zomgwtf said:
This statement is only partially true. Team Sweden may be better than Russia is right now... That's the only truth to it. (not that it particularly matters. should have waited for this game to finish. slovakia is not a team to underestimate)
Do you even watch hockey?
You should back up your statement on why you think Miller is a better goaltender than Nabokov. http://www.nhl.com/ice/app Check out the stats yourself. Even Ilya is comparable to Miller with 6 shut outs a .920 SV% and they are pretty even W-L. Some backing up on why USAs defense is the best would be nice too...
The real question is, do YOU even watch hockey? Or are you one of these stat buffs that only judges players by their stats alone? Sorry, there are no statistics to measure things like "clutch performances", defensive awareness, or back checking abilities. Nabokov is extremely overrated, ask lots of San Jose Sharks fans. He can NEVER come up clutch when the Sharks need it the most, hence the 1st rd exits the Sharks have had in the NHL playoffs as number 1 seeds multiple times. Nabokov hides his mediocrity every year through his W/L record and GAA, which are both functions of how good your team is. Look at Nabokov's Sv%, he's fluctuated since 2003 from anywhere from top 10 in the NHL, to anywhere in the 30s. He's hardly the consistent goaltender that he is made out to be. Ryan Miller still has career Sv% better than Nabokov, however, I will concede that he still has much more to prove. He needs to win when it matters the most, in the playoffs. He's still young though. Most goaltenders don't reach their prime until they are in their 30s. Ryan Millers is approaching his peak. He's also proven thus far that he can come up clutch when he is needed (see USA v Canada). Bryzlagov is a good goalie, however, he wasn't Russia's no. 1 goaltender. Russia should have went with him instead of Nabokov.
Some backing up on why USAs defense is the best would be nice too...
Here I went through the stats on defense for you just comparing Canada and USA:
The only way to see about USAs defense is through the olympics stats... Americas defense is +19 vs Canadas defense of +26... Canadas defense has no players playing negatively and only 2 players at or under +2... America has 1 player in the negative and they have 4 players playing at or under +2. Team USA defense has 11 pts with only 3 players with points. Team Canada has 24pts with all players having pts... I do not see how you can make the statement that USA has the best defense when it is clear they don't.
You can even compare shots on net between Canada and Russia vs. Canada and USA. 42-28 and 45-23 respectively.
Once again, stats don't tell the whole story. Of course Canada's defense is going to look better stat wise in the +/- category when their offense is winning games with scores like 7-3 while the US is only winning games 2-0. Like I said before, stats on websites don't measure things like defensive awareness, number of hits, and number of blocked shots which are all more important IMO for defensemen than scoring goals and putting up lots of assists. You can only know this if you actually watch a lot of hockey, not just by looking at statistics. A defensemen's job should be defense first, scoring second. Don't get me wrong, Canada has good defensemen like Seabrook and Pronger, but they also have a lot of offensive oriented defensemen, which IMO is overrated. It is a fallacy to say which defense is better than which based on offensive oriented stats like +/- and pts scored by defensemen. The real value of defensemen come from how well they block shots, hit, and don't turn over the puck. I played hockey. Guys who can block a ton of shots and get in the way of passing lanes are going to stifle a team much more than a defensemen who can score a goal or an assist every once in a while. Team USA had what, 25+ blocked shots against Switzerland? That is outstanding. It makes it difficult to to assess how well defenses are doing because no website keeps track of hits, blocked shots, and turn overs for the olympics.
Look at the NJ Devils. In stat categories like +/-, A, G their defensemen appear to be nothing special. But that's because those categories are less important for defensemen. The NJ Devils routinely make the playoffs and basically had a dynasty going with mediocre offense and stifling defenses. They don't need to score a ton of points in order win. Stat wise their defensemen are always nothing special, but they are good because they clog up shooting and passing lanes, don't turn the puck over often, block lots of shots, and have very good back checking. Stat buffs mistakenly overlook abilities such as these when judging players.
