EHM The Blue Line

Anyone else following the World Champs?

It started last friday with preliminary rounds:

April 24th:
Germany - Russia 0-5
Belorus - Canada 1-6
Switzerland - France 1-0
Slovakia - Hungary 4-3

April 25th:
USA - Latvia 4-2
Norway - Finland 0-5
Sweden - Austria 7-1
Czech Republic - Denmark 5-0

April 26th:
Switzerland - Germany 3-2 OT
Slovakia - Belorus 1-2 SO
Russia - France 7-2
Canada - Hungary 9-0

April 27th:
USA - Austria 6-1
Czech Republic - Norway 5-2
Latvia - Sweden 3-2 SO
Finland - Denmark 5-1

Today:
Russia - Switzerland
Hungary - Belorus
France - Germany
Canada - Slovakia


Go Finland!

www.iihf.com

I'm watching these "World Champioonships" too!

Tasku wrote:Go Finland!

No, you said it wrong. Go Mertaranta.

LAtvia 3 Sweden 2. Ouch.

batdad wrote:LAtvia 3 Sweden 2. Ouch.

Yeah, that one hurt. But thye latvian goalie was a monster.
He stopped everything, meanwhile the swedish defence was horrible and in Shoot Out(this should be added in) the swedish goalie went down far too early and the latvian shooters could just shoot over him...

I've added OT's and SO's to the original post.

Latvia has been known to be capable of surprising the big countries every now and then.

Russia - Switzerland 4-2
Hungary - Belorus 1-3

Russian's were a bit tame against Switzerland. As if they forgot how much better individuals they had.

Then again, the Swiss played very well too. Last goal was an empty netter.

Slovakia sucks BIG TIME.

My home country, what's wrong with you? It's not like we have bad players, we had worse rosters over the past few years, but clearly they can't score. And defense sucks.

Yeah, Slovakia has had some bad years at the international level. Last year they had to fight for their place in A-Series, and now they're ranked below Switzerland by the IIHF.

gibson41 wrote:Slovakia sucks BIG TIME.

They all seem a bit asleep to me. Since they won the championship a couple years ago they don't care anymore.

France won a sleepy Germany 2-1 and are playing in the continuation round. Germany will be facing relegation games.

The first period was good hockey, but after France's 2-1 goal neither team seemed to care about making offencive play anymore, atleast not until the last two minutes, when it was already too late.

Tasku wrote:Anyone else following the World Champs?

Sure!
Finland will fall to CZE tonight. The only question is whether our young goalie (22 years, first tournament, fifth international game!) will have shutout or not. He's been tremendous so far.
And another question is which player will be injured by Jarkko Ruutu. Jagr again?
Go Czechs Go

We'll see... we'll see...

As for Ruutu: he's one of the most entertaining players ever. Injuries are a part of hockey. Deal with it.

Today:
Austria - Latvia
Denmark - Norway
Sweden - USA
Finland - Czech Republic

My tips:

Finland 5:4 Czech Republic

Sweden 8:3 USA

selne wrote:My tips:

Sweden 8:3 USA

I really hope that it ends that way.

mcqwak wrote:And another question is which player will be injured by Jarkko Ruutu. Jagr again?

Have to say, it was a clean hit. Jagr had his head down and he played with old Jofa helmet. And Jagr agreed that in Finnish interview.

Tasku wrote:France won a sleepy Germany 2-1 and are playing in the continuation round. Germany will be facing relegation games.

The first period was good hockey, but after France's 2-1 goal neither team seemed to care about making offencive play anymore, atleast not until the last two minutes, when it was already too late.

Talk about an event in French hockey! (that's to say a complete non-event in France )

Since we have an independant ice hockey federation, results have been better every year.
- 2 years ago: we win our group B and get promoted to group A
- last year: we manage to stay in the elite group, although we've been trounced here and there (ie 9-0 against Sweden)
- this year: not only we avoid relegation, but we also get our ticket to round 2 after a somewhat solid round 1. We failed to surprise the Swiss hosts (loosing just 1-0), we lost "only" by 5 goals (7-2) against the defending champs Russia (compared to the 9 goals deficit of last year against Sweden, that's a big improvement!), and we get our first win in something else than the relegation round. Not a pretty win for sure, but a big one nonetheless.

Now we have the right to be demolished by everyone in round 2 But our youngsters will get more experience from that than by facing Hungary in relegation round...

Btw, Germany doesn't care about relegation round, as they can't be relegated. They will be the hosts of the 2010 WC, and there's an IIHF clause that stipulates that the host plays in the elite level while hosting. So Germany will be in group A next year, no matter what they do in relegation round this year.

mcqwak wrote:

Tasku wrote:Anyone else following the World Champs?

Sure!
Finland will fall to CZE tonight. The only question is whether our young goalie (22 years, first tournament, fifth international game!) will have shutout or not. He's been tremendous so far.
And another question is which player will be injured by Jarkko Ruutu. Jagr again?
Go Czechs Go

Well, not quite a shutout. I'm glad that Finland finally knows how to make goals and our PP is working pretty nicely. But still, I'm afraid that with this kind of play, Canada will wipe the floors with us. Too many mistakes on our own zone and we do have a kind of small defense. But we'll see...

eternium85 wrote: Well, not quite a shutout.

Okey, okey... Both teams made awfull a lot of mistakes and the score could easily be around 8:8. We have to be better prepared for harder matches, esp. Canada and then quarterfinals...
Well, see you in the finals, you Finns

You're right Shadd, Germany can't be relegated. But it was nonetheless pretty good game from France. I was actually entertained in the first period. Not bad at all!

What Ruutu did in the game against Czech Rep, by filming an injury (with a big grin on his face!) was really low, but I don't think I've ever laughed so hard watching a hockey game. When he was interviewed on the intermission, he winked and said he was tired from a long shift on the ice.

Haha!

And the results were:

Wednesday:

Austria - Latvia 0-2
Denmark - Norway 4-5 OT
Sweden - USA 6-5 OT
Finland - Czech Rep 4-3

Thursday:

Russia - Sweden 6-5 OT
Belorus - Norway 3-2 OT
Switzerland - Latvia 1-2 SO
Canada - Czech Rep 5-1

Skipping all previous games: Fin - Can 4-3 SO

Yeah, that was the first good game from Finland. Hopefully they can keep that intensity in their games from now on. But still a lot to improve especially in PP and making those hard earned goalscoring situations pay off.

Great game indeed.
Hopefully Jalonen can get the powerplay working for Finland, that's really something they are going to need to go deep in the tournament.
Next up is team U.S.A. on wednesday, i think that might be a good game to watch.
It's not going to be an easy win for the Finns, but surely an entertaining one.:-D