot of years. Their speed is amazing. Alexander Semin, Evengi Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuck, Alexei Kovalev and Alexander Ovechkin have som real good moments. It's almost like the good old days.

Markov are playing but the russian defenders aren't participating in the game. They check high and wins the puck and with great speed they crash the net. As I see it this team might challenge Canada for the gold medal in the world championship.

You have been warned.

[Doktor Kosmos]

I agree that the Russian forwards played very well, but if the Russian team has a waekness then it is their defence. I've never thought that Sokolov is reliable. Sometimes he plays well, but he's got a a tendency to be shaky at times. And I don't think the Russian defenders are too good. Furthermore, as great as the Russian forwards are at playing in the offensive zone, as negligant they are in their own zone. Ovechkin, Malkin, Kovalchuk etc have a lot to learn in that department. If you can put pressure on them for longer periods of time, they will get insecure and nervous.

Slightly off topic---> Like some of you guys know, I also post regularly on a Pittsburgh Penguins board. On that board, a lot of die-hard Pens fans do their best to make it seem as if the Penguins would have chosen Malkin if they had won the #1 draft choice. I must say that so far, Ovechkin is clearly the more interesting player. Malkin looks good, sure, but at the moment only an idiot would have chosen Malkin ahead of Ovechkin.

Back to the game. I must say that although the Russian offense worked well, I am disappointed in the Swedish play. Granted, it's difficult to beat the Russians in Moscow, but I still think especially defensively, the Swedish players didn't force the Russians to pay a high price to get scoring chances. The Swedish defencemen tried to be too creative, if you know what I mean. Too often the overplayed the situation where they could have just chosen safety first and either (depending on the situation) clear the puck along the boards, play the puck quickly to the forwards or dump the puck deep into the Russian zone. They were too slow on their skates, they were too slow in their thoughts and their were too slow with their hands. I can't see why coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson should chose Tomas Rhodin or Magnus Johansson ahead of Jonas Frögren and/or Sanny Lindström. Mattias Norström was by far the best Swedish defenseman, and he did what he always does; played a physical game defensively and offensively not making the plays more difficult than they are.

[ch_nl]

Jonas Frögren? What?

I think Sanny Lindström could go as the seventh defencemen but we need at least two good poweplay defencemen. Magnus Johansson and Thomas Rhodin.

And about Russia, why would they need defencemen when their offensive play was as good as their was during this games?