Brent Burns is a monster

quick updates from work.



Brent Burns has scored twice against Russia in the Gold Medal game to put Canada in the lead 3-1 at the end of the third period. TSN.ca was so excited that they mis-spelled Burn's name:

"Defenceman Brunt Burns scored his second goal of the game and third of the tournament on a 5-on-3 powerplay to give Canada a 3-1 lead in the first period. Russia immediately called a timeout following the goal."

Chris Kunitz has the other goal for Canada. Alexander Semin has the lone goal for Russia.

*update* Period 2, Russia scored on the powerplay, i have no idea who scored, although i'm sure ovechkin has something to do with it.

*update* Dany Heatley scored to make it 4-2 Canada!! The camera cut to Prime Minister Stephen Harper who was in attendance with his son. Apparently the PM is an avid hockey fan who is actually currently writing a book about hockey.

*update* Russia has brought it to within one with a goal by Tereshchenko(Stephen Harper looks worried) halfway through the third period.

*update* TIE GAME. 5 minutes to go. (Stephen Harper was right to be worried.)

*update* regulation ended with a 4-4 tie. Overtime in IIHF rules are a 20 minute overtime period of 4 on 4. And then if nothing is decided, a shootout. Seriously??? A shootout. ridiculous.

Also, it's now 1-0 Pittsburgh over the Flyers after an early Ryan Malone goal (assisted by Sidney Crosby and Marion Hossa)


*update* It's over. Canada loses. Kovalchuk scored both the tying and winning goal. Gold to Russia and Silver to Canada.
Russia scored on a powerplay... one of the most brutal penalties of life. I hate the delay of game for shooting it over the glass. I will rant about this later.

The tournament for the rich and unemployed.

The World Championships have never been a big deal in Canada. We pay attention, sort of, if there's no NHL game on, I guess. Canada's team is always made of players who have either not made the NHL playoffs, or have been knocked out in the first couple of rounds. The tournament Canada really rallies behind is the World Juniors (under 20) at Christmas-time. The World Junior team on the other hand is made up of young players, most of whom are on the fringe of stardom. Let's not mention that the tournament has never been played on Canadian soil. Right down to the major sponsor (Skoda) the tournament is a European thing.

But if there was to be made inroads with the tournament on Canadian soil it was not to be done this year. I'm not one to criticize Hockey Canada, I think they do a fantastic job with grassroots, right up to the top. I've also had the luck of being able to witness the World Junior tournament in person when it was hosted in Halifax in 2003 and in Sweden in 2007. So I feel pretty confident in saying that this tournament was not fan friendly. It was pretty much anti-fan.

1. Game times. ALL of Canada's games were at 4:30pm local time. Listen, I know this is a long running joke, and perhaps the nice people at Hockey Canada can claim ignorance since they're based in Calgary. But people in Halifax have JOBS. I have a job, my friends have jobs, and 4:30pm on a weekday is not exactly an ideal time to go for a few pops at the Split Crow and hit up a hockey game.

2. Two Cities. Splitting the games between two cities is fine. It usually has to be done to accommodate two pools. However, splitting them between two cities in two different provinces that are extremely far apart is stupid. Google Maps tells me it's about a 10 hour drive from Halifax to Quebec City (and I don't think that Google Maps takes into account the side of the road panic attacks caused from driving through Quebec.) Why not just fly? Well, currently Westjet doesn't even fly from Halifax to Quebec, so you're stuck with Air Canada (goodbye luggage) and goodbye $659.14. That's on top of the ridiculous amount of money you would've dropped on tickets. More on that in a second.

3. Ticket Prices. A ticket package in Halifax ran you about $900. And this did not give you any medal games (past the quaterfinals). If you bought the package in Quebec, you get a POSSIBLE two Canada games (which depended on if Canada made it there).

4. Too many teams. Holy Phil Esposito. There are four pools in the World Championships, each with four teams. I love the Latvians, they were fun people to hang out with. The Slovenians were really crazy too. And I feel bad about this point... but it's one that needs to be said. Those countries are not very good at hockey. It's pretty damn hard to get up for a game against Slovenia (or Latvia... or France...or Italy).

The week that wouldn't end.

Gary Roberts sat out game three with pneumonia. Gary Roberts doesn't have pneumonia, they just don't want him to kill any flyers.

Isn't that cute... the Flyers think they're gonna win a game.

The Detroit Red Wings failed to sweep the Western Conference finals last night as they lost to the Dallas Stars, pushing off the inevitable for one more night.

Dave Nonis has been in interviews for the General Manager position with the Toronto Maple Leafs for three days now. Three days? They've got to be going steady by now.

Canada beat Norway 8-2 to move onto the Semi-Finals against Sweden, to be held in Quebec City. (I will rant about this later).

Live Bloggin: Canada vs Germany

6:38pm: Eric Staal is the player of the game for Canada. Sort of a no-brainer.

6:35pm: GAME END. 10-1 FINAL.

6:30pm: St. Louis missed a breakaway goal.

6:29pm: Heatley just missed a tip-in attempt.

6:26pm: Loving the drunk guy in the Team Canada Crosby sweater dancing. Perhaps alcohol was the key to dimming the boring nature of watching Canada wallop Germany 10-1.

6:24pm: McGuire mentions the early morning wakeup call for the 11th time this game.

6:23pm: Staal narrowly missed a redirect in front of the net. And then got a penalty for hooking.

6:18pm: three-on-one after an unsuccessful pinch by Green and the puck trickles in off of a Canadian players skate. Cam Ward has now lost his shutout bid. I personally blame Gord Miller who said the SO-word before the end of the game.

6:17pm: "THEY TAKE NUMBERS, EVEN IN INTERNATIONAL PLAY. GETZLAF JUST SAID, CAREFUL IF YOU DON'T WATCH YOURSELF IT'S COMING AGAIN!"

6:14pm: Jovanaski with a real nice defensive effort after Derek Roy coughed up the puck in the Canadian zone.

6:10pm: Germany should be taking a lesson from Norway who played very close-checking and kept the Canadians to the perimeter. Germany appears to be trying to match Canada. I would like to point out that trying to match Canada IS NOT WORKING.

6:09pm: MIKE GREEN SCORES!!! poor poor Robert Mueller didn't even know it went in. St. Louis gets his fifth assist.

6:08pm: German penalty. Staal fell awkwardly but appears to be ok.

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5:55pm: update from Russia-Sweden game. Sweden is up 1-0 and apparently Kovalchuk got in a fight, but as we all know players like Kovalchuk don't quite know how it works, and that was evident as both players still had their mitts on. Almost guys, almost.

5:51pm: Came across this. Apparently that dementia I was talking about the other day that seems to be running rampant amongst the Toronto Maple Leafs players hasn't affected everyone. Jason Blake is saying he would be open to a trade. That's code word for "THIS PLACE SUCKS!"

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5:50pm: PERIOD END. 9-0 Canada.

5:47pm: JAMAL MAYERS SCORES!!! again. wide. open. net. McGuire: "THE GERMANS SHOULD START THE BUS NOW!".

5:45pm: Pierre McGuire is still talking about the 8:30 am practice, he now thinks it is a good idea.

5:44pm: Germany still only has 9 shots. These guys are playing like a bunch of Slovenians.

5:43pm: man... 8-0... this is starting to get a bit boring.

5:41pm: STAAL SCORES!!! AGAIN!!! Tipped the puck into an open net with only one hand on the stick. Nice behind the back pass from St. Louis. Apparently Eric Lindross has the record for most goals in a game, which is five. Staal is one away. Let's go Staal.

5:40pm: Do you think the players try to hit the Skoda cars in the stands? I would.

5:39pm: Rick Nash just made a ridiculous move and was stopped by Meuller.

5:38pm: our buddy Mavs, who is the music guy for the entire tournament just played "The Price is Right" theme. Awesome. Almost as good as starting the game with "Barrett's Privateers".

5:37pm: goal.

5:36pm: They're reviewing the goal to see if the posts were in place.

5:35pm: DEREK ROY SCORES!!! Doan was aggravating in front of the net, the goalie was down and out and Roy had a big giant open net.

5:34pm: "And Spezza couldn't cash in." A line Ottawa Senators fans are used to hearing.

5:33pm: German penalty.

5:32pm: shots are 26-6. This is not a goaltenders battle.

5:28pm: ERIC STAAL HATTRICK!!! St. Louis threw a beautiful pass from behind the net right on to Staal's stick. It appears no one was willing to throw their new overpriced official hats they've been selling at the games. "dat's right good dere staal, but i spent 40 loons on this hat."

5:28pm: The top line is out there and they are not looking where they are passing.

5:23pm: McGuire is on fire. "IS PANG AVAILABLE TO PLAY?"

5:22pm: Apparently Germany switched goaltenders at intermission because it is now Mueller in nets.

5:21pm: ERIC STAAL SCORES!!! second goal of the game (and tournament) — he walked right through pretty much four players. ROOF DADDY!

5:20pm: Pierre McGuire: "LOOK AT THEM CRASHING THE NET, WE DIDN'T SEE ANY OF THIS AGAINST NORWAY LAST GAME. THEY'RE REALLY PLAYING INTO HITCHCOCK'S PLAN OF PLAYING NORTH AMERICAN STYLE HOCKEY!"

5:19pm: German penalty.

5:17pm: apparently German coach Uwe Krupp's son is playing in the US system right now, however if he plays another year he will be ineligible for the German national team. His other option is to go play with the Belleville Bulls in the OHL next year.

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5:11pm: still intermission, interesting story about Dany Heatley and how he almost ended up on Team Germany back in the day.


5:05pm: Cory Woron just looked so lost when the highlight clips didn't come on. "WHERE DID MY WORDS GO!?"

5:01pm: Belarus took the Czech Republic to a shootout, the day after taking the Russians to a shootout. I love Belarus, they always sneak in some sort of ridiculous upset. (see: Sweden, 2002 Olympics)

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5:00pm: PERIOD END. 4-0 Canada.

4:58pm: PATRICK SHARP SCORES!!! Sharp was trying to centre a pass and it redirected off of the German defensemans skate. The goaltenders five-hole is almost as big as Sean Avery's mouth!

4:53pm: Germany Penalty.

4:52pm: ERIC STAAL SCORES!!! 3-0 Canada. Staal's first goal of the tournament.

4:49pm: DANY HEATLEY SCORES!!! (through the giant five-hole again) He was pretty much in all alone. Heatley is on fire, 7 goals in 5 games.

4:49pm: Wikipedia tells me that Kotschnew is actually from Kazakhstan but has German citizenship.

4:47pm: Decided I better actually look up the name of the German goaltender, it is Dimitrij Kotschnew who is playing for the first time this tournament.

4:44pm: Heatley-Nash-Getzlaf line continue to pepper Germany's net with shots. What an insane line.

4:41pm: The German players all wear that god-forsaken T'blade skate system that makes the most annoying sound of life. If I wasn't afraid i'd miss some sort of terrible quip from Pierre i'd put it on mute.


4:36pm: Spezza comes up the right wing and puts a goal through the gigantic five-hole of the German goaltender. Nice to see Spezza doing something besides coughing up the puck to the other team.

4:31pm: puck drop. We're informed by Pierre McGuire 'THE CANADIANS HAD AN 8:30AM PRACTICE TODAY AND I SPOKE TO THEM AFTERWARDS AND MOST OF THEM DIDN'T FEEL COMFORTABLE ABOUT IT"

Photos from Canada and USA on Tuesday.

canada beats usa. barely.

Canada faced their first challenge Tuesday afternoon as they faced the USA. Canada appeared to have control of the situation with a 4-2 lead but in the third the USA managed to claw back and tie the game. It wasn't until 46 seconds left that Dany Heatley came to the rescue, scoring an off balance snipe, sending the crowd in a frenzy (see my video below). The Canadians also faced a tough last 30 seconds as they were handed a penalty and with the US goalie (Craig Anderson, because Thomas is nursing a groin injury) on the bench, were down 6-4 men. Cam Ward came up huge in many situations and even though it was after the buzzer, he sent the puck down the length of the ice and into the net as the two teams skaters were discussing dinner plans over in the corner.

kovalev not fast enough.

Apparently Kovalev will not be playing for Russia at the World Hockey Championships this year. Check out this excerpt from his interview yesterday:

Kovalev said he was not invited and that he had received text messages indicating that he was too slow for the national team. "If you don't want to use players, I mean, don't say those kind of things, like I'm not fast enough or whatever,'' Kovalev said. "I'm not saying it's insulting but it's kind of crazy hearing that from your own country.''

Kovalev also added that he would go home and work on his skating. Although, maybe it's not that he's not fast enough... perhaps it's that he is just too awesome for Russia (see below).

Point form.

It's Saturday, that bright shiny orb in the sky finally returned and... I'm at work. It's a bit busy here today (seems like a few people have the rum and coke flu) but a lot happened that just needs to be talked about, so we're going to do a quick run down.

World Championships

- Canada and Slovenia: score 5-1. Dany Heatley was back in fine form after a less than par playoffs with a hattrick and player of the game. But the real star of the game was Slovenia's goaltender Robert Kristan who faced 65 goals and let in just 5 goals, Kristan recieved a resounding standing ovation from the Metro Centre crowd in appreciation of his efforts.

- Latvia USA: score 4-0. Latvia played just like their fans cheered. Balls out. They lost, but it was exciting... mostly because of the loud, drunken fans, who cheered and banged giant drums throughout the game. I cannot wait until Latvia scores, I want to see what happens.

- Games today: Finland VERSUS Germany (4:30 AST) and Slovakia VERSUS Norway (8:15 AST)


NHL


- Carey Price will be back in nets for game five tonight. Tonight will be a huge test for the young goaltender, as he faces the pressure of coming back from being benched last game and facing elimination. It will be a goaltender's battle as Martin Biron has been playing extremely well and is one of the main reasons the Flyers are in the position to knock off the number one seed Canadiens.

- expect to see Guy Carbonneau's lucky, shiny, colourful, silk tie tonight.

- only 1 broom out for Round 2. The San Jose Sharks overcame a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in overtime and live another day. Game six is in Dallas.


MEMORIAL CUP
The Memorial Cup is just two weeks away and there are a few teams that have already secured a spot.
- Belleville Bulls
- Kitchener Rangers(host team)
Two series are still yet to be determined the Western Hockey League finals (Lethbridge or Spokane)and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League finals (Rouyn Noranda Huskies or Gatineau Olympiques)

LATVIANS.

There are a 1000 Latvians in Halifax for the World Hockey Championships. Latvians? yes, Latvians. Check out a story about it here.

My goal for the next week has now grown to three:

1. Find Steve Yzerman.
2. Find Jonathan Toews's dad (Bryan) and give him a copy of our picture together in Sweden.
3. Hang out with Latvians.

Doan named Captain Canada.

And what a good choice.
In case you forgot, last year Shane Doan was wrapped up into a Parliamentary debate during the 2007 World Championships in Russia. To sum up the drama quickly, basically it was alleged that during a game in December 2005 Doan uttered anti-french comments. Nothing was ever proven as nothing was caught on mic and Doan was not reprimanded by the NHL. However the Canadian Parliament thought that perhaps this was something they should take into their own hands... two years later.

The Liberal Party, questioned (publicly) whether Shane Doan should be representing Canada as the captain, because of his anti-french sentiments. This despite the fact that nothing has ever been proven. (if you want to see some press from the time click here). I have a couple of thoughts about this whole ordeal.

First of all, Is it really the place of the Canadian federal government to dictate who and who cannot play for Hockey Canada (a completely independent body)? This would be like the government dictating the posting of someone to the Canadian Cancer Society or editor of a newspaper, or a president of a business. Basically think of anything that is ridiculous and that is the situation we've got here. If the federal government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, then it definitely doesn't have business in who gets to play for Team Canada.

Second, Don Cherry, love the guy, but he has blatantly voiced his opinions on french players... on national television. And not just any national network, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), which is publicly-owned television. In other words, tax payers pay Don Cherry. Now i'm not saying Parliament should be debating whether Don Cherry should be on tv, i'm saying the opposite. If Parliament isn't arguing about the merits of Don Cherry's view on the french then why are the talking about Doan?

And lets go back to that whole thing, nothing has been proven. Doesn't perpetuating that he said this stuff even though no one can prove it, go against a fundamental Canadian principle? You know, that little one, "innocent until proven guilty".

Most of all, this happened last year. The alleged "slur" occurred three years ago. I don't understand why this topic is still coming up. It distracted the team last year, and they still won, let's not play with fire here and try it again. Especially when the tournament is on our own soil. Go Canada Go.


And in a fun note, a friend of mine sent me this last night after Johan Franzen scored a hat-trick in the last Detroit Red Wings win. Franzen has been on fire since late February.

So much hockey.

So a tournament that has completely slipped under my radar is the World Under 18 tournament being held in Russia. I guess there are just too many distractions, including playoffs in NHL, and CHL, and the World Hockey Championships that will grace the Halifax Metro Centre in just a few weeks.

Anyway, unsurprisingly (is that a word?) Canada is off to the playoff round of the tournament after winning their final round robin game against Slovakia 6-0. Also something I didn't know, Pat Quinn is the head coach for Canada. *insert joke about how much easier this must be than when he coached the Toronto Maple Leafs*

If you are a morning person, are really hardcore about under-18 hockey, or you still haven't gone to bed after your bender on Saturday night you can catch the quarterfinal game on TSN at 6 a.m. (5 a.m. EST).