The 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship Thread

[Ravin]

Tournament kicks off today and Canada is up against Finland.


I have Russia winning this again though. Just think they are to strong to not take it away.

 

[wr50l]

This is really more of a post for myself so I don't need to go looking for the schedule all the time. :yao:

Mon., Dec. 26
Canada vs. Finland 3:30 p.m.
USA vs. Denmark 8 p.m.

Tues., Dec. 27
Denmark vs. Czech Republic 8 p.m.

Wed., Dec. 28
Finland vs. USA 3:30 p.m.
Czech Republic vs. Canada 8 p.m.

Thurs., Dec. 29
Canada vs. Denmark 8 p.m.

Fri., Dec. 30
Czech Republic vs. USA 3:30 p.m.
Finland vs. Denmark 8 p.m.

Sat., Dec. 31
USA vs. Canada 8 p.m.

Mon., Jan. 2
Quarterfinal #1 5:00 p.m.
Quarterfinal #2 9:00 p.m.

Tue., Jan. 3
Semifinal #1 5:00 p.m.
Semifinal #2* 9:00 p.m.

Thur., Jan. 5
Bronze-Medal Game 3:30 p.m.
Gold-Medal Game 8:00 p.m.

 

[wr50l]

I'm following the USA this year, just for JT Miller.

 

[Ravin]

Czech game tonight. Should be another Canada win. Basically for Canada in this tournament it is all just about positioning in the quarter finals. The USA/Canada game sould determine who gets the bye to the semi's. That bye this year will be big, because with the other side having Sweden and Russia, I don't want to be playing wither of them in a quarter final match up.

 

[leaffan]

USA: :jonesy:

 

[Ravin]

Czech goalie was amazing last night. You knew he didn't have the team in front of him to keep it up all night, but that first period and a half he was amazing. Then the wheels came off.

I also really hope Wedgewood stays in net as I don't trust Visitin at all in goal. Wedgewood plays for Plymouth who is one of the best teams in the OHL and he is a big reason for that. Throw Visintin in against Denmark and give Wedgewood the USA. If he beats them, he plays the rest of the tournament.

 

[Ravin]

They brought up a good point about the relegation rounds in this thing. For those of you who don't know, there are four divisions (Championship, I, II & III), In every division 2 teams go up and 2 go down except for obvious top and bottom.

Next year Germany and France will move up to play with Canada/Russia/etc, while Japan and Great Britain move down.

Denmark last season won the right to move up to this years Championship division. Only issue is 14 players off that team no longer play for the team this year. The team that won it isn't together. So more then likely, Denmark is going back to the Division I ranks. Now the circle effect. Majority of this years Denmark team will return next year to play and probably do well and move up again. Then they will be gone. So something needs to change for these smaller groups. I almost want to see, auto 2 years up, or expand the Champions division to 6 teams, and still have two teams go down on alternating years. Though I don't know if we need 4 shitty teams in the Champions league.

 

[Ravin]

This Czech Republic vs USA game is fucking intense. Petr Mrazek is playing like a beast again, much like he did against Canada, and the Czeches have a chance for the upset.


Little note: 50/50 draw at this game alone was $63,000. Jesus fuck.


Edit: attendence was 14,733. Means each person would spend about $8.50 on 50/50 tickets.

 

[Ravin]

:rofl: USA has to hope Denmark beats Finland tonight for them to even have a chance to get to the medal rounds.

Mrazek stops a penalty shot, almost scores a goal on an empty net, and giving some sick celebrations to go along with it. He's just loving it right now. Canadian fans were booing the Americans all game, cheering this guy, and this is the same goalie they booed two nights ago on a penalty shot save.

 

[killgod]

finland's on their fuckin heels, pray for a lil luck and the shootout cause they blew their only chance at winning in normal play.

 

[killgod]

ROFL at that save.

these sporadic odd angle shots and goofy goaltending might cost sweden if it keeps up.

 

[PEYMAN18]

Well damn.

 

[Ravin]

Well I said when this all started I thought the Russians were the team to beat in this because they just have so much fire power and it was only a matter of time before it all came out. When they blew the 3-0 lead vs Sweden, I could feel this match up coming and was nervous about it.

The comeback was insane though and once again just adds a great story to the Canada/Russia rivalry.

Yakupov with a bold statement on tsn. "We win. We're pretty excited," Yakupov said. "We beat Canada. Russia's better than Canada."

The other thing about Canada was it didn't have those players who were trying to make an impact on their draft status. In years before we had Tavares, Hall, and a bunch of other non-drafted players. This year the only two guys not drafted yet were Ryan Murray and Tanner Pearson who got overlooked last year in the draft. Everyone else has already been selected and all the top prospects are either under 17 or play for Russia. It isn't an excuse for not winning but rather I guess I just felt differently about this team as if they had no fire about them.

Beating up on a bunch of small teams is nothing, so Canada winning 25-6 in round robin is worthless as shit. They didn't play any real opponent in the round robin, and even the US game was meaningless. Then they played someone who had a bunch of tough games and it showed because they outplayed them hard. With a 3rd/4th place finish it means next year they could have 2-3 tough challenges in their pool which would be the best thing for them.

 

[killgod]

turned it off at 5-1.

lol.

Wedgewood was poor and Canada was too emotional to start that one.

 

[theMINI]

Finally this fucking shit is over so I can watch Sportscentre again.

 

[Ravin]

The best thing for Canada is for this tournament to not be in North America the next two years. They need a break for the media hounding their every move and trying to win it for the Nation. The five golds between 2005-2009, only 2006 and 2009 were in Canada. One was in the US, and the other were overseas. Then when it went Canada/Canada/USA(Canada jr. w/Buffalo)/Canada, the media basically rammed it down the throats of everyone and almost made it impossible for these guys to not win.

If you actually look at the last couple of teams, they were not special in any way. 2009 was the last special year in my opinion. 2010 wasn't bad, but it didn't have that John Tavares type player, the big prospect everyone was looking at. And that is what I think this team lacked. An elite level player who could put the team on his back and say "lets go". Stone is not that. Huberdeau, Strome, Connolly and Scheifele are not it as well. This isn't to say they suck, but rather they will turn into your typical NHL 2nd line players most likely. Where as if you look at Russia, you can name about 2-3 guys who are going to be NHL first line player.

 

[JBregz]

Was out watching this game with my friends last night. Insane game.

 

[Ravin]

57-16 in shots for Sweden. My fuck, did someone not tell the Russians the game was on today, because that is embarassing. Lucky they have solid goalies who stole games because that could have got ugly fast. Seemed like to Russia the gold medal game was the Canada game because from what I saw, they were just skating around, doing shit. The OT winner is good proof of that.