IIHF World Juniors 08/09
 

My favourite time of the year, the world junior hockey tournament is unbelievable. I like it more than the olympics to be honest. My Canadian boys always come out and plays our good ol' hard nosed kinda hockey and take home gold. Looking to make it 5 straight this year. Watched the first pre-tournament game today where we beat the Sweds 4-2. We physically laid the beats on them all game long especially in the first where we for the most part took their best player Victor Hedman out of the game with a couple of big checks. The pressure on the guys must be pretty tremendous though considering anything less than a gold this year is gonna be a huge let down. BUT, that said..nobody can play hockey like us and I see it being 5 straight this year. Hope theres some other enthusiastic World Junior Hockey fans aboard.

How does nobody else have any interest in this. I figured JJJ would be watching it. Canada plays the Fins today in another Pre Tourny game. Should be a relatively easy win, not to take anything away from the Fins who are always getting better. Im pretty stoked to see a couple guys back in action that have really impressed me. Ellis, Hodgson(Who is a Canucks first round draft pick btw), and Tavares. All are gonna be great players in the NHL one day I hope. Hodgson especially :)

I will be watching, don't get any pre-tourney games here, should will have the tourney starting after x-mas on one of their satellites. That's why I did not respond yet.

Finland\Sweeden looks like the best opening night match-up and I agree anything less then the best is a let down for the Canadians.

I figure the Sweeds, the Fins and the Russians are the Canadians top challengers.

Czechs and Americans could spoil it for someone, but I can't see them winning three in a row in the medal round.

What I can't figure out is how the Sweds have two black players. Something I'd never seen before.

They do...?

How does thins happen?

Who are the youngest players for the Canadians?

Ryan Ellis who has looked by far the most impressive to me in just the one pre tournament game is only 17. As well as Evander Kane who has just been called up due to an injury to Dana Tyrell. There are a bunch of players who are my age (18), but none of them stand out as much to me as the 6ft7" Tyler Myers who skates like he's 5'11".

Defenseman?

Yea, but a relatively offensive D man which took me for suprise a little.

We pimped it tonight against the Fins 7-3

good to see this here. I've been away the past week and havne't been able to do my duty. I'm gonna go ahead and predict a total sweep for the canadian boys this year. We're looking very well placed to totally dominate the tournament (not that that's anything new of course).

Myers stood out for me as well. Guy is a tank, I can't figure out how he's that agile, it's crazy to watch. My prediction is first place for Canada, Second to Sweden, and an upset with Czech's in third.

We layed the beats on the Czechs tonight with an 8-1 win. You could say tonight was the John Tavares show..projected to go number one in the draft seems about right after his performances. The Scouts are there to see him and Hedman, and Im not sure Victor Hedman can match what Tavares is gonna do this tourney. We get to play Kazakhstan (SP) next which is gonna be an interesting game to watch. They're in the "Thanks for showing up" group.

15-0 win against the Kazakhs. ALRIGHT!

Im looking forward to the game on new years eve against the Americans.

The Americans aren't

Although our lads ought to keep it closer then the zahks

Sounds like Zdeno Chara material. Aren't too many of them hanging around.

Its always a pretty chippy game between my boys and yours. Like whenever that was, a couple years ago that dirty elbow by that cunt Jack Johnson on Steve Downie. BUT, thats all behind me, different group of kids now.

yeah, the americans should actually put up a very good fight this year. the game will definitely be easy to watch.

and after some consideration, i think it will probably be canada first, US second, and sweden third. american boys are looking a lot stronger that i'd expected.

I think the Sweds are far better than the Americans..but the US has definitely showed up to play.

i'm not going to have fun watching tavares go to islanders/tampa bay in the 09 entry draft.

5-1 win over the Germans, Boychuk scores 2. The germans actually suprised me with the skill they had. Now theres just 48 hours between US vs Canada.

HOLY FUUUUUUUCK, Unbelievable game so far.
EDIT (post game)
One of the greatest hockey games Ive ever seen in my life. To go down 3-0 in the first period just about had my heart stop until young gun John Tavares brings the emotion back into the game. Welcome to the John Tavares Show people. Unbelievable. 7-4 Final.

I think that canada will play sweden in the finals and it will be no contest and might not be as good after the standards set from the us - canada game . but im sure the games will be good with tavares vs . hedman

yea, Hedman, Tavares is an awesome matchup but right now the Slovaks are lookin like they could possibly even upset the Sweds after upsetting the Americans yesterday. I think a Canada - Sweden final would be a relatively close game with us pullin though for sure.

This game tonight and the US game on new years eve are two of the greatest hockey games ever played in international play by far. Jordan Eberle scoring at the end of reg with 5.4 seconds left. I swear to god I almost flipped my couch. And then Eberle and Tavares come out big in the s/o and Takarski does his job. Thank the lord for Tavares and Eberle at the end of that game.

That's a whole lot of hyperbole, but it has been a great tourney.

that canada vs russia was the best game ive ever seen eberle made me almost flip my couch too.. canada vs sweden might be a better game then the first game against the sweeds i think they have improved as a team very well through the tourney .. and tavares played like **** untill flipping the puck at the net before eberle scored and of course in the shootout but 1st and 2nd peroid wasnt very good for tavares good thing eberle stepped it up. its pretty ****ty i have a hockey game myself during the gold medal game and i cant miss my game so ill have to miss on of the games that ive been looking foreward to since the juniors started

Very good prediction. 5 Straight baby..on top of the hockey world once again.

Congrats to our neighbors from the North, no surprise, but that doesn't mean it's not a great achievement. Five in a row is a hell of a run.

European Hockey is still it's equivalent on the professional level though despite what Crapes might have to say.

Im not gonna make a new thread. Maybe a Mod could just take out the 08/09 part. This is a different year for my boys because its the first time since 2005 that we havent come into the tournament as the defending champions. We've only got a couple returning players...Notably Brayden Schenn and Ryan Ellis. The American team has 9 returning players I believe and they're the so called favourites coming into this one. We took Russia 6-3 yesterday and the Americans had a close one with the Fins winning in OT 3-2. I didnt have a chance to watch the US FIN game so I havent really seen how theyre looking this year. Canada plays the Czechs tomorrow, should be another game where can we showcase our deadly powerplay. Im guessing a 4-1 win.

I caught some of the US win over SWE last night. I changed to the football game at 6-1 US. I'm hoping they take it again. I'm actually heading to Buffalo to visit family tomorrow, I'm going to stroll down to HSBC and see if any tickets are available.

This Sweden games going to be tough. I see us pulling out a victory though.
Sweden: 3, Canada: 5

Lets see how wrong I am......

I knew the Sweds would be tough but thought we'd manage. They played a good game even though we outmatched them physically all game. Looks like we're playing the quarterfinal game and most likely meeting the states in the Semis.

Ill be totally honest, I'm still in absolute shock we beat the USA that handly. We looked like a totally different team out there.

We definitely created the pace of that game. It was a matchup of the Americans finese and speed against a gritty Canadian game of boardplay and just doing all the small things. I love the way Cameron has coached this tournament, we're keeping it real simple, gettin pucks deep and putting them on net with lots of traffic. An agressive 2 man forecheck and making it tough for the American forwards all night trying to bring it through the neutral zone. The Ruskies really did upset the Sweds in that game and Im really lookin forward to this oldtime rivalry.

30 minutes till the game!!!!!

Well that was disappointing.