I was all over Canada to take the Championship, this go-round, at +145. I added a bit more at +140 after a few profitable baseball plays.
I think that Canada has the best combination of experienced veterans (Sakic, Lemieux, Brodeur) and hungry youngsters (Heatley, Lecavalier, Richards, Thornton, Gagne) of the 8 clubs competing. Every other squad seems to have it's share of weaknesses coming into this tourney; brief synopsis of this can be found at...
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=NHL/misc/crashin_net.htm
Sweden probably has the best chance to match-up offensively, but I think they're going to be weak both in net AND on defense. U.S. probably goes in with a better defensive core, but they're goaltending may be suspect. I think that both the Ruskies and the Czechs can be blown out in this tourney. Germany is as dark a horse as they come
. I think that Finland or Slovakia could make some noise, but the Finns really aren't that deep, and true 'dark horse' Slovakia (as Pat Quinn recently called them for this tourney) recently lost the services of Bondra to injury, something that the Sportsnetwork article, referred to above, fails to mention due to this injury occuring subsequent to its penning (the article, that is, not the injury :scared ).
Good fortune in whatever riskatalias you will.
Go Kanata!
:canada1
I think that Canada has the best combination of experienced veterans (Sakic, Lemieux, Brodeur) and hungry youngsters (Heatley, Lecavalier, Richards, Thornton, Gagne) of the 8 clubs competing. Every other squad seems to have it's share of weaknesses coming into this tourney; brief synopsis of this can be found at...
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=NHL/misc/crashin_net.htm
Sweden probably has the best chance to match-up offensively, but I think they're going to be weak both in net AND on defense. U.S. probably goes in with a better defensive core, but they're goaltending may be suspect. I think that both the Ruskies and the Czechs can be blown out in this tourney. Germany is as dark a horse as they come
. I think that Finland or Slovakia could make some noise, but the Finns really aren't that deep, and true 'dark horse' Slovakia (as Pat Quinn recently called them for this tourney) recently lost the services of Bondra to injury, something that the Sportsnetwork article, referred to above, fails to mention due to this injury occuring subsequent to its penning (the article, that is, not the injury :scared ).Good fortune in whatever riskatalias you will.
Go Kanata!
:canada1
