Russian looks already in the final and I guess that’s no surprise, especially when we saw Switzerland sensationally losing to Germany. They surely take this Championship seriously after disappointing Olympic games. All stars are here to prove that they are worth cheering, nothing less then gold is expected from such squad. Sweden were my favorites before tournament started and they have got better and better from game to game and now they face Czech Republic, the team that also started bad. Here are my thought on tomorrow’s matches.
Russia – Germany
My bets: Russia (-2,5 goals) (odds up to 1.70 @William Hill), Over5 goals (odds up to 1.93 @Pinnacle)
Once again I will go against home team and perhaps I will be punished for that yet again. But Germany still in my opinion is a rather weak team. Read more…
Sorry for being quite for a long time, have lots of work recently. But yet I kept on following on the sport events, including Ice Hockey World championship 2010. A lot of surprising results, a lot of new teams that made great results here – all thats classics for the post-Olympic WC Championship. That’s became a well known fact that North-Americans care less about World Championship, especially in the season after Olympics. Poor results from USA were well expected by me. Canada also brought experimental team, with a lot of youth players in the roster. That was good enough for the weak teams, but for the quality sides with good defense it wasn’t (Canada lost to Switzerland 1:4, to Sweden 1:3 and finally to Czechs 2:3). That was their worst result since introducing play-off system back in 1992. That’s truly sums up their performance in the group stage. The price for such careless attitude – quarter final meeting with Red Machine, Russia, who won all games here with confidence of the tank, having all their main stars in the squad. Now let’s take a look on all of the quarterfinals.
Sweden – Denmark
My Bets: Sweden (-2,5 goals), Over 5,5 goals.
Sweden have never lost to Denmark in any competition. Nothing will change today. Sweden started Championship slowly, but yet they managed to score wins in every encounter. The only match they’ve lost at the group stage, was the defeat to Czech Republic 1:2. After that Swedish game was only rising and they’ve added in strength a lot. 3 convincing wins over Latvia (4:2), Canada (3:1) and Switzerland (5:0) proved just that – they are big team, that have its best in play-offs. Denmark on the other hand have reached its highest level ever to early and now they are destined to lose. I guess this will be overs and Sweden (-2,5) handicap. Read more…
Call me a non-patriot, but that’s the way I see this pair. In previous round SKA were taken by shock and they simply didn’t have the game to make it against inspired Dinamo Riga. But MVD games are the other case – they don’t have such stars as SKA team, don’t have same budget, but what they have is more valuable. They have its own game, when everybody knows what to do and where he should be and they have great coach Znarok as well. In first 2 matches MVD looked a very matured team and they controlled it most of the time, even when they have been losing 1:0 in first game, during 2 periods of the game.
Today MVD will be facing another difficulty as well – thats 11 500 spectators, which means 112 db loud crowd cheering for the home team. That’s from what inspiration can come for the home team. But it won’t be enough this time. Read more…
Even without handicap, just take it. They will bounce back from yesterday defeat and will finish the series today! For those who want bigger odds, take -1,5, although value is gone there already…
The latest news: they will play in the same arena and with spectators. There will be only some bodyguards (cops and security stuff) surrounding Salavat Ufa bench.
KHL Livestream of the game: http://www.khl.ru/video/1291/26780/
All the talking are now about Dinamo Riga and SKA. And all the KHL observers including me can’t say that it was kind of unlucky for SKA. They were completely outplayed in both matches and you couldn’t recognize SKA team in those matches. I was trying to find reason for that and I guess I found: Russia is very match affected by the performance at the Olympics hockey tournament, they were completely destroyed by the Canadian team. Today they will have to get over it, otherwise they will be out of much wanted cup. SKA should win today, but I won’t bet against Dinamo Riga today. Today will be a great atmosphere at Arena Riga and I will just enjoy the moment. Although I hope they will lose today, so I will be able to see the 4th game here in Riga. Today I will just share with you the atmosphere of Arena Riga from last year play-off game against Dinamo Moscow. Watch and enjoy! Sarauj, Dinamo Riga!
I’m a bit late with this information, but life rhythm sometimes doesn’t allow to do everything in time. This is an interesting match facts, that were prepared before the 1st match started between this 2 teams (provided by Tractor home page editors). I still would like to share it with you, cause i find some of those facts very useful.
Match background
This will be the 15-th and 16th match in the modern history between “Magnitogorsk” and “Tractor” and 33-rd and 34th in the history of the championships together with USSR. In its modern history “Tractor” beat Magnitogorsk Metallurg only 2 matches out of 14. Both times – in Chelyabinsk. March 8, 2007 1:0, thanks to a goal from Alexei Zavarukhin, and in the opening match of the Arena Tractors, January 17, 2009 – 3:2, thanks to a goal from Andre Lakosa and clone Oleg Kvasha.
Also worth mentioning that the “Tractor” in modern history never scored “Magnitogorsk” more than three goals in a official match and only once scored three in unofficial – in the same game at the opening of the Arena Tractor. Read more…
Usually it is East that is considered to be mystery. In hockey it is West that looks mystery for me. Although after some analysis I’ve got my mistakes, both on Dinamo Riga and MVD unders and will get back to them in my preview for tomorrow games. But now I will focus on 2 matches in eastern conference Day 2 matches.
Salavat Ufa – Avtomobilist
Pick: Salavat (-2,5)
Chances to progress: 100/0
1st match between this 2 teams proved me right immediately from the start of the game. Avtomobilist was no where near Salavat and they were blown away in yesterday game. Ekaterinburg wasted too much energy, both physical and moral, to get to the play-off Read more…
Day 1 showed us what can do an inspired team against team who underestimated its opponent. Dinamo Riga was fired up for the 1st game, at the same time SKA was looking like a team, that somewhere deep inside thinks that whatever happens in the match, they will still win it. That kind of attitude is always dangerous and Dinamo Riga showed just why. Today we will see another scenario – angry on themselves big SKA team against the Dinamo Riga who will be starting to believe that they can make it through to the next round. By all rules it is better to stay away from that kind of back-2-back matches, I will just share my thoughts on some of the fixtures today. Here are my predictions for today games. Read more…
Heeeee-rrrrrr-eeee we GOOO! Play-off starts today and what a matches we have coming up. Only one tie looks dead certain to be a one-sided affair even if Dinamo Riga will manage to snatch a win or two in Riga. All the rest pairs are very hard to call, no favorites there surely. MVD, CSKA, Atlant, Lokomotiv, Dinamo M and Spartak all having moreless equal chances of progressing to the next round.
SKA (1) – Dinamo Riga (8)
Chances to progress: 90/10
Well this is the most one-sided pair that we have today. Dinamo Riga lacks one important quality – consistency. Thats something that is forgiven in regular season and will be lethal for them in play-off. Especially against the side that is better then Dinamo in every department. First match, as it quite often happens, should be won by Read more…
At last we are back from disappointing for Russia Olympic games. Russia were really unlucky to get Canada already in the quarter finals, but I doubt that they would have got to the final even if Canada was waiting them only in the final. Russia did lack something, some simple sparkle in the eyes. This problem already appeared in the match against Slovakia, where the team that is weaker then russians, managed to outplay them with style, keeping it close and winning it. Now Russia has 4 years to make up those mistakes and prepare for the 2014 Sochi Olympic games.
But lets get back to our regular season. In my first post after Olympics I will spot on 2 things: play-off chances of Torpedo and Dinamo Riga and thoughts on today’s matches. There will be difficult to call what will happen today, cause obviously such a long break is almost the same as a new season restart and anything can happen. Read more…
losing to Germany. They surely take this Championship seriously after disappointing Olympic games. All stars are here to prove that they are worth cheering, nothing less then gold is expected from such squad. Sweden were my favorites before tournament started and they have got better and better from game to game and now they face Czech Republic, the team that also started bad. Here are my thought on tomorrow’s matches.
