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Italy beats Austria 5-2 February 10th, 1998

Here along the Lake The Italian Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey team last won 28 years ago in Japan during the initial participation of NHL players in an Olympic tournament, unfortunately the winless streak continues as Italy lost their four games of these Olympics.

Team USA was eliminated quickly in the quarter finals in 98′ winning only one game but then the NHL players proceeded to act like spoiled children and trashed their hotel rooms, broke furniture, and emptied fire extinguishers, not America’s NHL players finest moment, thankfully we were invited back.

Team Canada did not help themselves in 1998 by allowing GM Bobby Clarke to make his NHL team’s player Eric Lindros, captain of the Olympic team over Wayne Gretzky or Steve Yzerman, and the team’s head coach Marc Crawford put Raymond Borque in a shootout instead of, again, Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman, so Team Canada made it to the semi-finals but no further.

Of course, what are the Olympics without some political controversy, the 1998 Team Sweden’s player, Buffalo Sabres defenseman’s dad, was ejected from the team after one game when it was found out he had dual (Swedish/American) citizenship, the game Team Sweden won with Ulf Samuelsson was kept for the tournament records even after the Czechs (who won the gold) tried unsuccessfully to annul Team Sweden’s points earned with the win.

All I wanted to do these Olympics was to watch some well-played, entertaining men’s ice hockey games without some kind of controversy or emotionally violent NHL players parading around like school yard bullies.

New Olympic Hockey Record (with NHL participation)

Here along the Lake An embarrassing loss absorbed by the Italian men’s ice hockey team as the more developed Finnish team crushed Italy 11-0 setting the record (old record 9) for most goals scored by any Olympic men’s ice hockey team with NHL participation.

The Finnish team is blessed with two dozen NHL players, and the Italians have American born 30-year-olds with AHL, ECHL, and college experience playing in European leagues as their most experienced professionals, the outcome was predictable but certainly not the shocking final score.

Team Denmark on the other hand is no push over and had a 2-1 lead over Team USA after the first period of play, scored to get within one of Team USA at 4-3 with under three seconds remaining in the second period, and of course bully brady tried to instigate a fight at the end of the first period by punching/hand washing and knocking Denmark (D) Lauridsen’s helmet off who after looking momentarily taken aback just professionally stared (LW) Tkachuk down.

Team USA is in trouble if (G) Swiss Cheese Swayman remains in net who posted a pedestrian .857% save percentage that will not be good enough in this tournament, and there are some Team USA players whose head-hunting tactics need to be left down in the beer leagues.

Czechoslovakia = Czech Republic & Slovakia

Here along the Lake During the 1992 Olympics before the Czech Republic & Slovakia existed as separate countries, they were one and together they earned the Bronze Medal in Olympic men’s ice hockey, fast forward to today and the country Czechoslovakia had divided itself ( Dec 1993-Jan 94) peacefully into two countries, two teams, and two chances for gold.

Those same 92′ Olympics saw Russian players (no USSR) compete as a “Unified Team” (2 Buffalo Sabres) winning the Gold Medal in 92′ and a similar principal could have been utilized to allow Russian players to compete in the 26′ Olympics without politics.

Unfortunately, the Olympics and politics have been intertwined probably since the Olympic games first began until now, so I am endeavoring to enjoy the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament and for the most part, I am.

Men’s ice hockey teams

Here along the Lake The only Country that does not have at least one NHL player is our Olympic host Italy a team made up from home grown talent and players from various European leagues making them una probabilità remota.

The bulk of NHL players in these Olympics are Canadian, American, Swedish, and Finnish, with 24 or 25 NHL players on their teams, followed by the Czech Republic with 13 NHL players but cannot be dismissed because of teammates (RW) Pasternak and (C) Necas, two players that can light up any goaltender.

The German team made up of only six NHL players including former Sabres (RW) Peterka playing alongside (C) Draisaitl which could give them substantial offense, the rest of the teams and amount of NHL players are, Switzerland 10, Slovakia 7, Latvia & Denmark 5, and France 1, these teams with their NHL players will play with pride and enthusiasm that will make the most of their talented players but the top six teams more likely than not will take the three medals.

As a biased American I am cheering for my Country’s men’s ice hockey team in these Olympics, and with Buffalo Sabres (C) Thompson playing for team USA and Buffalo Sabres Captain (D) Dahlin playing for team Sweden, it makes these games even more entertaining to me, Gold, Silver of Bronze it does not matter as long as we get to watch quality hockey.

There are at least a half a dozen teams that can medal in these games, and it could be a good run by an underdog with one or two solid victories over stronger teams that will make Olympic gold a reality, but history suggests otherwise.

Buffalo Earns Point

Sabres 3 – Lightning 4 (OT) Buffalo outshot Tampa Bay 5 to 1 in overtime, unfortunately the Lightning’s only SOG, a breakaway in the waning seconds of overtime removed the probability of Tampa Bay losing to the Sabres in a shootout, where Buffalo is undefeated this season.

Sabres (D) Samuelsson continues to be an offensive threat again scoring two goals in a game this season as he notched his 10th and 11th, considering he had scored seven career goals during his last three seasons, this is impressive.

Buffalo secured three out of four points during this recent road trip to the Sunshine State, earning a point from the Eastern Conference leader in their barn is a good way to begin this year’s four-game regular season series between the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Buffalo Sabres play one more game at home versus the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow night at 7 pm EST before the NHL takes a leave of absence this February for nearly three weeks for international competition.