2011 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship

[TunnelOfLove]

Latest Scores:

Friday
Germany - Finland 4 - 5
Canada - USA 4 - 3
Czech Rep - Slovakia 3 - 2
Sweden - France 4 - 0

Saturday
Austria - Slovenia 3 - 2
Belarus - Latvia 3 - 6
Denmark - Germany 4 - 3
Norway - Canada 2 - 3
Finland - Slovakia 2 - 1
USA - France 3 - 2

 

[rodfarva]

I just discovered this thread and I will follow it, but I just wanted to mention that the IIHF World Hockey Championship is the most irrelevant tournament in all of sports.

Go Canada!

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

Latvia has almost everytime qualified from the first round and beaten or almost beaten many great teams.

Love Latvia ever since I saw them in the preliminaries at the '02 games and the war they had with Slovakia. I've also always been a big Sandis Ozolinsh fan.

Finland has pretty nameless team this year.
Few players from NHL and some former:
Tuomo Ruutu, Mikko Koivu, Sami Lepistö, Anssi Salmela, Jesse Joensuu, Niko Kapanen, Ossi Väänänen, Lasse Kukkonen, Petteri Nokelainen.

Goalies: Petri Vehanen, Teemu Lassila and Niko Hovinen. No NHL goalies in team Finland this year. Most interesting player seems to be
Minnesota Wild prospect Mikael Granlund, drafted ninth in 2010 NHL draft.

I would like to check Granlund out as well but those games will not be televised baring some hardware action games.

I just discovered this thread and I will follow it, but I just wanted to mention that the IIHF World Hockey Championship is the most irrelevant tournament in all of sports.

Go Canada!

lol, I don't understand you Canadians on international events. Saying that shit is the worst event is stupid. At least now you have multiple teams that can at least take some hardware.

 

[Mauser98k]

Evgeny Artyukhin is still a wrecking ball. i miss him on the Lightning

 

[eddyb]

Go Canada :nanner:

 

[rodfarva]

lol, I don't understand you Canadians on international events. Saying that shit is the worst event is stupid. At least now you have multiple teams that can at least take some hardware.

LOL! The event and the winner is irrelevant because it is nowhere even close to a best-on-best tournament and it goes on every year during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which are far better. There are a bunch of players who don't play in this tournament because they're still in the playoffs and even those who aren't choose not to participate (because they know like I do that the World Championships are a joke). Jarome Iginla, Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Brenden Morrow, Shane Doan, etc., all chose not to go. Canada doesn't even field a B-team for these tournaments, more like a Q-team, at best.

I love international hockey tournaments (I watch the Olympics and World Juniors religiously), but not when they don't field the best players available, which makes the tournament meaningless. If Ovechkin and Kovalchuk are eliminated from the playoffs in the early rounds or don't make playoffs every time around and go and play for Russia and Russia wins, does that make them the best team in the world? Yeah right. That was the idiotic reasoning behind Russia going into the Vancouver Olympics as the #1 ranked team in the world. I think Canada's 7-3 stomping of them proved that notion to be false. And the United States clearly established themselves as the second best hockey program behind Canada. If Canada and the US finish dead last at the World Championships and Russia wins it doesn't mean anything. The results are meaningless when the tournament is not a best-on-best.

I wanna see Canada win and I might watch if they play for the gold medal, but this tournament, like I said, is the most irrelevant event in sports.

You may not understand "we Canadians" because we put no stock in this tournament, but I don't understand a person who doesn't realize that this tournament and its results mean nothing.

If you like watching good hockey and that's what watching this tournament is all about for you, then all the power to you. But all I said that you responded to was that this tournament is irrelevant. I didn't tell you not to watch it or anything. If you like watching it then watch it. But do you seriously not understand how irrelevant it is? It should be pretty obvious.

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

LOL! The event and the winner is irrelevant because it is nowhere even close to a best-on-best tournament and it goes on every year during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which are far better. There are a bunch of players who don't play in this tournament because they're still in the playoffs and even those who aren't choose not to participate (because they know like I do that the World Championships are a joke). Jarome Iginla, Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Brenden Morrow, Shane Doan, etc., all chose not to go. Canada doesn't even field a B-team for these tournaments, more like a Q-team, at best.

I love international hockey tournaments (I watch the Olympics and World Juniors religiously), but not when they don't field the best players available, which makes the tournament meaningless. If Ovechkin and Kovalchuk are eliminated from the playoffs in the early rounds or don't make playoffs every time around and go and play for Russia and Russia wins, does that make them the best team in the world? Yeah right. That was the idiotic reasoning behind Russia going into the Vancouver Olympics as the #1 ranked team in the world. I think Canada's 7-3 stomping of them proved that notion to be false. And the United States clearly established themselves as the second best hockey program behind Canada. If Canada and the US finish dead last at the World Championships and Russia wins it doesn't mean anything. The results are meaningless when the tournament is not a best-on-best.

I wanna see Canada win and I might watch if they play for the gold medal, but this tournament, like I said, is the most irrelevant event in sports.

You may not understand "we Canadians" because we put no stock in this tournament, but I don't understand a person who doesn't realize that this tournament and its results mean nothing.

If you like watching good hockey and that's what watching this tournament is all about for you, then all the power to you. But all I said that you responded to was that this tournament is irrelevant. I didn't tell you not to watch it or anything. If you like watching it then watch it. But do you seriously not understand how irrelevant it is? It should be pretty obvious.

And yet, Ovechkin IS there. Arguably the most prolific scorer on the planet. He's there. I can count numerous all stars that are there - even on Canada and America. I'm not sure who's in charge of the tournament but the fact they are drawing some of the greatest ever makes it interesting enough for me to watch. And moreover, I'd venture to guess that it helps the game on an international level because of all these other "small market" teams get to display their tallent. (however mediocre you may think they are.)

Even more moreover, perhaps this sort of event gives "lesser" tallent in large tallent programs like USA, Sweden and Canada a chance, eh? Brent Burns and Cal Clutterbuck would never get the chance to play on an international level like this otherwise.

I don't think I said it's the greatest tournament, because yeah, there are quite a few players I have never heard of, but I suppose that's why I watch? I want to see up-and-comers, especially from America. :2 cents:

 

[SEXJS]

What happened to the NHL folder?
What a terrific game tonight.
I'm hoping the two series in the west go 7 games so I can watch more hockey.

Canada got to the 1/4s.
The US plays tomorrow night against the Swedes.
Gotta win to get into the 1/4s.

Go Preds!!

 

[STDiva]

It's definitely not an accuracte Gauge of a certain country's hockey program, but it's still hockey and still fun to watch. What I want to know is, why is it on during the NHL playoffs?

 

[HS47]

Slovenia and Austria relegated, felt bad for Slovenia as they were without their three best players, two of which play in the NHL but in reality they aren't good enough for this level yet. I suspected Austria would have done better. Certainly not good news for the EBEL league which I have been following (because of a Croatian club there) that both teams they supply players to relegate.

 

[rodfarva]

And yet, Ovechkin IS there. Arguably the most prolific scorer on the planet. He's there. I can count numerous all stars that are there - even on Canada and America. I'm not sure who's in charge of the tournament but the fact they are drawing some of the greatest ever makes it interesting enough for me to watch. And moreover, I'd venture to guess that it helps the game on an international level because of all these other "small market" teams get to display their tallent. (however mediocre you may think they are.)

Even more moreover, perhaps this sort of event gives "lesser" tallent in large tallent programs like USA, Sweden and Canada a chance, eh? Brent Burns and Cal Clutterbuck would never get the chance to play on an international level like this otherwise.

I don't think I said it's the greatest tournament, because yeah, there are quite a few players I have never heard of, but I suppose that's why I watch? I want to see up-and-comers, especially from America. :2 cents:

I never said Ovechkin wasn't there. (In fact, I made the point that he always chooses to go because it gives him an actual chance to win an international ice hockey tournament for once).

I never said there weren't star quality players. I said that it's a Q-team of sorts for Team Canada.

I also never said (or even implied) that teams in the tournament were mediocre. I've been saying for years that international hockey has come a long way. Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, etc., have all become relevant. You can't roll over on anybody or underestimate anybody anymore.

And, in my opinion, Brent Burns definitely has a chance to play for the Olympic Team come 2014. He will be in tough to make it like he was with the Vancouver Olympic Team, but Niedermayer is retired and Pronger will be by then in all likelihood, so spots will definitely open up. I can see him, Kris Letang, or Tyler Myers as the likely recipients of those newly vacated spots.

But you make a good point that some guys of lesser talent do get a chance to play for their country on the international stage, which I do agree is great. I remember Steve Staios playing in this tournament years back. I loved that. And some younger players get to develop further, like Jordan Eberle. (Although if you wanna see up-and-comers the World Junior Hockey Championship is definitely the tournament to watch every year). I'm not saying that the tournament is good-for-nothing and that we shouldn't watch or it shouldn't be put on. I was just making the point from the beginning that the results don't mean anything. It's good hockey and that's all. There can't be any stock put into the actual results.

 

[TunnelOfLove]

Latest Scores:
Sunday
Czech Rep - Russia 3 - 2
Sweden - Switzerland 2 - 0
Slovenia - Belarus 1 - 7
Latvia - Austria 4 - 1

Monday
Slovakia - Denmark 4 - 1
France - Norway 2 - 5
Russia - Finland 2 - 3
Switzerland - USA 5 - 3
Germany - Czech Rep 2 - 5
Canada - Sweden 3 - 2

Quarter Finals
Czech Rep vs. USA
Sweden vs. Germany
Finland vs. Norway
Canada vs. Russia

 

[lurkingdirk]

Oof. Czechs shut out USA

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ap-worlds

 

[PlasmaTwa2]

Jagr is the boss. Except when he's getting checked by the Great Eight.

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

Jagr is the boss. Except when he's getting checked by the Great Eight.

He lives for international play. He (and Hasek) pretty much single handedly won the gold in '98. :2 cents: Other than that, does anyone know anything about the KHL? Does anyone care much on this side of the pond? I think a NHL/KHL All Star game some day would be cool, but I don't follow the league much, except to know they are handing out monumental contracts over there.

 

[TunnelOfLove]

Finland - Norway 4-1. I think that was like the fifth game in this tournament where opponent scores first and we still manage to win.

Early goals - who needs them.

 

[dongkong]

Russians just keep underperforming. Though the USA got a real spanking last night from Czech republic.

 

[TunnelOfLove]

Finland - Russia 3-0. Fuck Yeah!

Russians just didn't understand that Kovalchuk and Ovechkin aren't their only players on ice.
Ovie & Kovy were on ice like 40 minutes and when they were in the attacking zone they didn't share the puck,
and luckily those two don't care about defending. :thumbsup:

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

I'm actually a little surprised some organizations are letting their investments play in events like this. Just imagine, Ovechkin takes one to the head like Crosby and he would be another Crosby and the Caps franchise would be doomed.

 

[TunnelOfLove]

I'm actually a little surprised some organizations are letting their investments play in events like this. Just imagine, Ovechkin takes one to the head like Crosby and he would be another Crosby and the Caps franchise would be doomed.

I heard Lundqvist wanted to play in Worlds but Rangers didn't give him permission. So I guess some teams are more worried than others.