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Post by Simey on Feb 23, 2010 10:50:47 GMT -5
Cheers for the positive comments, chaps! Spurs me on. I believe much will be decided if anyone gets two teams in the second half, or even heaven forbids - 0 teams. True, true. Though with this being a tournament with a knock-out section, there's little we can do about this. I doubt any one of us is going to lose both their teams before the quarter-finals - that would mean a major shock happening somewhere. And the four teams that go out are most likely those - like Latvia and Germany - that are picking up precious few points anyway. There will, of course, be four teams that play two extra matches - the semi-finals and the medals matches - so at least two of us are going to be down to zero teams by that point (I expect four of us will be represented, but if anyone stands any chance of getting both his teams through, I think it's Jan, given how strong Slovakia have been). Again, this is something that we can't avoid, but let's look at this as not only being a competition to see who wins, but to see where you come in the standings. The last semi-conclusion we came to was that all of the four teams making it into the quarter-finals automatically after the group stage would each be allocated the highest number of points scored by a team in any of the play-off games. But BC's idea is rather nice. It would basically give a last hurrah to those teams that get knocked out, whilst punishing the four teams that make it to the quarter-finals via the play-off matches for failing to go through automatically. It would mean that there'd be no interest in terms of points for the winning play-off teams, but their reward would simply be to stay in the tournament and thusly have the opportunity to gain more points in subsequent matches. Any opinions regarding those two - or indeed any other - ideas welcome, though preferably before another load of results are in. But given a free hand, I'd lean towards BC's suggestion.
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Post by Simey on Feb 23, 2010 12:25:05 GMT -5
We all six of us had interest in the final three group matches, so here's how things turned out.
Doomy's Russia hit the Czech Republic hard - quite literally - to earn a 4-2 victory. A new star flattened a famous old campaigner as an Alex Ovechkin hit - judged to be clean - floored Jaromir Jagr, breaking his helmet visor and causing a crucial turn over that led to a goal. "I made a turnover and it cost us the game," Jagr said. "I don't care about the check. The check always heals. The mistake doesn't heal." Ouch. Doom-laden stuff. Speaking of which, Doomy skates away with 7 points, whilst Jan's dazed Czech Republic up his total by only 1 point and try and regroup for their qualification match.
There was a bit of a shock in the weekend's biggest match as Canada lost 3-5 to the USA. The difference was largely down to the goalies - who really do play a hugely pivotal role in ice hockey, such is the number of shots on goal they typically face in a match - with the outcome of the game resting most heavily on the shoulders of Martin Brodeur, a legend in NHL goal-tending, but an erratic, error-prone performer during this match. Commentators were talking about whether he would be replaced by Vancouver-favourite Roberto Luongo before the end of the match, and the TV cameras started to show lingering shots of the back-up goalie sitting on the bench. But the change didn't come and the scoreline just got worse. ETB takes 7 points away from a match with Canada - impressive. BC gets just 2 points. And Martin Brodeur? He gets benched in favour of Luongo for Canada's qualification match against Germany.
Finland's goalie was the only thing they had going for them, Miikka Kiprusoff the only reason they didn't concede twice as many goals to Sweden. The final score was a surprisingly straightforward 3-0 to the Swedes who were once again solid, but not that spectacular. Spectacle was, however, unnecessary against a sluggish, indecisive Finnish side who couldn't even create any decent scoring chances during several five-on-three opportunities (two Swedish players having been sin-binned at the same time). To be the fourth ranked team in the world, the Finns surely have to be capable of better, and they had best go on to show it to avoid looking entirely undeserving of their automatic quarter-final berth. AS's home team net him a bizzarely easy 10 points, and a feeble Finland get me nothing.
I'm not sure I want to work this out, but here we go with some Current Standings:
Jan: 33 points Aguila Saber: 32 points Doomy: 31 points Black Cat: 29 points EvilTB: 24 points Simey: 19 points
I think this is the first time we've had eveyone's teams having played an equal number of matches, so it gives us the best idea of how things have gone so far. The top four are incredibly close at this stage - closer than you might have predicted with Canada and Russia involved. ETB is lagging a little, the quality performances of his USA having been countered by a fairly ineffective German challenge. And I'm way behind. My hopes were always resting firmly on Finland - Latvia not only being lowly ranked, but drawn in a frightening group - and the Finns did the easy bit well, but were fairly hopeless when faced with a stronger team. I'll need more - much more - from them if I'm to avoid losing touch completely.
The quarter-final qualification matches will be:
The Czech Republic vs. Latvia: this should be an easy one for the Czechs and could net Jan a big handful of points from what has so far - despite ranking - rather been his 'B Team'.
Canada vs. Germany: there'ws no way that Canada shouldn't return to winning ways in this match, and a decent performance from Roberto Luongo could see another opening-match-equalling haul of points for BC.
Slovakia vs. Norway: Jan's star performers are easily the favourites here. Can Norway make their close ranking tell?
Switzerland vs. Belarus: probably the most interesting match of the qualification round, the 7th and 8th ranked teams could provide a really competitive show. Doomy's probably the most likely to come away with a good number of points, but BC's Belarus will be no pushover for the Swiss.
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Post by Doomy on Feb 23, 2010 12:35:14 GMT -5
'Mon the Swiss!
Thanks for another entertaining and informative update Simey.
Since I know bugger all I'll be dense and ask: The teams not playing qualifiers are already through?
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Post by Simey on Feb 23, 2010 13:13:09 GMT -5
Yeah, the whole lot of 'em have been ranked together in after the group stage - no note is taken of what group they were in, just their points and goal difference. The top four - the USA, Sweden, Russia and Finland - get a 'bye' into the quarter-finals. The rest have to play one more match to qualify with the 5th ranked playing 12th ranked, 6th playing 11th, and so on. Take a look at the table towards the bottom of this page to see how they've all lined up after the group stage. Don't ask me what 'D' means in their ranking order though - I'd have thought a number would be enough. Further convoluted calculations will no doubt decide who plays who in the quarter-finals.
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Post by jan on Feb 23, 2010 13:51:26 GMT -5
Again, an excellent post, Simey! The "D" perhaps stands for the "D group" - A, B, C and D, see? Erm, so everyone knows how to calculate the following matches, right? So then it's OK, because I don't.
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Post by Simey on Feb 23, 2010 14:01:54 GMT -5
Erm, so everyone knows how to calculate the following matches, right? So then it's OK, because I don't. Well, it's either this: All of the four teams making it into the quarter-finals automatically after the group stage would each be allocated the highest number of points scored by a team in any of the play-off games.Or this: Count points for teams losing their qualification game but not for the winning teams that are going to play in the quarter-final.I'll go with the latter unless anyone disagrees.
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Post by Doomy on Feb 23, 2010 14:10:54 GMT -5
I like the latter rule better. It makes more sense.
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Post by Black Cat on Feb 23, 2010 17:16:24 GMT -5
Since it's my suggestion, let's go with the second one: count only the points for the losing team in this qualification round. Like that, everyone will have the same number of matches counted by the end of the quarter-final round (that's 8 games each). After that round, only the best teams will still earn you points. If your team is eliminated, that means you did a bad choice when picking your teams! ;D
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Post by Doomy on Feb 23, 2010 23:14:34 GMT -5
Belarus - GONE! Switzerland - THROUGH!
I get to keep both of my teams for another round!
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Post by jan on Feb 24, 2010 4:43:29 GMT -5
Damn. This means that I got no points. Damn. Does that mean that if both my teams were eliminated in the quarter-final, I would receive no more points? Damn. I have a bad feeling about this.
But - uffff - Czech Republic and Slovakia made it to the play off, but it was pretty close in both instances. Too close, I would say. And Jagr seems to be injured. Damn.
OK, today will be the decisive day. Czech Republic goes against Finland and Slovakia against Sweden. I have a very bad feeling about both matches. USA is in the best position against Switzerland, and - wow!: Russia - Canada. This is going to be a "premature" final match!
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Post by Doomy on Feb 24, 2010 8:53:17 GMT -5
So what are your predictions for Russia v Canada? Seems the smart money says the winner of this one gets the gold.
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Post by jan on Feb 24, 2010 9:21:07 GMT -5
I hope Canada wins. I mean - I hope Russia doesn't win. And it's not because of you, Doomie, but because of Russia. And, yeah - the winner of this match should win gold.
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Post by Black Cat on Feb 24, 2010 17:37:56 GMT -5
The US won 2-0 against the Swiss... What a shock it would had been if the Swiss had won.
Canada-Russia... After yesterday's game, people are saying that Canada starts to look like the team that won the gold medal in 2002: not a great first round, but with the chemistry between the players coming together quite nicely, they can tackle any opposition. We'll see...
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Post by Simey on Feb 25, 2010 0:57:41 GMT -5
I know the quarter-finals are by now almost complete, but I just have time to quickly update the points from the qualification games. Remember, only the losing team score points. Going by the alternative rule, Canada and all the teams that qualified automatically would have taken a big 8 points, so I think everyone's better off this way. Switzerland 3 - Belarus 2 = Black Cat 4 pointsCanada 8 - Germany 2 = EvilTB 1 pointCzech Republic 3 - Latvia 2 = Simey 4 pointsSlovakia 4 - Norway 3 = Aguila Saber 2 pointsCurrent Standings:Aguila Saber: 34 points Jan: 33 points Black Cat: 33 points Doomy: 31 points EvilTB: 25 points Simey: 23 pointsWill be back for update for the quarter-finals in about....16 hours.
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Post by Black Cat on Feb 25, 2010 1:30:03 GMT -5
The Czech Republic is out! They lost 2-0 to Finland. And what's happening to Sweden? They are currently trailing 2-1 against Slovakia!*
Wow! Did you see Canada giving a hockey lesson to Russia? The last time a Russian team allowed 6 goals or more during an Olympic game was in 1960 when Canada got their only victory against the USSR in the Olympics. Like I said earlier, the Canadian team looks more and more like the one who won in 2002. We'll see what will happen in the next round.
*As I write this, Sweden just tied the game 2-2.**
**As I write this second annotation, Slovakia took the lead again, 3-2.
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