Why I love the World Juniors

I liked international hockey before I liked the NHL. Sort of. The whole Canada beating USA for the gold medal at Salt Lake thing kind of helped. But it didn't convince me to start watching hockey all the time. I would have to take a few more steps to get there. One of those steps was the World Juniors.

Five years ago today I watched the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship for the first time ever. Or, at least, the first time I remember. There were a few earlier instances in which I wondered why anyone would want to play so much hockey right after Christmas and waste away their whole winter vacation. It's Christmas, people. (I still sort of feel that way, because as much as I love watching the World Juniors, I feel a little bad for the players. You know these guys have at least twenty more holiday seasons where they might not get to relax for a few days and spend time with a family they almost never see.)

Anyway. Cut to late December 2005. Everyone but me has a fever and the only prescription is more Crosby. My older siblings kept ribbing me because he was my age and very good at hockey and on pace to be very, very rich someday. I didn't care. I saw no point in fawning over some horse-faced, overrated jock when there had been so many Rory Gilmore boyfriends who were so much more perfect? Plus, I had already claimed Carey Price as an alternative (sight unseen, and that worked out pretty well for me).

It turns out that watching guys my age playing hockey would be what got me just a little bit interested in the sport. No, not to find a hockey boyfriend. Okay, maybe just a little, but mostly I liked being able to relate to the players I was watching. I still do.

I don't remember much of what actually happened during the tournament, but I remember watching the games and I remember Canada winning. And really, when you think about it, what else matters? The tournament ended and I was richer: I remembered a handful of players from that team when I started watching NHL hockey. I'm happy every time Justin Pogge plays an NHL game. Every time I realize I'm watching a player who played for the 2006 squad, I smile a little. It was pretty cool to have three of the team's players briefly reunited on the Habs' roster this season. I even found my first hockey boyfriend (then-unseen Carey Price notwithstanding) on that team. Sasha Pokulok didn't skyrocket to NHL fame like a couple of his teammates, but he belonged to the Washington Capitals for a while and that's pretty cool. I look him up from time to time to see his stats. He's currently playing in Germany, after bouncing around a few teams I'd never heard of last season. He might be far away right now, but he's originally from Vaudreuil so maybe at some point, if I'm ever in the West Island during the offseason I might see him somewhere and tell him that five years ago, before I even liked hockey, I watched him play.

I'd like to say that I was immediately hooked on hockey after that, but it didn't happen that fast. Still, I can't believe it's already been five years since that WJHC, and how many of these players keep coming back to me. (There have been lots of random exclamations during my research for this post, most of them beginning or ending with "OF COURSE", as if I should have known that there was a subliminal reason why I like a certain city, player, or team.)

I liked cheering for Canada's world junior team in 2006. That hasn't changed, and I don't think it ever will.

Canada's juniors win silver medal

Team Canada ended a great tournament by playing a good game, and an especially good third period, but fate decided that silver looked better on this year's jerseys.

I'm an eternal optimist, so while some people are having fun bellyaching, I'm trying to look on the bright side (I hate stomachaches). Great players have won silver, bronze, or not even made it to medals. And the only reason why losing the gold-medal game is disappointing is because has Canada played so well in every game. While they may not have won this game, these players are going to make a huge impact when we see them in the NHL.

And Habs' prospect Danny Kristo gets to end his tournament on a high note.

Confusion

Tonight at 7, the Habs play Washington.
Tonight at 8, Canada's juniors play the young Americans for the gold medal in the World Junior Championship.

What's a girl to do?

Watch the Canadiens or watch the Canadians?

Switch to the juniors after an hour of Markov vs. Ovie?
Split my time and change channels like I have some sort of complusion?
Watch the junior game on RDS at 9:30 and risk hearing every name but "Cormier" mispronounced?
... Tape the juniors and watch an English-language feed as soon as the Habs-Caps game is over?

In any case, I'll have to hurry up and get my Team Canada gear on over my CH T-shirt as quickly as I can.

Update: The Habs had some good moments but obviously Fleischmann and Semin had to go and remind us that we like them. Whatever. We'll smash Florida.
Go Canada!

Olympics and Team Canada...

... before Team Canada is named for this year's Olympics (which happens tomorrow at noon and I'm very, very excited).

A few countries have already named their men's hockey rosters for the Vancouver Olympics, and for the most part it's the usual suspects. Well, I don't know very much about Latvia, so I'll just make assumptions like all real sports reporters tend to do.

Team Latvia boasts only two NHLers (the third Latvian in the NHL is probably fuming, not unlike Swede Mikael Samuelsson, who is an eleventh-hour candidate for quote of the year) and a bunch of really talented guys who play in Europe.

Team Sweden, as I mentioned, has no Mikael Samuelsson (I knew who that was before he fired off that quote) but it does have Nicklas Lidstrom (so far the best captain at the Olympics, but let's wait until tomorrow to confirm that), scoring machines the Sedin twins, and the excellent Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes (who I will sometimes say nice things about as long as he's not playing for the New York Rangers or against Canada). Oh, and some guy whose name doesn't sound Swedish at all.

Team Belarus recruited the Kostitsyn brothers, who have been on fire lately, as well as this other guy who plays for the Leafs and has no face.

Team Russia is um... you know what, I'm going to say it. Awesome. Team Russia, so far, is the team to beat. They have a wicked lineup (my apologies to Kovy for getting snubbed) which boasts the NHL's best players, including two guys who will potentially become NHL captains sometime soon, Andrei Markov and Alexander Ovechkin. Oh yeah, they're also two of my favourite players in the whole league and if Canada loses to Russia in the gold-medal game, I'll probably survive.

Team Slovakia, as expected, named our Jaroslav Halak as goaltender today. Halak is also the NHL's first star of last week and should not have been pulled at the end of last night's game against the Sens, but it seems like I'm the only person who tenses up when a goalie is taken off the ice. Another Slovak goalie? Rastislav Stana, who has a wicked cool name. The team also boasts former Hab Richard Zednik and the devil himself, Zdeno Chara Miroslav Satan.

We won't find out who's on Team Canada for another twenty hours (keep sending good thoughts to Steve Yzerman so that he'll pick Mike Cammalleri, and I'm using this as an excuse to post the "Hope" poster again), but to tide you over, there's a great game at the CTV Olympics site... find out who your "twin" is on the Canadian sledge, men's, and women's hockey teams.

And now on to the successors of the best sports team of 2009: Canada's juniors won their first two games, and they play again tonight (against Slovakia), saving us from a relatively bleak post-Christmas primetime schedule. Or, you know, you can wait the whole evening for a Zach Braff-less episode of Scrubs.

If I were you, I'd tape Scrubs. (Sorry, rest of the cast.)

All I want for Christmas is Plus/Minus

After spending the whole month of December playing about four games every hour, the Habs got two consecutive days off on Christmas Eve and Day. (Yes, even the Canadiens are allowed some time off... Alain Crete doesn't like it. But Alain Crete can't dress himself properly.) So, instead of lacing up their skates, sweating, and punching each other, the men of the NHL got to do just what we did for two days: spend time with their loved ones, open presents, and wish baby Jesus a happy birthday while wishing doom upon that moron who shoved the Pope.
The Habs gave us something to talk about this week on the days that they did play, so here's the week that was:

PLUS

+ I'll be honest... I'm starting with my favourite thing from this last week: Showing up at a hockey game dressed up as Green Man from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is possibly the best idea in the world. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the pictures. I only wish I'd thought of it first. There's no feasible way to top the Green Men at that Canucks-Predators game... except maybe dressing up as Night Man.
+ If it weren't for a solid performance by Jaroslav Halak, the Atlanta Thrashers would have scored at least half a dozen goals on Monday night. He kept up the good work throughout the week.
+ Whoever designed the Canadiens PR team's Christmas card this year must have had a blast. They also get extra points for including the 100th anniversary team photo, which in case you were wondering will be available for purchase soon. (I wish I had an exact date for you. Sorry, readers.)
+ We broke the December 23rd curse. And how!
+ We knew that we shouldn't get too excited about the return of Andrei Markov, but he appears to have been the catalyst for the team's improved play this week, and thus Markie becomes the third player to have nearly as many Pluses here as he does in the standings.
+ Junior Team Canada won their first game, an almost embarrassing 16-0 shutout over Lithuania. I guess that new Canada cheer really works!
+ Scott Gomez got five points in two games. FIVE. In TWO games.
+ Tomas Plekanec continues to creep his way up in the standings. I hope he totally smashes Cr-- oh, is it too mean to smack talk while I'm writing a Plus?



MINUS

- We still have no Brian Gionta, no Roman Hamrlik, and we re-lost Paul Mara (who by the way gets a minor plus for trying to finish his shift with a gloveless injured hand).
- Scott Hartnell and Marc Savard for their pretaped appearances on The Price Is Right, offering a showcase winner a wicked cool Winter Classic package. Savard (although it shouldn't surprise me) showed zero enthusiasm and personality on camera. I saw more genuine feeling in the Habs' holiday video greetings, which were taped MONTHS ago, before anyone even started thinking about Christmas. And yes, somehow their Price Is Right spot (on CBS, a network with no NHL affiliation?) was deemed Internet-worthy and was all over NHL.com the next day.
- Can I finally give my minus to the Winter Classic commercial?

It's beautifully shot, but the ad completely ignores the fact that the game takes place at Fenway. Instead, you'd think that the Flyers and Bruins suited up, snuck into a wardrobe and wound up in Narnia. Probably a Narnia in which there is no James McAvoy playing Tumnus.
- I'll be perfectly honest... I kind of keep on hoping that Sergei will drop his gloves and unleash some fury on Mikhail Grabovski, but so far none of that has happened this season. (The way that Sergei has been playing lately, though, definitely makes up for his lack of punching.)
- I may have missed some errors, but the graphics department at RDS was definitely suffering from a turkey hangover on Saturday's game. Typos galore! Apparently there are dudes in the NHL named "Pillips" (clearly Dr. House's favourite), "Pomminville" (awesome, because I love apple pie), and "Connelly" (hey, she won an Oscar!).

We already wished you a Merry Christmas (didn't we? Well, the sentiment was definitely there) and helped you with your holiday shopping.
Did you give or receive any legendary hockey-related gifts? Then tell everybody!

We have a trade to announce

In addition to the earlier news of Jay Leach having been claimed off waivers, word is that Kyle Chipchura has been traded to the Anaheim Ducks for a fourth round pick in 2011.

(Better days...)

Another guy with the "future captain" tag lost--to the team with our most recent captain. Last year's fluctuating status quo took its toll on everybody, but one that few point out is Mr. Chipchura. When management scurried around trying to put a bandaid on the hemorrage, he was the regular go-to AHL/NHL yo-yo. For someone not recognized for his flashy skills but rather his grit and team-guy nature, it was unfortunately only a matter of time before he was pushed off the depth chart. This season's starting out on the injured side didn't do much to help his cause, and when he finally did play, the hurt from last year turned into zero points and a -10 rating. Anaheim should be a good change of scenery for him (definitely one with better weather!) and if anyone won out in this move, it's him. Good luck, Chippy!

My choice of picture prompts me to turn to another kind of update. My favourite part of Christmas is getting closer, little by little--the World Junior Hockey Championship training roster has been announced for Team Canada. Ten boys from the Q have their names there, which is a pretty good showing compared to previous years. Habs' prospect Louis Leblanc is also part of the list.