Sochi Olympics: How the Bruins played, 2-14/15-14

It was a busy couple of days for the Black and Gold in Sochi. Four teams that had Bruins players had matches on the ice on Friday. All four teams that the Bruins played for on Friday came out with victories. The result on Saturday was a little more mixed.

Sweden went two for two. They edged out Switzerland 1-0 on Friday, and powered through a surprisingly sharp Latvian team today, 5-3. Loui Eriksson is currently standing at a -1, with six shots on goal. While Loui hasn’t been gangbusters for Sweden, he played some great hockey in the final period against Latvia(Ex-Bruin Kaspars Daugavins got an assist on the Latvian’s third period goal.). Sweden is 3-0 and comfortably in first in Group C.

The Czech Republic went fifty/fifty this weekend. The Czechs handily beat Latvia 4-2 but were edged out by a strong Swiss defense, and fell 1-0. For the Czech Republic, that’s newly minted alternate captain David Krejci. Krejci is also a -1, with one assist. Krejci has won twenty six of thirty seven in the face off circle (70.2%) and is holding his own against the best in the world.  The Czechs are 1-2 in Group C, and are already out of medal contention.

Finland has done a fantastic job in Group B, going 2-0 going into tomorrow’s game against gold medal favorite Canada. Finland has put up fourteen goals on offense, and have the best goalies in net representing the Olympics. This includes Tuukka Rask. Rask got the start in the 8-4 win over Austria. His .800 save percentage is part of the reason why they sat Rask in favor of Kari Lehtonen. With the firepower Canada is bringing tomorrow, the Finns might get Tuukka back in the net.

The Canadian team is just monsterous. The talent they are bringing in is so solid, they could have broken down the Canadian teams into provinces and they would place three out of four teams into medal contention. The only problem with Canada is that they aren’t playing to their incredible potential. While they’re still 2-0, the play has been quite sluggish.

Patrice Bergeron is Canada’s Bruin representative. Bergeron is a +2, with two points (assists in the win over Norway). He’s got four shots on goal, and has been a predictable eighty percent in the face off circle. It’s just a shame that Team Canada is so talented that Bergy is only a fourth line winger for their team. They’ll be taking on Finland for leadership in Group B tomorrow, and it should be as an exciting as a game as was USA-Russia.

Slovakia has had a rough go of it in Sochi. They are 0-2 in group A, and they’ve got to take on a furious Russian team who still believe that Johnathan Quick sabotaged his crease in order to nullify a go-ahead go for them late in the third. Zdeno Chara deserved a better Olympics than this. Their team has only score two goals this Olympics, and Chara has an assist on one of them. He’s a -1 with five shots on goal, and he’s been playing NHL time in the Olympics so far. He’s played 42:07 in the last two games.

Five Bruins playing, and at least three Bruins are still in medal contention. We’ll see how the games play out tomorrow and the Quarterfinal bracket will become clear.