Toucher & Rich: Dave Goucher Picks His Olympic Hockey Favorites
BOSTON (CBS) - The Bruins forced overtime in St. Louis Thursday night after overcoming a 2-0 deficit midway through the third period.
However, a win was not to be after a lucky bounce on a wrist shot by T.J. Oshie gave the Blues a 3-2 win at home. The Bruins have one more game on Saturday before five of their players will participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Captain Zdeno Chara is already there - he'll be the flag bearer for his home country of Slovakia in the game's opening ceremonies. Joining him in the coming days will be teammates David Krejci (Czech Republic), Loui Eriksson (Sweden), Patrice Bergeron (Canada) and Tuukka Rask (Finland).
Fred Toucher was hot on Sweden's chances, but now that goalie Henrik Lundqvist pulled himself out due to injury he doesn't know what to make of it. Play-by-play Dave Goucher of the Bruins Radio Network joined Toucher & Rich Friday morning to preview the games.
"I like Canada to be honest with you. The fact that they could almost field a J.V. team in addition to who they sent over there I think is unbelievable."
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The host country has a stellar roster as well: Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Ovechkin just to name a few - but Goucher thinks there might to be too much pressure on them.
Injuries to Johan Franzen, Henrik Sedin and Lundqvist have all but damaged Sweden's chances, but one team to keep an eye on according to Dave Goucher is Finland.
"Finland is somebody to keep an eye on. Bob [Beers] had this note the other day: Finland has won more medals than any country in hockey over the last 20 years."
Fred points out that they have not won gold over that time, but Goucher added, "It's a tournament that means a hell of a lot to them." Not only that, but with Kari Lehtonen, Antti Niemmi and Tuukka Rask in net the Finns should be a tough out.
By now we've all heard horror stories of how bad the conditions are in Sochi, but Fred is convinced that the Russians are doing this all on purpose. By putting everybody else in crappy hotels and their Olympians in four stars it should give the home country an advantage.
Listen below for the full discussion:
Dave Goucher Picks His Olympic Hockey Favorites
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