The US are reigning champions, and are hosting. They're favored to win, too. But I think the prelim drawing is gonna hurt them. They drew a very soft pool, only the Fins of any note in that group. The other pool has Russia, Sweden, Canada, and the Czechs. The teams coming out of that pool will be fully up to speed, gonna be harder than some of the pundits are acknowledging for the US when they hit the second round. Watching the Canada/Sweden warmup game on tv right now, refs are calling a close game. I rarely watch the pros, but the juniors are always good. edit: I see the new vbulletin is just as annoying as the old one when it comes to capitals.
Webcast schedule: http://www.iihf.com/fileadmin/user_...orld_Junior_Championship_Webcast_Schedule.pdf Dunno what tv you have in your area, but this is better than nothing.
Watching the Canada/Finland exhibition game. The US is gonna have to watch out for them, the Fins are playing pretty solid hockey, a lot of body, less tic-tac-toe passing than we're used to seeing from them. 2-2 at the end of the 2nd. That's a game you should try to catch, find a pub that has the feed, think it'll be the best of the prelims in that division. Watch all of the other division games, that pool is pretty formidable.
finns may have the best goalie in the tournament but don't have the depth up front to compete for the medal (or so sayeth the conventional wisdom); their best forward, mikael granlund, a minnesota wild prospect, is out with a concussion. US team has a lot to like if their goalie, jack campbell, does his job. keep an eye on chris kreider, of boston college, who is an incredibly strong skater, and ray bourque's kid, ryan, also playing for the red white and blue. should be fun
Jayden Schwartz. CC gave their top scorer up for the Canadian Junior team. He better bring home some hardware.
Canada looked rather unorganized in the first 10 min but managed to get it together and play a great hockey game. I felt they completely dominated Russia. Our defense is very skilled, they quarterbacked alot of the game and managed to control the pace. With this win it should almost guarantee us a top 3 in the pool unless we lose to Norway and I can't see that happening.
Was a good game and pretty well excuted. I get just as excited for this tourney as I do for the Holiday's themselves. Would have liked to watch the US-Fin game. With a 3-2 OT win, it kinda makes things wide open.
Sorry I didn't see your thread when I started this one, and your in Russia, the arch enemy of us Canadians!!
Well you learn something everyday, I had no idea there was a Moscow in Idaho, but Russian or American, both are on ice enemies of the Canadians. Just about time for me to relax with a beer and watch the Canadians beat up on the Czechs.
A 5 Miniute major and a game? Bullshit call by the officials against Cassian of Canada for a clean open ice hit against a czech player. They didnt even make a call initially. The only called it after the fact because the Czech player got hurt. WTF, do these guys even watch hockey or know the rules. My daughter knows that was a bullshit call. I love this tourney but the officials always suck.
There's a Moscow in Ontario too. Which means it is worse than the one in Russia. Merry Christmas, Drif.