World Championship 2012

[CFP!]

Burrows and Keith... on the same team??



If I'm Alex I'm wary of passes directly into my skates...

good one. Team is shaping up good. Looks like there are a few stragglers to get the team up to 26 but looks as though it might not even be needed unless someone gets swept in the second round.

[SKYO]

Burrows and Keith... on the same team??

If I'm Alex I'm wary of passes directly into my skates...

lol Burrows is a softie.

[Island Nucklehead]

Burrows and Keith... on the same team??

If I'm Alex I'm wary of passes directly into my skates...

lol Burrows is a softie.

That he is... but he's extremely effective at pissing people off.

I'm interested to see how he does without Dan, Hank, or Kes. My gut tells me he'll be one of the better PK guys and a depth player. Can't see his offense being what it is in the NHL. Regardless, nice that he's getting recognized.

[Per]

Team Canada is looking pretty stacked.

http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.php/ci_id/75137/la_id/1/season_id/172803/profile_id/172810/team_id/82455/ss_id/173934/

Cam Ward

Keith
Phaneuf
Jbo
Schenn
Methot
Vlasic
Subban

Kane
Perry
Eberle
Getzlaf
Ladd
Tavares
Benn
Purcell
O'Reilly
Burrows
Skinner
Sharp
RNH

Yup! This is shaping up to become a really good tournament. With all the first round upsets there's a whole bunch of players that feel robbed and frustrated and have something to prove. This coupled with the world championships starting a tad later this year than ususal means a whole lot of big names have decided to come. Heck, even the Danes have three NHL players!

Alfredsson just announced that he'll come too.

He hasn't decided yet whether he'll play next season or call it quits and retire, so this could be the last we see of him on a hockey rink...!

[Per]

The Swedish team isn't final yet, but these players are supposedly confirmed:

Jhonas Enroth

Erik Karlsson
Victor Hedman
Niklas Kronwall
Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jonathan Ericsson

Daniel Alfredsson
Henrik Zetterberg
Johan Franzén
Loui Eriksson
Marcus Krüger
Gabriel Landeskog
Jakob Silfverberg
Viktor Stålberg

Blue line looks pretty impressive, even though I wouldn't have objected to having Edler or Murray on there as well. Possible non-NHL d-men that may make the cut are Staffan Kronwall (Niklas's brother), and Mattias Ekholm.

Some good forwards too, but just eight names make it too early to evaluate. Calle Järnkrook and Johan Larsson, who played on Silfverberg's line as Brynäs won the Swedish championship may make the cut. Other possible players are Niklas Persson (CSKA Moscow) and Joel Lundqvist (Frölunda), Henrik's twin brother.

Goaltending - a question mark at the moment. Enroth's career NHL stats are 17-14-6 with a .913 save% and 2.75 GAA.
Not bad, but not that impressive either. I'd rate him a reliable backup, but I'd like to see another starter. Guess team management is still holding out for Henrik Lundqvist... In their last pre-tournament game (against the US here in Gävle on May 1st) they have Enroth and Viktor Fasth listed as goalies. Fasth was one of the better goalies in the SEL this season, and I guess he'll probably get the second goalie slot when they report the skeleton roster ahead of the tournament. Leaving the third slot open means they can bring Lundqvist over if the Capitals beat the Rangers. Fasth and Enroth are good enough goalies, I guess, but are they championship winning goalies? That remains to be seen.

[mathonwy]

I'm really looking forward the WHC. Should be good hockey.

So...

Sharp Getzlaf Perry
Skinner Tavares Kane
Benn RNH Eberle
Burr Ladd Purcell
O'Reilly

Keith Subban
Methot Jbo
Vlasic Phaneuf
Schenn

[Topper]

According to John Lu at TSN, the practice lines were

Burrows - Benn - Perry
Purcell - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Skinner - Tavares - Sharp
Kane - O'Reilly - Ladd

[Benjo]

Keith Subban
Methot Jbo
Vlasic Phaneuf
Schenn

Good thing there is no playoffs in the WCs

[Topper]

Subban is not practising due to a sore knee, no details on the severity.

Getzlaf joins the fold on Wednesday.

[Island Nucklehead]

Subban is not practising due to a sore knee, no details on the severity.

Getzlaf joins the fold on Wednesday.

Subban is heading back to Montreal. Done.

[Per]

Sweden has stunk it up really bad in the pre-tournament games. Six straight losses. Sure, that's without most of the NHL players, but still. Hopefully the infusion of NHLers will turn things around.

Adding Alfredsson and Karlsson from Ottawa and Zetterberg, Franzén, Kronwall and Ericsson from Detroit should help both the offense and the defense get better. And Landeskog has been resting after hurting his knee. No injury though, it's just sore, so he should be good to go once the tournament starts.

[Per]

The Swedish line-up for their first game (vs Norway):

Goalie: Jhonas Enroth (Viktor Fasth)

Defense:
Niklas Kronwall - Erik Karlsson
Jonathan Ericsson - Niklas Hjalmarsson
Staffan Kronwall - Victor Hedman.

Forwards:
Loui Eriksson - Henrik Zetterberg - Johan Franzén
Viktor Stålberg - Marcus Krüger - Daniel Alfredsson (C)
Jakob Silfverberg - Calle Järnkrok - Gabriel Landeskog
Fredrik Pettersson - Joel Lundqvist - Niklas Persson

This means they have registered 18 skaters and 2 goalies (instead of the 22 skaters and 3 goalies allowed) and still have room to add a few more players from the Stanley Cup quarter final eliminations (eg Lundqvist, Bäckström, Steen... )

A Norris nominee, a Masterton nominee, a Calder nominee... yeah, looks half decent.
Wouldn't mind adding the Vezina/Hart nominee though.

[Per]

The puck has been dropped!

For the Merikins, that is, against the French. The score is 1-1 after the first period.

Canada's first game (against Slovakia) starts in three hours, guess that's like 6 am in the BC area?
You can catch the game while having breakfast then!

Sweden's first game is later tonight, 8 pm Swedish time, which would probably be 11 am in the greater Vancouver area.

You can find standings, results and schedule here: http://www.iihf.com/competition/272/statistics.html

This should be a great tournament. Malkin is here, Perry, Datsyuk, Chara, Getzlaf, Zetterberg, Mikko Koivu, Alfredsson, Keith... and the up and coming like Nugent-Hopkins, Erik Karlsson, Landeskog, Kuznetsov.

Splitting the tournament between Sweden and Finland also means that there are twice as many games that draw a home crowd, and that the number of games in each country is reduced, which leads to more pressure on tickets.

Time to sit back and enjoy and forget about what happened in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

[Uncle dans leg]

Anyone know which network carries this tournament?

[Per]

1-0! Silfverberg, assisted by Erik Karlsson! The future has arrived!