2008 IIHF World Championship

[Themanofbat]

3-3 midway through the gane...

 

[Norman Osborn]

5- 3 Canada 3rd period

 

[Norman Osborn]

Canada vs Russia for the gold this Sunday...wooooo.......awesome game Sweden!

 

[Themanofbat]

Canada Vs Russia for the Gold...

Sweden Vs Finland for Bronze...

 

[Alex The Great]

Canada vs Russia For the Gold?!!?

*runs for cover*

 

[Galactus]

Canada Vs Russia for the Gold...

Sweden Vs Finland for Bronze...

Next year...

 

[Shifty]

Next year...

Ouch, 4-0 loss to Finland.

 

[Galactus]

Ouch, 4-0 loss to Finland.

Can't say I'm surprised...

 

[Shifty]

Dissecting the home ice curse
Column: Will the Canadian hosts buck the losing trend?



2007: Moscow’s reign ends

The Russian offence at last year’s tournament was ridiculously dynamic, starting with the AK Bars Kazan troika of Alexei Morozov, Sergei Zinoviev, and Danis Zaripov, and continuing with superstars like Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin. After dispatching the Czechs 4-0 in the quarter-finals, Russia’s perfect record at World Championships held in Moscow (1957, 1973, 1979, 1986) was intact. But when Mikko Koivu scored the 2-1OT winner for the Finns in the semi-finals after a failed pokecheck by goalie Alexander Eremenko, another glorious epoch in Russian hockey history came to an end. As Team Canada went on to capture gold, the Russians were left to dream of revenge on Canadian ice

The curse lives on!

Just makes the next gold medal win sweeter.

 

[Themanofbat]

Good game...

Just hard to absorb as a Canuck...

 

[Galactus]

The curse lives on!

Just makes the next gold medal win sweeter.

Yeah, it's funny how hard it is for home nations to win. Congratulations to Russia for the first gold medal in fifteen years.

 

[Galactus]

Canada tops 2008 World Ranking
Groups for Switzerland 2009 and Vancouver 2010 determined

QUEBEC CITY – Despite losing the 2008 IIHF World Championship final to Russia, Canada grabbed first place in the 2008 IIHF World Ranking by overtaking Sweden. World Champion Russia improved from fifth to second place, while Sweden is third and Finland fourth.

The Czech Republic lost another place in the ranking, which reflects the performances at the World Championships of the last four years and the 2006 Olympics, after having missed the semis again. The Czechs are now ranked fifth. In addition, their neighbours in Slovakia are ranked worse after surprisingly having failed to make the qualifying round of the best 12 nations this year. Slovakia went from sixth to eighth place and was overtaken by the United States and Switzerland. Belarus is the ninth of the directly qualified teams for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The three remaining Olympic spots will be determined by qualification tournaments November 6-9, 2008, and February 5-8, 2009. The participating teams and the tournament venues will be announced later.

The groups for the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament in Vancouver, Canada, February 16-28, 2010:

Group A: Canada, United States, Switzerland, Qualifier 3.
Group B: Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Qualifier 2.
Group C: Sweden, Finland, Belarus, Qualifier 1.

As well, the groups for the 2009 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland (April 24 to May 10, 2009) are determined. The games will be played in the PostFinance Arena of Berne, which will have a capacity of 10,000 spectators, and the 6,000-capacity Schluefweg in Zurich-Kloten. The organizing committee also announced that a few standing room tickets will be offered and ticket holders can use the public transportation system in the whole country for free. Unlike the 2008 Worlds, the quarterfinals will be played with cross-over between the qualification round groups thanks to the shorter distance between the venues, and the relegated teams will be determined by a round-robin relegation round, same as before this year’s World Championship.

The groups for the 2009 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland:

Group A: Canada, Slovakia, Belarus, Hungary.
Group B: Russia, Switzerland, Germany, France.
Group C: Sweden, United States, Latvia, Austria.
Group D: Finland, Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark.

Groups A and D will be played in Zurich-Kloten, Groups B and C in Berne.

 

[Galactus]

Fasel: "We'll be back!"
IIHF president René Fasel wants to return to Canada – now it's up to Hockey Canada to apply.


QUEBEC CITY – The message from IIHF president René Fasel was loud and clear: “We’ll be back,” he said. “It’s a matter of time. The tournament was a success with the fans, with television audiences, and with the IIHF.”

Indeed, several of the pre-tournament concerns caused barely a ripple of consternation once the first puck was dropped. The smaller ice of Halifax’s Metro Centre and Quebec City’s Le Colisee was a non-issue. The co-hosting of the tournament by two cities proved beneficial to hockey fans in Canada and didn’t cause a problem with European TV audiences.

Attendance was strong, particularly in Halifax where even games involving lower-ranked teams drew near sellout crowds. Team Canada was well supported despite playing all of its games in the afternoon, most on weekdays. In all, these were the third-best attended World Championship ever with 477,040 spectators (average: 8834). Not bad for a first time hosting. Only the World Championships in the Czech Republic, 2004, and Finland, 1997, were better attended.

The World Championship has been allocated through to 2013, and next season, the 2014 tournament will be awarded. After that, Canada is free to apply again, and Fasel is hopeful Hockey Canada will act sooner rather than later. “It will be several years before we can come back, but I hope Bob [Nicholson, president of Hockey Canada] applies for 2015 or soon after,” Fasel said enthusiastically.

Of course, the crowning glory to the event was the gold-medal game. Perhaps one of the finest championship games the IIHF has ever witnessed, the Canada-Russia showdown proved to fans across Canada just how exciting the international game is, even when in competition for viewers with the NHL.

“Maybe this was our biggest challenge,” Fasel admitted, “but I think the scheduling worked well and the teams played the kind of hockey that will bring fans to the game.” Of course, this year was a fairly good scenario for the IIHF because the only Canadian team in the playoffs when the tournament started was Montreal, and the Habs’s playoff ride did not last long

 

[Shifty]

Fasel: "We'll be back!"
IIHF president René Fasel wants to return to Canada – now it's up to Hockey Canada to apply.


QUEBEC CITY – The message from IIHF president René Fasel was loud and clear: “We’ll be back,” he said. “It’s a matter of time. The tournament was a success with the fans, with television audiences, and with the IIHF.”

Indeed, several of the pre-tournament concerns caused barely a ripple of consternation once the first puck was dropped. The smaller ice of Halifax’s Metro Centre and Quebec City’s Le Colisee was a non-issue. The co-hosting of the tournament by two cities proved beneficial to hockey fans in Canada and didn’t cause a problem with European TV audiences.

Attendance was strong, particularly in Halifax where even games involving lower-ranked teams drew near sellout crowds. Team Canada was well supported despite playing all of its games in the afternoon, most on weekdays. In all, these were the third-best attended World Championship ever with 477,040 spectators (average: 8834). Not bad for a first time hosting. Only the World Championships in the Czech Republic, 2004, and Finland, 1997, were better attended.

The World Championship has been allocated through to 2013, and next season, the 2014 tournament will be awarded. After that, Canada is free to apply again, and Fasel is hopeful Hockey Canada will act sooner rather than later. “It will be several years before we can come back, but I hope Bob [Nicholson, president of Hockey Canada] applies for 2015 or soon after,” Fasel said enthusiastically.

Of course, the crowning glory to the event was the gold-medal game. Perhaps one of the finest championship games the IIHF has ever witnessed, the Canada-Russia showdown proved to fans across Canada just how exciting the international game is, even when in competition for viewers with the NHL.

“Maybe this was our biggest challenge,” Fasel admitted, “but I think the scheduling worked well and the teams played the kind of hockey that will bring fans to the game.” Of course, this year was a fairly good scenario for the IIHF because the only Canadian team in the playoffs when the tournament started was Montreal, and the Habs’s playoff ride did not last long

Winnipeg 2015! We can have international ice surface if needed.