2025-2026 NHL Offseason

MayDay10

Ok, this game is pretty awesome

mrussel1

LFG HAGEL!

mrussel1

Lerxst1992 said:

mrussel1 said:

MayDay10 said:

eeriepadave said:

How come Russia isn’t in this 4 nations face off? I’m guessing it’s something political? Don’t feel like googling it. 

Missed last nights game between Canada and sweden. Looked like a great game though.

I believe they left them out because Ukraine.  


I watched last night.  Its a decent concept in lieu of an all star weekend...  but as far as pretending it is any sort of a serious international tournament, it is a farce.

Definitely because of Ukraine and the sanctions. It’s too bad though. Russia would definitely be a better challenge than Finland. 

Russia has not been at the world juniors for years because of the invasion. That’s a little off base about Finland, they are usually a force in international play. Ask the US kids if they were an easy out at WJs last month. 

Going into a tournament like this, with stacked lineups, without half your d, and unable to tap into the depth talent playing overseas is a huge disadvantage for Finland.


They are missing three key defensemen to injury and using only nhl players is a huge disadvantage as replacements have as little as 2 months nhl experience. They have better depth options unavailable because they’re  playing in Europe. A tight game got out of hand midway in the third.

yes this is not official IIHF but it’s real hockey and much better than any ASG and any of those “world championships” missing the majority of the best players every spring. There will be real passion, physical play and elite talent on ABC tonight at 8pm. And at 1pm. Check it out.

All of that is just reinforcing my point that Russia would have been better in this particular tournament. It’s not international play and the Russians have better NHL talent. The goal tending talent is ridiculous on its own. 

eeriepadave

Solid first period from both teams 

Vitalogensia

That was a lot of fun. 

F Me In The Brain

Yeah, 1st period was fire.  
Fun game.

MayDay10

1st period was great.  Rest of the game, so, so

Lerxst1992

mrussel1 said:

Lerxst1992 said:

mrussel1 said:

MayDay10 said:

eeriepadave said:

How come Russia isn’t in this 4 nations face off? I’m guessing it’s something political? Don’t feel like googling it. 

Missed last nights game between Canada and sweden. Looked like a great game though.

I believe they left them out because Ukraine.  


I watched last night.  Its a decent concept in lieu of an all star weekend...  but as far as pretending it is any sort of a serious international tournament, it is a farce.

Definitely because of Ukraine and the sanctions. It’s too bad though. Russia would definitely be a better challenge than Finland. 

Russia has not been at the world juniors for years because of the invasion. That’s a little off base about Finland, they are usually a force in international play. Ask the US kids if they were an easy out at WJs last month. 

Going into a tournament like this, with stacked lineups, without half your d, and unable to tap into the depth talent playing overseas is a huge disadvantage for Finland.


They are missing three key defensemen to injury and using only nhl players is a huge disadvantage as replacements have as little as 2 months nhl experience. They have better depth options unavailable because they’re  playing in Europe. A tight game got out of hand midway in the third.

yes this is not official IIHF but it’s real hockey and much better than any ASG and any of those “world championships” missing the majority of the best players every spring. There will be real passion, physical play and elite talent on ABC tonight at 8pm. And at 1pm. Check it out.

All of that is just reinforcing my point that Russia would have been better in this particular tournament. It’s not international play and the Russians have better NHL talent. The goal tending talent is ridiculous on its own. 

Im from NY and as u know we are loaded with Russian G talent on both teams. Outside of Ovie, I think a lot of fans would be surprised how there isn’t that much volume of skating talent from Russia in the league.

Surprisingly, there are only about 60 Russians and 50 Finns in the NHL, very comparable. This is because depth euro players tend to stay in Europe, which is a huge disadvantage in this tourney. If we had a real hockey broadcaster, this point would have been significantly emphasized. Instead, Americans were fed a lot of Finn bashing at the outset. Beating Sweden is no small task, and they’d probably go 5-5 if they played ten times.

 Yes Russians are better, but the Finns are not that far behind. They are an absolute beast of a hockey nation, and give everyone fits every year at the world juniors (the best annual international hockey imo). ESPN and some in the US media were unfortunately disrespecting Finland at the beginning of the tourney. 

(This article seems to undercount by country https://thehockeywriters.com/current-nhl-players-by-country/ )

HughFreakingDillon

1/10 of the population, 12% higher. That’s significant. 

Last night was a YUGE disappointment. 

Vitalogensia

Well, get ready for a rematch in Boston. 

mrussel1

Vitalogensia said:

Well, get ready for a rematch in Boston. 

Yeah what’s the point of the game tonight? Kind of a hole in the tournament structure. 

mrussel1

Lerxst1992 said:

mrussel1 said:

Lerxst1992 said:

mrussel1 said:

MayDay10 said:

eeriepadave said:

How come Russia isn’t in this 4 nations face off? I’m guessing it’s something political? Don’t feel like googling it. 

Missed last nights game between Canada and sweden. Looked like a great game though.

I believe they left them out because Ukraine.  


I watched last night.  Its a decent concept in lieu of an all star weekend...  but as far as pretending it is any sort of a serious international tournament, it is a farce.

Definitely because of Ukraine and the sanctions. It’s too bad though. Russia would definitely be a better challenge than Finland. 

Russia has not been at the world juniors for years because of the invasion. That’s a little off base about Finland, they are usually a force in international play. Ask the US kids if they were an easy out at WJs last month. 

Going into a tournament like this, with stacked lineups, without half your d, and unable to tap into the depth talent playing overseas is a huge disadvantage for Finland.


They are missing three key defensemen to injury and using only nhl players is a huge disadvantage as replacements have as little as 2 months nhl experience. They have better depth options unavailable because they’re  playing in Europe. A tight game got out of hand midway in the third.

yes this is not official IIHF but it’s real hockey and much better than any ASG and any of those “world championships” missing the majority of the best players every spring. There will be real passion, physical play and elite talent on ABC tonight at 8pm. And at 1pm. Check it out.

All of that is just reinforcing my point that Russia would have been better in this particular tournament. It’s not international play and the Russians have better NHL talent. The goal tending talent is ridiculous on its own. 

Im from NY and as u know we are loaded with Russian G talent on both teams. Outside of Ovie, I think a lot of fans would be surprised how there isn’t that much volume of skating talent from Russia in the league.

Surprisingly, there are only about 60 Russians and 50 Finns in the NHL, very comparable. This is because depth euro players tend to stay in Europe, which is a huge disadvantage in this tourney. If we had a real hockey broadcaster, this point would have been significantly emphasized. Instead, Americans were fed a lot of Finn bashing at the outset. Beating Sweden is no small task, and they’d probably go 5-5 if they played ten times.

 Yes Russians are better, but the Finns are not that far behind. They are an absolute beast of a hockey nation, and give everyone fits every year at the world juniors (the best annual international hockey imo). ESPN and some in the US media were unfortunately disrespecting Finland at the beginning of the tourney. 

(This article seems to undercount by country https://thehockeywriters.com/current-nhl-players-by-country/ )

Kucherov, Kaprizov, Svechnikov, Malkin, Tarasenko, Panarin…. 

Not arguing that it’s Canada but I feel like the Russians are deeper than the the Fins in the NHL. 

HughFreakingDillon

mrussel1 said:

Vitalogensia said:

Well, get ready for a rematch in Boston. 

Yeah what’s the point of the game tonight? Kind of a hole in the tournament structure. 

Hard to have sound tournament structure with only 4 teams. 😂 

F Me In The Brain

Yeah I think the game tonight is bogus at this point but it could have been important.  Too bad for those who were no doubt excited to go.  

(And agree, with 4 teams it is sorta tough to make the 'right' format.)

mrussel1

F Me In The Brain said:

Yeah I think the game tonight is bogus at this point but it could have been important.  Too bad for those who were no doubt excited to go.  

(And agree, with 4 teams it is sorta tough to make the 'right' format.)

I’m just hoping that Hedman and Guentzel don’t get hurt. Nothing good can come from a high speed exhibition game in February. 

Vitalogensia

I'm looking at this as a warm-up to the Olympics next year, so I think it's fun. Odd format for sure, but I think the competition has been better than expected.  Thursday will be electric. 

Poncier

F Me In The Brain said:

Yeah I think the game tonight is bogus at this point but it could have been important.  Too bad for those who were no doubt excited to go.  

(And agree, with 4 teams it is sorta tough to make the 'right' format.)

There was a way to have all the games meaningful. They could have flipped the start times, having USA/Sweden in the afternoon and Canada/Finland at night. That way Sweden has everything to play for but then knows it will need OT at night, and of course both Canada and Finland have it all on the line.
Would have messed the fans up though who had tix. But what they could (should?) have done was to have the start times for Monday's games be listed as TBA and once Saturday was completed announced them. That way fans would have known they had to wait to know whether their game was 1PM or 8PM.

MayDay10

Poncier said:

F Me In The Brain said:

Yeah I think the game tonight is bogus at this point but it could have been important.  Too bad for those who were no doubt excited to go.  

(And agree, with 4 teams it is sorta tough to make the 'right' format.)

There was a way to have all the games meaningful. They could have flipped the start times, having USA/Sweden in the afternoon and Canada/Finland at night. That way Sweden has everything to play for but then knows it will need OT at night, and of course both Canada and Finland have it all on the line.
Would have messed the fans up though who had tix. But what they could (should?) have done was to have the start times for Monday's games be listed as TBA and once Saturday was completed announced them. That way fans would have known they had to wait to know whether their game was 1PM or 8PM.

The better idea would be to have the final round-robin games at the same time.  

They could have had the games in 2-different markets, it wouldnt be a big deal.  They have a few days for travel anyways.

Not sure how large the viewing audience for the 1pm Monday Finland/Canada was in the US.  Probably not very

Johnny Abruzzo

I don't know how they go and do 3 points for a regulation win but stupidly go back to regular season NHL and only give 2 points, the same as an OT win. Just unbelievably dumb.

MayDay10

Johnny Abruzzo said:

I don't know how they go and do 3 points for a regulation win but stupidly go back to regular season NHL and only give 2 points, the same as an OT win. Just unbelievably dumb.

Its terrible and has been a point of annoyance with me for years.  

If this were NHL-style, there would be a 3-way tie with 4 points, and Finland would have 2 points.  

Having games weigh more in the standings than others makes me crazy.