World Championship 2012

[Per]

Eberle might as well prepare for the 2014 winter Olympics, he's the next Joe Sakic except as a winger.

Assuming of course that the NHL allows its players to go...

[Per]

Two really interesting games tonight, and no - I don't mean Kazakstan vs USA and Italy vs the Czechs. I mean the prime time games: Finland vs Canada and Russia vs Sweden.

These are games that will give us a hint of how this tournament may end.

Sure, the US already played Canada and won, but if they face eachother again I think Canada will prevail. They always start these tournaments like crap and then improve over the course of the tournament. If they took the US to overtime in game 2, they will beat them if they square off again in a quarter, semi or final.

But now it's the 2010 Olympic champions vs the 2011 World champions who face eachother in Helsinki.
Do the Finns have as good a team as they did last year? Have the Canadians managed to gel as a team and have they figured out how to use the additional width of the rink?

And at the same time we see the other two main contestants in this tournament, Russia and Sweden, measure themselves against eachother in Stockholm.

It's official: it's a hockey fest!

[Per]

1-0 Sweden! Erik Karlsson on the power play, assisted by Alfredsson.

[Per]

God, these American refs are crap. Must have left their whistles at the hotel.
Either that or they're both legally blind.

It's getting ugly. If this continues some one is going to get hurt.

Sure, there's been four penalties on the Russians, resulting in three Swedish goals, and no penalty on any Swede so far, so maybe I shouldn't complain, but there really should be a lot more. The refs are losing the respect of the players out there.

Game is getting ugly. But at least we're winning.
3-1 right now.

[Per]

Yup. Now they're fighting.

Don't think these refs will get any more games.

[Per]

Franzén cross checked in the face by Kalinin and bleeding all over the ice.
Told you it was getting out of hand. Now this is a game penalty. Shrug.
guess it's really a retroactive call on Yemelin's spearing, which is really a worse offense...
Refs grasping at straws. Hoping to get it under control again. Good freaking luck.

[Per]

Russia wins 7-3. Malkin unreal. And Yemelin got under our skin.
The 3-3 score after two periods better reflects the game though, which could have gone either way imho.
The Russians were good, but not 7-3 good, the score just ran away at the end.

Franzén has a broken nose, to add to all the other injuries Sweden has suffered so far.

[SKYO]

God, these American refs are crap. Must have left their whistles at the hotel.

As a Canuck fan I know ref's are the hardest to understand at any given game, especially in the playoffs, all I know is in the finals, the ref's let A LOT go. I don't know a lot of world championship hockey rules, but I expect a similar call of games towards the finals.

[SKYO]

Burrows player of the game today!

8-0 for the good guys.

[Per]

God, these American refs are crap. Must have left their whistles at the hotel.

As a Canuck fan I know ref's are the hardest to understand at any given game, especially in the playoffs, all I know is in the finals, the ref's let A LOT go. I don't know a lot of world championship hockey rules, but I expect a similar call of games towards the finals.

Well, Yemelin got a one game suspension for the spearing that the on line officials only gave two minutes for. I guess that makes their suckage offical, eh?

And Kalinin got a three game suspension for breaking Franzén's nose with a cross check to the head.
Franzén rested today but will be good to go. Guess he'll be playing the rest of this tournament with some sort of face mask though...

At least we beat Italy 4-0 today.

[Per]

Norway beat Germany 12-4!

I mean, sure, Norway has improved a lot in recent years, but germany aren't that bad...

[Cookie La Rue]

Just embarrassing...

[Per]

Some poor Latvian kid just got Kronwalled. Sweden won 4-0.

So, guess we play the Czechs in the quarter and Russia plays Norway.
Canada plays Slovakia and the USA Finland.

[Per]

Wow! Seems like Slovakia just eliminated Canada from this tournament!

How the hell did that happen?

[Per]

Damn! Sweden eliminated as well.

Russia vs Finland and Czechs vs Slovaks in the semifinals.

I expect the Russians to win the gold.