Given how many people play hockey in Canada, this country should dominate the world scene, especially at the junior levels.

For that reason, the World Junior Championships (U-20) is seemingly used as the ultimate measuring stick of Canadian hockey. Despite the fact that *anything* can happen in a short tournament, anything less than a Silver medal sends the press into a frenzy about how Canadian hockey isn't good enough, how we don't develop skill, etc ... No pressure, kiddos.

Well, a win over the evil Swedes sealed a fourth straight GOLD for Canada. It was nice since Sweden beat Canada earlier in the tournament, and because they are evil.

Sweden won their first medal in like a decade. Hard to believe, right? Now, this team has some fine prospects and gave Canada a true run for their money. Berglund is hella sweet.

Evil Russia beat Evil USA for the bronze. No medal for the Yanks ;)

John Tavares, aka Uber-prospect, started the WJC as Canada's 13th forward. It was pretty obvious that he didn't belong there, and eventually got moved up in the ranks. He finished with 4 goals in 7 games, and showed us his slick talent.

Jonathan Bernier threw a hissy-fit because he wasn't named Canada's starting goalie. Well, Johnny, playing a few NHL games doesn't guarantee that you'll be #1. Coach Hartsburg made the call he was comfortable with and it turned out to be the right one.

Final Rankings:
1 CAN
2 SWE
3 RUS
4 USA
5 CZE
6 FIN
7 SVK
8 KAZ
9 SUI
10 DEN

Yes, Slovakia did its usual just-avoid-relegation and finished 7th. Funny to see Kazakhstan avoid relegation. Switzerland? Are they ever going to make the leap into an elite hockey country? They have the resources, but never seem to grow.

Media All-Stars

Position     # Name              Team
Goalkeeper  30 MASON Steve        CAN
Defenseman   6 HEDMAN Victor      SWE
Defenseman   8 DOUGHTY Drew       CAN
Forward     15 BERGLUND Patrik    SWE
Forward     11 TIKHONOV Viktor    RUS
Forward     12 van RIEMSDYK James USA

Now, the DRIVE FOR FIVE begins :)

Labels: John Tavares, Jonathan Bernier, Team Canada, Team Sweden, WJC

TSN.CA reports that Team Sweden has named their roster nominations for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey.

The biggest omission would be one Michael Nylander, who had a very productive year this year, albeit very short season, with 14 points in 18 games. This was after 56 points in 71 games in 2002-03.

The IKEA boys have had a very rough time of it these past few years, as their development system has been turning out very few star players and bonafide NHL prospects. This roster, however, looks fairly strong and certainly capable of getting some colour of medal in this tournament (Not Gold, because Canada will win that ;} ).

The biggest question for the Swedes, and their greatest weakness, is definitely goaltending. Tommy Salo can no longer be considered the automatic #1 goalie for "Tre Kronor."

As many Oilers fans will tell you, Tommy Salo has been an extremely poor goaltender in the past couple of years, and Ty Conklin is definitely the best goaltender in the Oily city these days. Aside from Salo�s choke job against Belarus at Salt Lake City, Salo�s playoff performances in Edmonton leave a LOT to be desired.

Daniel Alfredsson doesn�t seem too concerned, however �
"I don't know who will be the starter," said Alfredsson. "Tommy's always been good for the national team and in the NHL."

"Everything gets blown up because of the miss he made in Salt Lake, but he also won gold in 1994."

Well 1994 was 10 years ago, and 10 years ago, people were wearing Club Monaco t-shirts all over the place. How many people do you see wearing that brand today?

The alternatives to Salo are Mikael Tellqvist and Henrik Lundqvist...not exactly awe-inspiring stuff.

The Swedes will pretty much have to count on their usual defensive choke-job in order to have success. I don�t think their more offensive-minded �Torpedo� system can function too well with the goaltending that they have.

Oh, and only 2 non-NHLers (Lundqvist and Jorgen), which makes sense given the venues. I expect the other European teams to follow suit and dress fewer European-based players than they would for the World Championships. Of course, the Russkies are still run by the old hardliners, and who knows who they will pick, or who will choose not to play for Mother Russia.

Labels: Henrik Lundqvist, Team Sweden, Tommy Salo, World Cup