Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
TNA is in the same group as Russia, Sweden, and Finland. Why wouldn't you cheer for them?
It's highly unlikely that they'll ever even play Canada. In order for TNA and Canada to play each other, they'd both have to finish top-two in their pools and then they'd meet either in the semi-final or final.
It's funny when you think that originally, everyone thought that the weak link for North America would be their goaltending, and Chiarelli and Bowman actually asked for an age extension for their goalies because they didn't think they'd be able to get a good enough one with the 23 year-old age limit. Now, they're the only team in the World Cup with a goalie who's still playing in the Stanley Cup Final.
It's also funny that there's been so much talk in recent years about the lack of quality Canadian goalies, and yet all 4 of the remaining goalies in the playoffs are Canadian and none of them made Team Canada.
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The demise of Canadian goaltending was greatly exaggerated. I think a lot of the insecurity was rooted in Brodeur declining/retiring and Luongo no longer being the clear heir apparent to the mantle of best Canadian goalie in the world. We didn't know if we had an ace in the hole like Lundqvist or Rask.
Then Price became Price, and you had Crawford and Holtby ascend into the ranks of the elite. All of a sudden, there's three + guys who can conceivably start and win you a best-on-best tournament, and nobody's quite as worried about the state of goaltending development in this country.