Hockey, hockey, hockey

[donkey]

Last day of the preliminary rounds at the World Juniors hockey championship. Looks like Russia and Canada are the heavy weights once again with USA going to the relegation round after 2 upset losses. Hard to imagine a medal round without the US but they play Canada tonight (the New Years Eve Classic) so at least Canada will face them once even if the game means nothing in the standings. Still can't believe the US lost to Finland, not that Finland doesn't have a good team but the US on paper at least should have dominated the game. Oh well, now the US has to fight just to get a berth in next years championship.

[Bill Cravener]

Hockey? Whats that? :bg

If it ain't American football I don't care. In the United States today a reasonable estimate of the popularity order of sports is: * NFL (National Football League) * NBA (National Basketball Association) * MLB (Major League Baseball) * NCAA football (college football) * NCAA basketball (college basketball) * NASCAR (stock car racing) * NHL (National Hockey League) * MLS (Major League Soccer) * WWE (professional wrestling) * AFL (Arena Football League) * WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) * IRL (Indy Racing League).

Pushing around a puck with a stick is about as dumb as running a goofy shaped ball about a field with funny lines across it. Though both are violent games if I have to pick a game I prefer watching the goofy looking ball game.

You know Edgar unless one has satellite TV or cable with many channels you can't find a hockey game on the boob tube to watch.

[Ghostly]

Being a hockey fan (and once player, these days all my piss poor shape body can handle is the lot less physical game of soccer) and native Swede I was up last night (after New Years celebrations) watching our game against Russia and despite almost giving up on the game after the second period (I was dead tired and we were down 0-3) I'm so glad I didnt as we managed to turn the game around in the third and then beat the Russians in overtime 4-3. This means we are through to the semi-finals against either Finland (our arch enemy) or Slovakia, meanwhile Russia has to face the Czech and then Canada in the semi-finals.

I agree it was shocking to see the US not making it out of the group stage, still it seems Canada is in a class of their own this year (as per usual). We (Sweden) don't really have the defence this time around for us to really put up a fight but hopefully we will make it to the final.

[dedndave]

i like hockey as a replacement for what was once "professional boxing"
since they decided to make all the big fights pay-per-view, i stopped watching them
but hockey has almost as much fighting   :P

[dedndave]

what makes football here in the US great is the cheerleaders   :bg
this year, i am liking the Tampa Bay "team" the best
http://www.buccaneers.com/cheerleaders/index.html
of course, the Redskins and Broncos always have a good team, too   :P

in this video, the Tampa Bay cheerleaders teach some English rugby players about football
http://www.buccaneers.com/multimedia/videos/American-Football-vs-Rugby/b43ec4ad-6d32-4318-a4f4-2aa86cb2b812
lucky guys   :P

[donkey]

Well, hockey is by far the most popular sport up here in Canada, in some ways it's more than just a sport but is tied directly to our national identity. The World Juniors are extremely popular and generally draw top ratings for the championship, the US/Canada final in the Vancouver Olympics actually had 80% of the country watch at least some of the game.

Hi Ghostly,

Sweden's come-back against Russia was unexpected but Sweden is one of the hockey powerhouses and traditionally does well. The elite leagues there have produced some great players, I think Peter Forsberg still holds the points record at the juniors.

[dedndave]

i think that "sport" where you push a bag of something around with a broom is big up there, too   :bg
(kind of a poor-man's version of shuffleboard)

[dedndave]

ok - so it's not a bag of poo - it's a "stone"

curling...


my way sounded more interesting

[donkey]

i think that "sport" where you push a bag of something around with a broom is big up there, too   :bg
(kind of a poor-man's version of shuffleboard)

Yup, curlings pretty popular but nothing like Hockey. I like curling, used to play quite a bit as a kid but haven't in many years. Lots of Scottish heritage in Canada so the sport was imported by the Scotts.

[dedndave]

that picture was supposedly taken in Ontario ~1909
i like the old derby hats   :P

notice that the two at the end (the pushers) are wearing Scottish hats (tams i think)

[donkey]

Crap, my buddy Fred had tickets to the Finland/Sweden game and is taking his GIRRRLFRIEND. Those tickets have been sold out for a year now, by lottery no less and my now former friend managed to get 4 games, I'm stuck watching it at home. I mean his girlfriend doesn't even like hockey, good tickets are going online for up to $500 a pair ($1000 for the final), what a waste.

[edit ~4min left in second]
Well, Ghostly,

Your boys are going to have to kick it into high gear soon, Fin's just scored their second goal. Be quite a show if they managed another game like the one against Russia.

[Ghostly]

Yes I'm seriously disappointed by the way we played the first period and large parts of the second, I don't get what the current coach is trying to achieve with this new 'get past the blue line and dump a puck on goal' mentality. Our strenght has always been keeping the puck in the other team's zone with fast puck drops along the boards while looking for an opening, now it's some sort of poor-man's transatlantic thing where we drop the puck EXCEPT we have no bodies in front of the goalie. And if that's not bad enough my cable provider ComHem has some crap problem which means all subscribers get no reception as of the third period. I see on the web that we have managed to score a goal but I can't watch the damn game. Ahwell, the way we play we wouldn't stand a chance against Canada anyway, who'm I think will beat Russia quite comfortably later tonight.

[donkey]

Hey Ghostly,

1:44 left and Sweden ties the game, a sloppy play by the Finnish goaltender but a puck in the net is a puck in the net. I agree, my buddies and I here were talking about the sloppy play at the blue line by the Swedes and lack of traffic in front of the net, well it looks like they've survived regulation at least, we'll see how OT goes.

You can watch the game here:

http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/

Russia's always a tough one to beat, great skaters on that team and when they play Canada they bring their A game. I think it'll be a close one but those are the most fun to watch.

Hey Ghostly,

Looks like your boys will meet either Canada or Russia for the gold medal game, won it in a shootout. I can't believe the mistake by Granlund on the last shot, I'd hate to be him, must feel horrible.

[Ghostly]

My cable provider got it's sh*t together so I was able to watch the end of the game. I'd never have thought that Granlund of all the finns would mess up his penalty. Anyway we're through to the finals and while there was precious little to be happy about concerning gameplay atleast the game was dramatic enough to get my pulse going.

[donkey]

at least the game was dramatic enough to get my pulse going.

Well, as the big ad campaign for the juniors this year says, Pressure Is Power :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwKtGqgQRWw

They expect nearly 10 million people to watch the Russia game tonight, the US game on New Years Eve had nearly 7 million watching at least part of the game. It's going to be good.