Canada beat Latvia 5-3 in Riga today (exhibition) http://www.canadianhockey.ca/e/news/2003/nr037.html
WC starts Saturday with the games: USA vs Denmark Czech Rep vs Slovenia Canada vs Belarus Switzerland vs Russia Austria vs Finland Latvia vs Sweden Unfortunately the official rosters aren't released yet; as the Wings and the Avs dropped that early, the WC could have an unusual number of top players.
ihwc.net's Power Ranking: http://live97.ihwc.net/english/article/ranking/ I don't know about Germany being #7.
Sure not. The main aim is to avoid relegation (which would be a shame with Japan in the group) and then see what's possible. With Ukraine in the group, there is a good chance for the quarter finals though. Question: Kölzig, Hecht, Sturm, Butenschön, Seidenberg, Schubert - what do they have in common? Answer: all are under contract in America, are not active for their clubs and none of them is playing at the WC. Kölzig wants to use the off-season to spend time with his autistic (sp?) son, Hecht's wife is expecting their first baby, Sturm is negotiating about the contract and without insurance at the moment, Schubert and Butenschön are minor league players which aren't considered for the NT and Seidenberg doesn't get the permit to leave the Flyers as they might need him (if all others fracture their feet...)
Wow, this is certainly a surprise... I thought I read that the US out shot Denmark 55-22? Canada beat Belarus 3-0. They play Lativa tomorrow at 9am EST. The game is on TSN (live)...
especially since hockey only have 4000 active players here in Denmark The Goalie Peter Hirsch was outstanding- I think he or Kim Staal will be the first danish player in the NHL
Group B: USA vs Denmark 2-5 Big surprise that promoted Denmark could defeat the huge favourites. Ryan Miller – last year best goalie of the tournament – had a bad day and allowed three goals on the first four shots and was substituted for Chris Rogles. USA got closer at the end of the first period, but Denmark created the three goals difference again in the second. Same procedure in the third period: USA with a little ray of hope, but the 5-2 made the surprise complete. Best player was Danish Kim Staal with two goals and two assists; their goalie Hirsch saved 53 shots. Fahey and Fairchild scored for the USA, who now urgently need a win tomorrow against Switzerland, otherwise relegation could become a hot topic. Group C: Canada vs Belarus 3-0 Smooth win without much effort. Ryan Smyth and Dany Heatley scored in the first period, Mike Comrie added the third at the beginning of the third. Sean Burke had an easy shutout with just 13 shots on goal (Canada 26); Comrie was the only one collecting two points. Group D: Czech Rep vs Slovenia 5-2 Easy win for Czech Rep, who led 3-0 already after 13 minutes. A ray of hope for Slovenia at the beginning of the second, but Czech Rep continued to dominate and had a 5-1 lead after two periods. Hudler was the only player with two scorer points.
Evening games: Group B: Switzerland vs Russia 2-5 Early lead for Switzerland and Russia needed time to recover. Kovalchuk equalised after a quarter hour and they added a second for the lead after the first period. In the second, Russia first collected a two-goal-lead before Switzerland answered, but hardly two minutes later the next Russian goal followed. The final decision happened as shorthander by the best player, Pavel Datsyuk (goal + two assists) Group C: Latvia vs Sweden 1-3 Latvia scored the lead in the 13th, but this had a bad effect for them as they just woke up the Swedish team. No minute later Norstrom scored the equaliser and little later Nordstrom turned the game around. The last goal happened at the beginning of the second period, afterwards Sweden restricted on controlling the game. Group D: Austria vs Finland 1-5 First two goals were scored by Lydman, each assisted by Pirnes. Austria scored at 0-3, but Koivu had the answer. Selanne added the last in the final minute. Regarding the shots (29-25) the game was not as evident as the result tells.
The Hockey World Championships has become a joke, it's played during the NHL playoffs every year and most top NHL players won't play in it, rightfully so IMO since they're already playing in the Olympics and the newly-resurrected World Cup of Hockey. Look at the Big 6 teams this year, only the Finns have anything close to a full roster (even they don't really, they just have a few top players like Selanne, Koivu, and Ninemaa). The Swedes brought Salo, Renberg, and Sundin (D-man Ronnie Sundin of Frolunda Gotenberg, that is). The Czechs only have Straka and Hlavac, the Canadian team is mostly NHL players but we're talking mediocre players like Cory Cross, Patrick Marleau, and Sean Burke, certainly not stars; the American (evenly split between NHL reserves, minor-league players, and players based in Germany, plus Phil Housley) and Russian (mostly domestic players, not a single NHL star) rosters are complete jokes. Even Germany, who proved themselves in the Olympics able to compete with the Big 6 in the right circumstances, is missing all of its top players. In situations like this, it's really not all that suprising that teams like Denmark can beat the US. I'd like to get another shot at them in the Olympics, tho. They'd be lucky to hold us to 5-2.
I enjoy watching the World Championships because it is a nice break from the NHL playoffs. It doesn't bother me if most of the NHL players do not want to play in the WC because there are good non-NHL players on the various national teams. I would be just as happy to watch a Canadian team made up of minor-league and amateur players.
No surprise at all? Denmark is the first time in the A Group at least since very long years. None of their players is famous, most of them aren't even known by hockey insiders. Sure, some of their players are active in Sweden, which is no bad league, but the US team consists of players from NHL, US minor leagues, Germany and Switzerland - any of these leagues has to be considered much better than the Danish league. This yesterday definitely was a surprise if not a sensation. And the sportive meaning... nobody needs to like it, but it's a paradise for NHL scouts. Check last year's rosters and see how many now are already in the NHL or at least drafted last year. It's not that the World Championships have no sportive meaning - of course it would be different with all top stars, but on annual base it's not possible. You can always doubt the sportive meaning though; e.g. the World Cup 2004 will be played when all players are coming from vacation and no league has started, consequently the players won't be in a good shape.
Canada 6 Latvia 1 Close game in the first period, but Canada dominated the last two periods. After Canada opened up a 3-1 lead, Latvia pressed forward and left their defence open. Canada took advantage, and scored three goals in the third period. Artus Irbe made a number of excellent saves. Swiss 1 USA 0 USA has to beat Russia on Tuesday or they will face the possiblity of being relegated to the "B" Pool. Germany 5 Japan 4 Important win for Germany.
Just some further info: Germany vs Japan: Indeed important for Germany. After 10 minutes they already had a 3-0 lead before Japan returned to just one goal. 15 seconds before the first siren, Germany increased to two goals again. In the third Japan came closer again, but with three minutes to go Sven Felski scored the eventual game winner. Japan's last goal was too late to grab a point. Next to Felski (2 goals), Mirco Lüdemann and Eduard Lewandowski (2 assists each) were important for Germany, while M. Ito (goal + assist) and Chris Yule (goal + 2 assists) have to be mentioned for Japan. USA vs Switzerland That's a real shocker. Unlike you said, the last game of the USA against Russia only has a meaning if Russia loses against Denmark - otherwise USA will lose in the direct comparison against the two others. In other words: with 99.9% probability USA is in the relegation round and will have to win it to avoid relegation. Canada vs Latvia Not a lot to be added. Heatley (2+1), Cross (1+1) and Comrie (2+0) the top players of the game.
Was the win big news in Denmark? I don't think of it as a hockey country and was wondering if it even got noticed. Or was it sort of big news for a sport most people don't follow (Canada's cricket team winning in the World Cup was front page news, though most people don't know we have a cricket team). Nearly every hockey tournament in the world is devalued these days. Even the world juniors doesn't always feature the best players. The last World Cup was missing a lot of players (I'm still pissed that Ray Bourque said, "naw I don't feel like it" when our D was crap and we needed him, we should've told him where to stick it for Nagano, but that's another rant). So while I'm looking forward to 2004, I don't expect it will have everyone there either. The Olympics is the only thing that comes close and the tournament format is so skewed in favour of the big six, it takes a bit of the fun out of it. In any event, I just accept these tourneys for what they are. At the worlds I enjoy seeing some young up and comers on the big ice (Comrie and Heatley are both playing well) and seeing some weird countries (Belarus and Latvia) that you only get to see on TV once every couple of years. As far as upsets go, Canada lost to Italy in the early 80s. These things happen. cheers, hobbes
Ukraine vs Slovakia Hattricks of both Zednik and Palffy, also Stumpel with three points. Ukraine could keep the pace until they scored the 2-3. Then Slovakia added three in just five minutes and secured the win. Russia vs Denmark Slow start for Russia, only one goal in the first period. Within 7 minutes and 11 seconds they added all other five goals before Denmark changed the goalie who had a shutout in his almost 29 minutes. Suglobov scored a hattrick, Antipov had three assists. Sweden vs Belarus Looks like a slow start for Sweden with just 5-2 goals in the two wins against the outsiders of this group. The win was more than clear though considering 39-13 shots. It took 56 minutes until Jonsson scored the game winner.
Alex, keep your feeble drivel on the politics board. The last time Denmark played in the World Championships, they lost 47-0 to Canada (record). That was 54 years ago! 1949 was the only time Denmark ever competed in the worlds. Their only goal in the World Championships until Saturday came in a 25-1 defeat to Austria. Still think it's not surprising? The U.S. sent a very average team and is getting some well deserved beatings. I'm not interested in any "Mexican" excuses like "we had our c-team". You could send a bunch of highschoolers to represent your country for all I care. PS: USA - Switzerland 0:1, enjoy the relegation round. Idiot.
New Power Ranking: http://live97.ihwc.net/english/article/ranking/ USA ranked #16. Switzerland's Goran Benzina: "My AHL-Team is better than Team USA".
Does anyone know of a website where I can find the results from all of the previous World Championships?
Good thing no-one cares about the World Hockey Championships. How'd Switzerland do in the last WCOH? Or the last Olympics for that matter? That's what I thought.
The sad truth is US can no longer produce world class hockey players. We aren't replacing the generation of Richter, Roenick, TKachuk, Modano...
Well, in Europe the World Championships are very popular. You can't discuss away that a relegation - I don't hope that it happens - would be a big shame for the USA. If they played for the title, then also the World Championships would suddenly get interesting for the USA. The Switzerland question is: out after the group stage at the Olympics, 12th at the last World Championships and no clue if they took part in the last WCOH (which due to the irregular and coincidential mode has little meaning compared to the World Championships at least in Germany). But this just proves how bad the US team plays at this WC. For sure, they could dress a much better team with all NHL stars, but also this team should be much, much better. But maybe you're satisfied with IIHF rating Japan ahead of the USA... (Japan has one player not playing in Japan and this in the giant British Superleague - if you think that this should be the standard for the 'US reserves', then congratulations, the opponents next year could be hockey world powers like the Netherlands, Romania, Hungary, Croatia or Great Britain). And e.g. Germany is playing without about ten of the most imporant players and is still able to compete - and the US is not able to do that??? The US Roster btw: NHL: Ryan Miller, Jordan Leopold, Joe Corvo, Phil Housley, Jim Fahey, Francis Bouillon, Matt Cullen, Niko Dimitriakos, Adam Hall, Marty Reasoner, Craig Johnson and Brad Defauw (12) American Minor Leagues: Damian Rhodes, Mike Mottau, John Pohl, Chris and Peter Ferraro (5) German DEL: Chris Rogles, Kelly Fairchild, John Gruden, Ted Drury (all top players in Germany, 4) Switzerland: Brett Hauer, Kevin Miller (2) More than half of the roster is active in the NHL and almost everyone at least has played there. Given the standard of this team, a loss against Switzerland can happen on a bad day, a loss against Denmark is a shame, and going to the relegating round a disaster.