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.