IIHF World Championship in Ice Hockey coming up in a couple of days (10 May). I though this would be a good subject
to discuss while we're wainting for the tournament to start: The IIHF Centennial Ice Hockey All-Star Team.
It was named in 2008 by 56 experts from 16 countries. Is it to your liking? Or would you make up a completely different team?
Here it is:

Goaltender: Vladislav Tretiak (Soviet Union) – 30 votes
First defenceman: Viacheslav Fetisov (Soviet Union) – 54 votes
Second defenceman: Börje Salming (Sweden) – 17 votes
First winger: Valeri Kharlamov (Soviet Union) – 21 votes
Second winger: Sergei Makarov (Soviet Union) – 18 votes
Centre: Wayne Gretzky (Canada) – 38 votes

I think they did a pretty good job. My personal favorite Swedish players are of course Lennart "Lill-Strimma Svedberg
and Sven "Tumba" Johansson. Players who even Anatolij Tarasov admired (and that says a lot).

Source: [en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]
[sv.wikipedia.org]
[sv.wikipedia.org]

LINKS:

IIHF - Home 2019 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-12 22:55 by bv.

Here is a picture from the occasion:

Bump! All this work and not one response! Come on, am I the only hockey nerd around here? I heard Anders Hedberg (old Swedish hockey player who played with
Ulf "Lill-Pröjsarn" Nilsson and Bobby Hull in Winnipeg Jets in the seventies). He thought Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks will make it to the Stanley Cup final. Who knows?

"You're not the only one . ." Stoneage.

I love Icehockey though Germany is not the worlds greatest Hockey nation.
Played myself in Junior teams - worlds apart lol.
Quite a lot players from Scandinavia are coming to the DEL these days.

Looking forward to the Hockey WC in Slovakia this weekend.

Good to hear, Cousin C. The Germans are good. Better and better. The Swiss team was one shot away from the gold last year. It's an open tournament. Many teams can make it.

Only Gretzky - and 4 Russians (+ Sveden of course).
Maybe that makes it a bit hard for the US/Canada.
But it seems quite fair.On the other hand I find it a bit complicated.
Hard to choose.

Can you watch the KHL on normal TV in Sveden?

Hi, Cousin C. I can't and I don't know if it's possible on cable. Maybe. I'm busy following SHL (Swedish Hockey League) of course. Sometimes I'll watch an NHL game. But not often.

Yes, one can argue about the "World Team". But IIHF concentrates on international games and between 1954 and 1989 (The Wall..) The Soviet Union dominated international hockey.
Personally, I think it would have been nice with a Czechoslovakian player in the team also. Maybe if they had nominated two lines?

I like the two line idea ... that way the list would be more "worldly". It's too bad Orr didn't play much internationally.

Yes, Leftybill. I would rank Bobby Orr or Bobby Hull next in order after "The Great One". But that's just my personal opinion. Others would, perhaps, think differently.

Shortly: IIHF has changed the rules regarding penalties in undecided games. There will be no penalties in the final. Instead there will be 3 against 3 till one team scores.
In Round Robin it will be an extra period of 5 minutes 3 against 3. Then penalties. In the quarter- and semifinals (plus bronze game) there will be 10 minutes of 3-3 -
then penalties. Get it?

I've mentioned this before in previous years, the World Hockey Championships occurs the same time as the Stanley Cup playoffs. For Team Canada and others with NHL players, it's made up of players who's teams didn't make the playoffs or were eliminated in the first round.
For European players, this tournament means a lot more to them than North Americans. Many Canadian players decline to go to the tournament, sometimes due to injuries or just been tired from a long season. This year's team could have had Sidney Crosby, Steve Stamkos, Mitch Marner, Jonathan Toews, Carey Price, etc. Instead, a lot of younger players get the chance to go over and participate, which is good to see.
TSN in Canada will be showing many of the games, all of the Canada ones. The pic above has former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper with all the former players.

That's the problem, DGA35. The Stanley Cup ends in mid June and all the European (and Russian) leagues in early April. Which, of course, makes international competition
on the highest level impossible. Which I guess is the plan from the NHL. Their goal is of course to make as much money as possible. Nothing else.

Okey, the 2019 World Championship starts tomorrow. This time in Slovakia. (Canada has actually hosted the event one time since 1920 - in 2008).
Some interesting games tomorrow:

- Finland - Canada
- Russia - Norway
- USA - Slovakia
- Czechia - Sweden

I think Russia and USA will win their games. The other two games can end either way. Hard to tell, really. What do you think?

In Tre Kronor (Three Crowns - Team Sweden) I mostly miss playmaking defencemen like Erik Karlsson, John Klingberg and Rasmus Dahlin. Erik is still in the Stanley Cup (Sharks)
and the other two decided not to come. Like so many others... Our "star" is of course Elias Pettersson. I hope he can deliver on a high level.

Hosts Slovakia won comfortably against a starstudded USA with 4-1. It's brother Czechia won convincingly against Sweden with 5-2. Finland surprised Canada and won 3-1.
And Russia won against Norway with 5-2. A new thing this tournament is that the play off will be based on ranking. Team 1 will meet team 8 and so on.
A good start to the tournament. More games tomorrow. Results again:

Russia - Norway 5-2
Finland - Canada 3-1
Slovakia - USA 4-1
Czechia - Sweden 5-2

I hear the Buffalo Sabres were seriously considering signing Sweden coach Rikard Grönborg until he signed again with Sweden. We were all hoping for it here. I'm sure Dahlin was too.

Not much hope for our team here in Finland, the weakest Team Finland for ages: no any NHL players (three from AHL), four from KHL and most of the players are from our national league. A deep problem within Finnish ice hockey now, since most (almost all really) of our elite players, both in NHL and KHL, are saying 'no' to Team Finland.

Yep, Finland won Team Canada yesterday, but that doesn't mean much by this early stage. Our team has been together for over four weeks so they were more ready. Finland played close to their optimal, while Canadians just were warming up. I guess the same with Sweden and USA who also managed to lose.

Anyway, what is for me most thrilling to follow in this tournament is how our (next) super talent Kaapo Kakko, to be drafted in the summer, is doing. The beginning was superb: the kid scored twice against Canada in his first ever game against NHL-class players. The first one was pure work of art. That surely made New York Rangers happy, since they most likely will pick him #2 after US super talent Hughes (who also plays in tournament and will face Kakko next Monday). But it says all about Team Finland if the best player is a 18 year old junior...

- Doxa

Grönborg has signed for a Swiss team now, Sicilian. This will be his last WC for Tre Kronor. Johan Garpenlöv will succeed him in Tre Kronor (Team Sweden). Johan is a former SHL/NHL/Tre Kronor player
and has been Team Manager in Tre Kronor since 2010. Apparently Grönborg wanted to coach an NHL team partly because his wife/spouse is American and he has an American university degree.
But it didn't work out.

Quote
Stoneage
Grönborg has signed for a Swiss team now, Sicilian. This will be his last WC for Tre Kronor. Johan Garpenlöv will succeed him in Tre Kronor (Team Sweden). Johan is a former SHL/NHL/Tre Kronor player
and has been Team Manager in Tre Kronor since 2010. Apparently Grönborg wanted to coach an NHL team partly because his wife/spouse is American and he has an American university degree.
But it didn't work out.

My bad, so what do you think of his coaching abilities?

Quote
Stoneage
In Tre Kronor (Three Crowns - Team Sweden) I mostly miss playmaking defencemen like Erik Karlsson, John Klingberg and Rasmus Dahlin. Erik is still in the Stanley Cup (Sharks)
and the other two decided not to come. Like so many others... Our "star" is of course Elias Pettersson. I hope he can deliver on a high level.

I watch Pettersson quite a bit since I live near Vancouver and all Canucks games are televised. He's an exciting player with a wicked wrist shot. I'm sure he'll win the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year.
Karlsson is an unrestricted free agent this summer so it'll be interesting to see where he ends up. He'll be getting a huge contract where ever he signs.

You'll have to ask the players, Sicilian. His merits are good. He seems to be very serious. Not the most cheerful of guys. I'm sorry though that he missed out on being the first Swedish NHL coach.
I think he would have done just fine.

Quote
Doxa
Anyway, what is for me most thrilling to follow in this tournament is how our (next) super talent Kaapo Kakko, to be drafted in the summer, is doing. The beginning was superb: the kid scored twice against Canada in his first ever game against NHL-class players. The first one was pure work of art.

Yep, looks like an interesting player. Mikael Renberg (SVT commentator and former player - Legion of Doom, Flyers, for example) compared him to Peter Forsberg.
He has both strength and skill. Scored three more goals today against Slovakia.

The real challenge starts with the quarterfinals of course. Going to be some interesting games. Many good teams in this tournament.
The Czech team is looking hungry again. And don't count out the Swiss!

Quote
Stoneage

Quote
Doxa
Anyway, what is for me most thrilling to follow in this tournament is how our (next) super talent Kaapo Kakko, to be drafted in the summer, is doing. The beginning was superb: the kid scored twice against Canada in his first ever game against NHL-class players. The first one was pure work of art.

Yep, looks like an interesting player. Mikael Renberg (SVT commentator and former player - Legion of Doom, Flyers, for example) compared him to Peter Forsberg.
He has both strength and skill. Scored three more goals today against Slovakia.

Yeah, he did. The kid has scored now five out of seven goals by Finland, and surely Slovakia (rightly) would have won that game without him. And he basically is a playmaker, not a scorer... He has given a plenty chances for the rest to score with his great passes, but seemingly he needs to do everything by himself. Yeah, that Peter Forsberg comparison is quite good to describe him (even though he is winger).

Funny though how a big thing World Ice Hockey Championship tournament in Finland is. Probably inspired by the win over Canada and the hype over Kakko, the game against Slovakia last night attracted two million viewers. Out of 5.4 million population that's quite much... Ice hockey clearly is the number one sports in Finland.

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-12 20:16 by Doxa.

listening to When The Stick Comes Down.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-12 22:08 by hopkins.

Limeys lost to Canada today, 8-0. I was hoping for Old Blighty to score a goal. But they chose not to...

Some interesting results today: USA - Finland 3-2 (OT) and Canada - Slovakia 6-5. Team Canada were lucky to score (in powerplay) in the last second against Slovakia.
The audience were crying out for a penalty seconds before that (and throwed bottles on the ice). Which the Swedish referee didn't see. Mark Stone scored the decider.

Some notable results from today: Limeys scored three against the Old Colonies (GBR-USA, 3-6). And germany won, 3-2, against Slovakia. Poor Slovakia, the host nation, has now suffered two one goal defeats in a row. Draisaitl scored with only 30 seconds to go. Germany, Russia and Switzerland are the only undefeated nations so far.

Well the Buffalo Sabres hired Ralph Krueger as their new head coach. Krueger is the former chairman Southampton FC of the English Premier League. He also has a Swiss passport.

There has been some criticism about the number of teams competing in the tournament. I agree. 16 teams are 4 too many. If your score sheet says 0-38 after 5 games you're not really good enough to be invited.
And games that ends 9-0 aren't that exciting to watch.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-18 11:04 by Stoneage.

Some results from today: Team Sweden were lucky to win against Switzerland, 4-3. Team Canada and Team USA seems to be stepping up a gear.
Big wins today. 8-1 (v Germany and 7-1 (v Denmark). Quarterfinals on Thursday, may 23.