To nitpick, the Wild's home arena is actually in St. Paul--and is beautiful.

~Adam

Just over an hour to go before the rematch of U.S. and Russia. I am confidently optimistic the US will find a way to win. If they come out like they did against Sweden last night, it will really help. GO USA!

ESPN's spending some money for the telecast tonight. They sent Darren Pang to the game and have John Buccigross and (ugh) Barry Melrose in the studio.

Yep they did. Panger was all over the house interviewing Tom, Dick, and Harry. Too bad the U.S. played their stupidest game of the tournament. Its mighty hard to win when you are in the penalty box all night. Geez. I don't see Canada as having too much of a problem with Russia, really. Who-da-bin isn't that good in my opinion. Like his name though. Maybe next year US???

Twas nice to see Panger and Booch, also nice to see my beloved hermit, Lou Lamoriello in the stands. It was also excellent to watch as Buccigross baited Melrose into doing color commentary on football highlights. Melrose is a mess outside of hockey. And in hockey he's only so-so.

I agree - WhoDaBeen is an awesome name. However you may spell it.

And Team USA played like garbage tonight. Too much time in the sin bin for sure. I think Canada plays a more disciplined game and they wipe the floor with Russia.

I think Canada is going to put Russia in its place. Incidentally, I caught the Sideny Crosby interview the other night by ESPN-2 during the Swedish game. He is one hot man!!!! eek!

"He is one hot man!!!! "

actually, he's still a boy.

boy, man, whatever. He is cute.

As opposed to, say, Ray Bourque's kid.
Whatever Ray had going for him, he didn't give a bit of it to his kid. Yikes!

First, the World Cup of Hockey, and now the World Junior Hockey champions! Canada's 6-1 win over Russia last night capped an awesome showing by these talented kids, who outscored their opposition 41-7 in the tournament. Ryan Getzlaf (of the Calgary Hitmen) scored the first goal last night less than one minute into the game. Our goalie Jeff Glass certainly wasn't challenged much by the Russians, whose top player was knocked out of the game. The Canadians didn't score during a five-minute PP, but by then the outcome was already known. Jeff Carter scored his 12th goal over two Juniors tournaments, tying a record set by Eric Lindros (although it took Big Eric three tournaments to achieve that). Coincidentally, both Carter and Lindros are from London, ON. If and when the NHL resumes, something tells me a lot of these guys (not just Sidney Crosby!) will be making names for themselves...

Attendance at the tournament in North Dakota fell well short of last year's attendance in Halifax, when the US won the championship. Apparently most of the spectators were Canadians who had driven to Grand Forks from Winnipeg, even though that part of the US is supposed to be something of a hot-bed for hockey. However, having once spent a night in Fargo ND, I can understand why people there would be reluctant to leave the charms of that metropolis for Grand Forks. (no offence meant to any North Dakotans lurking on this thread! )

Although I didn't see the US-Czech bronze-medal game, my condolences to American hockey fans. It was mentioned last night that US fans didn't like the style the Russians played earlier, and were almost unanimously cheering for Canada in the gold medal game.

Congratualtions to Canada Marc. I knew that the Russians would not be much of a match for you guys. The Czech loss for the U.S. capped a very very disappointing tournament for us. Oh well there is always next year! Way to go Canada!

Lots of articles here. No photo gallery.

Winnipeg Sun

Here too:

http://slam.ca/Slam/Hockey/Junior/

[ January 05, 2005, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

And Carter is Flyers property. I hope his stay with the Flyers ends up better than Eric's! Congrats to Canada on their win.

The drought is finally over! Canada had not won gold since 1997.

The team was dominant during the tournament. The NHL not playing helped in making a strong team since teams didn't have to clear players to play. For example, Patrice Bergeron would probably have played with the Bruins. He was the tournament MVP. Interesting fact is he won gold with the senior team earlier this year before winning a gold in juniors.

Next year Vancouver (and Kamloops, Kelowna) is hosting the tournament. Ticket sales are doing very well. I heard they could be sold out in February. They will set an attendance record, pushing Halifax in second place and Grand Forks in third.

Only two Canadian players from this year's team are eligible for next year, so a lot of fresh faces and inexperience. That compares to about 10 for Russia.

Equipment fetishists (and you know who you are), here's your chance.

Google news for \"Sidney Crosby\"

Sidney Crosby world junior jersey fetches over $14,000 bid in on-line auction

Search eBay Canada for \"Team Canada\"

Montreal police arrest man in disappearance of Sidney Crosby jersey

If had one of those jerseys, I'd hold on to it for, ah, safekeeping. Yeah, that's it; safekeeping.

[ January 13, 2005, 10:13 AM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

(Cue the old-timey piano music.)

Meanwhile, as Dudley struggled to free Nell from the tracks of the Canadian Pacific Railway where Snidely Whiplash had tied her; in a distant province, next year's Junior players were having their own championship games.

World Under-17 Hockey Challenge

Both the gold medal and bronze medal games had 100% Canadian content.

So that's the end of that, right? Not so fast, Horse breath, for Canada’s National Midget Championship is coming up in April. (By the way, who came up with that designation?)

I guess once that's done, we'll have daycare center hockey players battling it out. One thing's for certain: when the daycare championship games are finished, the players won't be going to Disney World. They aren't tall enough for the rides.

[ January 14, 2005, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

When the big news was Crosby lost his red jersey, I heard they took the white jersey off an auction and the bid was 20,000$. If it's the same that was put back and was at 14,000$, it could be on sale!

At the under 17 tournament, the Quebec team placed 9th out of 10 (only Germany behind). That was a bad performance and doesn't look good for Quebec players being on the Junior team in the near future.

It's not kindergarden but there is a pee-wee tournament with teams from many different countries every year in Quebec City.

tournoi peewee

Crosby's game-worn white jersey sold for 22,100$.

Wow!

Imagine spending all that money and he turns out to be the next, say, Eric Lindros instead of the next Wayne Gretzky. Or worse, what if he's the next Alexander Daigle? eek!

It's a risk, but Crosby is talked about as a future very good player. There are questions on which team would get to draft him if there is no season this year (and no draft). Or how if there is a short season, a team with a bad start could play for last place and get first draft pick.

If he turns out to be another Alexandre Daigle - the price is high for the jersey!