The Wrestling Talk Forums - View Single Post

jpv · 05-19-2008, 05:56 PM

Tretiak was a product of playing for an unbelievable team. I've seen him play a number of times (on tape of course) and he doesn't impress me from a goaltending standpoint. I should add the caveat that he played in a very different era where goalies played a very different, stand-up, style. He very rarely saw more than 15-20 shots in a game, and most of those were not high-quality scoring chances. I'm not talking smack, obviously those around him revered him, people who did a lot more in their hockey career than 2 years playing JV goalie at a private college (like me) :-D. It's just my opinion.

Overall, I'm starting to like your argument about Russian hockey, Big. At least I see where you're coming from. I think the Russian league will never be competition for the NHL in terms of drawing the very top Russian players (such as Ovechkin). Even if they occasionally pay NHL salaries, there will never be the same exposure and prestige of playing in the NHL. It could one day be akin to the Japanese Pacific Baseball league or something like that, though.

All that being said, I don't think the emergence of the Russian league is the reason they won this year. Much of it is that, as someone mentioned, the best players for all the teams weren't there. I mean, imagine that Canadian team with Crosby, Staal, and a number of veterans (like Iginla, etc) who decided not to take part. There were a few Russian NHL omissions, Malkin comes to mind, but not as many as Canada. In short, Russia were probably 90% as strong as they could've been, while Canada was more like 60%. I'm not trying to diminish Russia's accomplishment, though; they beat an extremely talented Finnish team just to get to the final.

05-19-2008, 05:56 PM	#31 (permalink)
jpv Redshirt Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 146 Tournaments Joined: 0 Tournament Wins: 0	Re: Russian hockey team makes World finals! Tretiak was a product of playing for an unbelievable team. I've seen him play a number of times (on tape of course) and he doesn't impress me from a goaltending standpoint. I should add the caveat that he played in a very different era where goalies played a very different, stand-up, style. He very rarely saw more than 15-20 shots in a game, and most of those were not high-quality scoring chances. I'm not talking smack, obviously those around him revered him, people who did a lot more in their hockey career than 2 years playing JV goalie at a private college (like me) :-D. It's just my opinion. Overall, I'm starting to like your argument about Russian hockey, Big. At least I see where you're coming from. I think the Russian league will never be competition for the NHL in terms of drawing the very top Russian players (such as Ovechkin). Even if they occasionally pay NHL salaries, there will never be the same exposure and prestige of playing in the NHL. It could one day be akin to the Japanese Pacific Baseball league or something like that, though. All that being said, I don't think the emergence of the Russian league is the reason they won this year. Much of it is that, as someone mentioned, the best players for all the teams weren't there. I mean, imagine that Canadian team with Crosby, Staal, and a number of veterans (like Iginla, etc) who decided not to take part. There were a few Russian NHL omissions, Malkin comes to mind, but not as many as Canada. In short, Russia were probably 90% as strong as they could've been, while Canada was more like 60%. I'm not trying to diminish Russia's accomplishment, though; they beat an extremely talented Finnish team just to get to the final.