Wednesday, December 28, 2005
WJC: Day 2 Thoughts and Musings
I was surprised and impressed that just under 12,000 people actually showed up to watch a junior tilt between Switzerland and Norway. Those in attendance were treated to a pretty good game as the Swiss could manage 'only' a 2-0 victory against the weakest WJC team. Norwegian goaltender Rubin Smith (there's a Norwegian name for you) was the star of the night with a frantic 44 save performance. Full Game Recap Here.
Some random observations:
One of the Swiss journalists was pissed at his own team's efforts. It was kind of funny to see him get so frustrated because his team couldn't score. So much for journalistic neutrality ;) Then again, he writes for a site called HOCKEYFANS.
Since this is an 'International' tournament, the public address announcers make all announcements in both French and English, for the benefit of the 5 Francophones in attendance. It is interesting to hear them read the rosters and go back and forth between French and English.
The PA announcers also made very good attempts to get the foreign surnames correct. See? It doesn't take much effort, and they did a pretty good job. Why can't all media 'talkers' take a little time to learn the names correctly? It's not that hard.
The crowd was mostly neutral, but there was a pretty loud "Let's Go Norway!" chant in the section below me during the second period.
The media centre was pretty dead, as you might expect. There was 10 or less total media people on hand after the game, compared to the packed house for the Canada/Finland match-up.
Media Guides: The Swiss and Norwegian teams don't even have media guides!! Nothing, nada. You'd think the Swiss, with all their damn Francs, would be able to afford to put out some sort of propaganda.
Throw me a frickin' bone here!
The other game of the night, which I wish I could have seen (Damn interior towns!), featured Slovakia versus Latvia. The Slovaks have played some sloppy hockey and managed to win 7-4 despite being outshot. The Latvians beat the Slovaks in a pre-tournament game, and I fear the Slovaks are going to get killed by Russia and Czechia.
The dynamic QMJHL duo of Marek Zagrapan and Stanislav Lascek both had 5 points each on the night, and are tied with the USA's Phil Kessel and Chris Bourque for the scoring lead.
Full game recap here.
Some random observations:
Throw me a frickin' bone here!
The other game of the night, which I wish I could have seen (Damn interior towns!), featured Slovakia versus Latvia. The Slovaks have played some sloppy hockey and managed to win 7-4 despite being outshot. The Latvians beat the Slovaks in a pre-tournament game, and I fear the Slovaks are going to get killed by Russia and Czechia.
The dynamic QMJHL duo of Marek Zagrapan and Stanislav Lascek both had 5 points each on the night, and are tied with the USA's Phil Kessel and Chris Bourque for the scoring lead.
Full game recap here.
