Articles

[hockeygod]

Canadian heart and soul wasn't enough: Russia's talent, skill wins the day

TERRY JONES, QMI Agency, Jan 4 2012

CALGARY – It was a team which, in many ways, won the hearts of a nation in battling back to stage a near miracle.

But coming back from 6-1 to create a frantic finish, in the end, was still a loss. A 6-5 loss was still a defeat at home in a world junior semifinal.

When it was over, the eyes of the Canadian teenagers were wet and there were lumps in their throats.

"It is so disappointing," said Brandon Gormley, one of the heroes of the comeback that almost was.

"We came here to get that gold medal and it's not going to happen. That's what we tried to do. But we didn't do it. This is not what we came here for."

They were all beating themselves up to some extent, but nobody more than goalie Scott Wedgewood.

"The job of the goaltender is to stop the puck," he said.

"Unfortunately, I didn't get the job done."

For four players on this team, including Brett Connolly who returned from the Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL to try make up for what happened last year, it was in some ways worse.

"It's a terrible feeling," he said. "It was Canada-Russia. It was a game you dream to play. And it's tough to swallow. It sucks. We made mistakes you just can't make. I don't know how to explain it. It just sucks. And then to come back and get that close to winning it. It sucks."

However you view what happened this night, the bottom line is for the first time since the world junior went to the medal-round format, Canada won't be in a gold medal game at home.

After 10 consecutive years of being involved in the gold medal game, Canada will play for bronze here Thursday afternoon.

Calgarians bought tickets for 21 of the 31 games of the tournament in anticipation of getting the big prize — Team Canada in gold medal game.

All that's left for the country that cares only for gold, is an afternoon game against Finland for bronze before the Russians and Swedes go for gold in prime time.

In 2000 in Sweden and 2001 in Russia, Canada ended up in the same situation and bounced back to win the bronze. It was in 1998, in Finland, after winning five consecutive gold, that Canada last failed to win a medal at all.

The only thing worse than playing for bronze is not winning it.

"I think every game you play is worth playing for," said coach Don Hay. "Our guys respect the fans and each other and I expect them to play hard for each other."

It had been a sensational scene to start the evening, with the sea-of-red Saddledome crowd beginning the first "Go Canada Go" chant 10 minutes before the opening faceoff, the seats already already full and the anticipation for a Canada-Russia classic in the air. Almost all jerseys in the crowd featured the maple leaf, not the not flaming C.

There was so much pressure and coach Hay perhaps hinted it was a factor in the front end of the game.

"We didn't get off to the start we usually get off to. Maybe we were a little nervous to start with," he said.

"We had good starts all tournament. After it was 2-0, we made it 2-1 but then we gave up two easy goals. I'm really happy with the way we battled back. The fans got into it. We played better. We played like we have all the tournament. But we couldn't find a way. When you get down 6-1, it's a long road."

It wasn't like the Canadians didn't show up for the game, though. They were winning most of the little races to the puck early and had a large edge in five-on-five territorial play in the first period. But for the first time in the entire tournament, Canada found itself not scoring the first goal and not being either even or ahead in a game.

When Canada was down 2-0 there were thoughts of revenge in reverse from last year's gold medal game.

In the end, despite final shots on goal of 56-24 for Canada, the heart and emotion which usually means so much to Canadian teams in these games, was too little, too late. Talent and skill won the day as flashy Evgeni Kuznetsov and Nail Yakupov put their names on the game, and Canadians were left to wonder what this game would have looked like with the six pack of world junior eligible players who are in the NHL.

Yakupov forecast the events of the evening the night before.

"We have everything. We are the best team in the world junior. We don't need fans," he said.

He Nailed it.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Canada needs to play more of a skill game

By Tim Wharnsby, CBC Sports, January 4, 2012

CALGARY — This was supposed to be a time of celebration for Canada's national junior program.

It was the 30th anniversary for what Hockey Canada calls its program of excellence and many of the past players and coaches have been in Alberta this week to celebrate the success of previous years.

There were some of the faces of yesteryear, including Theo Fleury and Pat Quinn crammed with their colleagues into the players' benches at the Scotiabank Saddledome and honoured during the first intermission of Canada's 6-5 semifinal loss to Russia on Tuesday.

This defeat halted a 10-year Canadian streak of visits to the final at the world junior championship and now the program of excellence has gone three years without a gold medal.

When Canada loses on the international hockey stage, the stench of defeat hangs around for a few days and gets dissected.

So what went wrong with coach Don Hay's Canadian junior team this time around? Are these sort of competitions simply cyclic? Sometimes Russia wins. Sometimes it's Canada. Occasionally, the United States wins. The Czech Republic hasn't won since 2001. The Finns haven't been crowned junior champs since 1998. Sweden hopes to end a gold-medal drought against Russia on Thursday that dates back to 1981.

More talented

In the past Canada has won because its teenagers were more talented, better prepared, could physically intimidate their opponents and usually received the best goaltending in the tournament.

Well, they weren't more talented this year. They didn't appear prepared to deal with the Russians transition game. They couldn't intimidate the tough-minded Russians, and Canada's goaltending wasn't as good as it needed to be either.

There will be excuses trotted out like the Canadians were handcuffed because their top teenage talent is in the NHL, like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Sean Couturier, Ryan Johansen and Jeff Skinner. But this has been a problem that Canada has dealt with for years and yet has won.

There also was the fractured ankle to robust forward Devante Smith-Pelly, loaned by the Anaheim Ducks, in the tournament opener that no doubt hurt Canada in the physical department. Others may point to the flu bug that made its way through the Canadian players and coaching staff.

Problems with the Canadian game

Some will say that this group of Canadians only came up a goal short in a hard-fought game. But the comeback likely hid some of the problems with the Canadian game at this level. Besides, as every saw in Canada's game against the Russians desperate hockey can only get you so far.

What happened in the first 48 minutes of the game?

Well, Canada had no answer for Russia's dynamic transition game. An explosive team like Russia tries to create turnovers in its own end to sprint the other way. The Canadians needed to play spot-on hockey in the offensive zone.

The Canadians did not control the puck along the boards from the hash-mark on down. They made to many ill-advised passes into the middle and this was exactly what the Russians wanted in order to transition the puck the other way.

In Russia's quarter-final win in overtime against the Czech Republic on Monday, the Czechs didn't have a good first period, but they found their way in the second and third frames by cycling the puck and patiently waiting for offensive chances.

They also got an incredible performance from goalie Petr Mrazek. The Canadians did not get incredible goaltending nor did the defence in front of netminders Scott Wedgewood and Mark Visentin help the cause.

Canada could have helped themselves in the late-going by winning a few face-offs in the offensive zone, too. But this may be nit-picking too much.

Canada has plenty of skill at the junior level. Maybe it's time that the junior program play more of a skill game. The other countries don't get intimidated anymore by the Canadian junior's physical approach.

Canada's skill and desire certainly won out at the senior level at the Vancouver Olympics. Maybe it's time for the program of excellence to start a new chapter.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

A long, excellent night for TSN’s hockey crew

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN, Globe and Mail, Jan. 04, 2012

Perhaps it didn’t end the way Canadians wanted, but Tuesday’s TV marathon of world junior hockey was seven hours of tension-filled chutes and ladders. First, Sweden mounted another improbably comeback in the WJC, finally overcoming Finland 3-2 in a shootout that left even the zamboni drained. Then Canada almost came all the way back from 6-1 down before losing to Russia by a single goal.

TSN created this television monster and so milked every moment of the turbulence, with Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro riding the pressure drops with only a one-hour rest between games. The hardest thing in announcing sports such as hockey is leaving yourself somewhere to go when the drama is ratcheted up. Too often play-by-play announcers and analysts are shrieking halfway through the first power play, giving themselves no range to take the drama higher.

Miller and Ferraro did about as well you could with so many plot changes. They were supportive of Canada without descending to Jack Edwards jingoism. They drew out plot lines – such as the echo of Russia’s tragedy when the Yaroslavl team (including two former WJC champions from 2010) was wiped out in a plane crash last September. Best of all, they were helped by having a sense of self-deprecating humour in the face of huge mood swings. That allowed them to switch gears when the Swedes mounted their eventual comeback victory or Canada attempted its unsuccessful rally. And they did have The Cooler, Bob McKenzie, just to settle down the crazies.

A long, excellent night for TSN’s hockey crew. Now comes an even tougher assignment. Putting life into Thursday’s anticlimactic Canada/Finland bronze medal game. That might take even greater skill.

Press Gang: Looking for the longest current winning streak in hockey? Is it the Boston Bruins? The Vancouver Canucks? The New York Rangers? Don’t be silly. The longest streak of supremacy belongs to the Montreal Canadiens media corps. More, specifically, to the politically inclined membres de la presse who inhabit the Bell Centre.

When it comes to issues of the tongue, the Montreal media mob is undefeated in well over a decade. There was Saku “Speak French” Koivu, the Habs’ captain who donated millions to charity but didn’t have enough French to placate the media. There was Phoenix captain Shane Doan who was pilloried for an anti-French comment muttered by a European teammate. There was the splendiferous Don Cherry, who was briefly sentenced to a seven-second delay for comments about French players wearing visors.

But the piece de resistance had to be the grovelling performance of Montreal general manager Pierre Gauthier on Monday as he fell on his sword in abject apology for foisting a unilingual head coach upon the hockey fans of Les Glorieux. Gauthier was backing up so fast, we were expecting to hear “beep-beep-beep” as he tried to cover his derriere.

“We're sorry if we offended anybody by hiring someone who is not bilingual right now,” Gauthier said. “But when you're in the middle of a season and you're trying to effect change and you're having the difficulties we were having, you evaluate all your options. We felt the best option at this time was to work from within the organization. Those things can be taken care of in due time, but having a bilingual head coach of the Montreal Canadiens is very important and it's something that will be part of our decision going forward.”

This from the man who feigned indifference on the language trap when he first named Randy “no habla” Cunneyworth as head coach. And who let Cunneyworth appear unprepared before the press corps. A wiser man with a sense of history would have seen that it doesn’t pay to go high-hat with Montreal’s media, who are considered equal players in the Habs’ roman a clef.

Experience would have shown the hapless Gauthier that, while l’affaire Cunneyworth was nominally about language, the real bottom line was the unvarnished power of the nationalists in the media corps to play the language card. Journalists in other Canadian NHL cities are ultimately dismissed by a Brian Burke or Mike Gillis when they get above their station. Around the Habs, however, the media knows that invoking nationalist orthodoxy trumps any GM or owner.

Seeing as how they don’t have a 25th Stanley Cup any time on the horizon to occupy the zealots, we’ll likely see this gambit a few times more before it loses its sting. Which is why Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber, a Montreal resident for decades, says, “The Montreal Canadiens used to stand for excellence. Now they stand for something else.”

Preaching Sedition: Didn't anyone tell John Tortorella that HBO’s 24/7 was over as of Monday? That there are no HBO cams to save him from Gary Bettman’s wrath after the Rangers coach used a media conference to muse about a conspiracy between referees and NBC to prolong Monday’s Winter Classic? Jesting or not, Tortorella went way beyond his leash in raising a Tim Donaghy-like spectre between zebras and networks.

The question now is what will the NHL do about Torts? We know the NBA's commissioner David Stern would give the Rangers coach 10 games/$100,000 minimum for suggesting such a fix. Gary?

Winter Classic Future: No sooner had Usual Suspects suggested that Canadian teams need not apply for an NHL Winter Classic Game (and HBO 24/7 treatment) than rumours cropped up that the Detroit Red Wings will host the Toronto Maple Leafs next January at either Comerica Park in Detroit or the University of Michigan’s 109,000-seat football stadium. Which could mean a Winter Classic & 24/7 team that did not make the playoffs the year before. We won’t suggest which team, but do point out that Detroit is currently in a playoff spot.

But when it comes to the Maple Leafs, the exceptions are the rules (Owners with two NHL teams at the same time?). And why not? You could hold a bottle drive with the Leafs and still get a million people watching on TV. So it’s always going to pay off in attendance and ratings. To say nothing of four weeks of Brian Burke as Citizen Kane (“You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in… 60 years.”)

Despite the big-market tilt of NBC/HBO selections so far, NHL folk bridle if you suggest the league only cares about a half-dozen markets. Fine. If they mean it why not have the two Cup finalists the next year in the 24/7 media glare? C’mon, Bud Selig can do it, so can Gary Bettman. We dare ya’.

Ratings Drop: Maybe a little shine came off the Winter Classic in the U.S.? Despite the presence of New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers, the game on NBC drew fewer viewers than three of the previous classics. At 3.74 million viewers, it trailed the 2011, 2009 and 2008 WC games (2011’s 4.5 million tops the list as the most-watched regular-season hockey contest ever.)

Mitigating that number is the fact the game was bumped a day to Jan. 2 and two hours later in the day against the heart of the Bowl games. As well, the 3.74 million is more than any other regular season NHL game on U.S, networks, save one ( Jan. 27, 1996 on FOX). No Canadian numbers yet.

Despite the fact that the USA had been eliminated already at the World Junior Championships, TSN garnered 2.8 million on New Year’s Eve for the Canada/USA round-robin contest. It was the most-watched program on Canadian TV that night.

Say What?: We’re dizzy from so many NCAA Bowl games this Holiday season. And from hearing so many malaprops. A few favourites: From ESPN’s Todd Blacklege, “That pass goes off the defender… to the offender… and back to another defender.” Then there was ESPN’s Matt Millen, “It's strength versus weakness on both sides, but it's the weakness who is stronger.. is the team that will prevail” More Millen: “When he gets inside of a guy and bends his hips, he's pretty good”.

ESPN’s Brad Nessler essayed, “Clemson takes on another team from the state of Virginia, West Virginia”. And finally, there was Wendy Nix of ESPN saying fans were “flooding into” New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. Ick.

But they all took a back seat to a jet-lagged Mike Milbury at the Winter Classic trying to say Blue Shirts. Except losing the r in Shirts.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

World Junior Hockey 2012: MacKinnon: No consolation in near comeback for Canada

John MacKinnon, edmontonjournal.com, January 4, 2012

CALGARY – Don't try to sell Brett Connolly on the notion that Canada's thrilling, heartbreaking, near comeback 6-5 semifinal loss to Russia on Tuesday night was a noble failure.

In the aftermath of Canada failing to advance to the gold-medal final of the World Junior Hockey Championship for the first time in 11 years, the 19-year-old Canadian sharpshooter wasn't buying it at all.

"It sucks, it stinks," said Connolly, whose nifty second-period goal was the only one Canada managed through a stunningly inept first 40 minutes. "We battled right to the end, we had a good third period, but we've got to be ready to start games.

"We can't give up five goals and expect to win hockey games, even though we almost did. We've got to be better, we've got to correct some things and be ready for Finland. Again, (we made) costly mistakes that turned around and bit us."

The Russians will now go for a second straight gold medal against Sweden, while Canada will try to regroup and win a bronze medal against Finland.

If Canada does win bronze on Thursday, they will have finished on the podium for 14 straight years. But that statistic provides no comfort to Canadian players.

The Canadian expectation is always gold, obviously, something Canada has not won since 2009, too long a stretch by national standards.

Canada had advanced to the semifinal with a 4-0 won-lost record, had not trailed at all and had outscored its round-robin opponents 26-5. The one nagging question was how would they react when a superior opponent pushed them for 60 minutes.

Few expected the answer was they would collapse under the weight of self-inflicted mistakes, dumb penalties and a lack of discipline.

And yet, for a good chunk of the much-anticipated Canada-Russia matchup Tuesday night, it looked like Team Canada was fashioning one of its most embarrassing losses ever, never mind challenging to reach the gold-medal final.

Through a mistake-prone first 40 minutes that included uncharacteristic lapses in discipline, Canada fell behind 6-1.

Yevgeny Kuznetsov did most of the damage for the Russians, scoring three goals and setting up another, as the Russians flowed through a leaky Canadian defence in waves.

A supportive Saddledome crowd jeered what they viewed as suspect officiating, but the Russians were full measure for their five-goal lead and the Canadian players knew it.

Canada took penalties, its superb penalty kill gave up a pair on Russian power plays. A previously competent defensive corps gave up a slew of odd-man rushes, either by taking chances in the offensive zone or making mistakes in their own.

Canada took undisciplined penalties and two players, Boone Jenner and Jonathan Huberdeau, compounded things: Jenner by taking a spearing major that negated a Canadian power play; Huberdeau by yapping his way from a minor penalty to two plus a 10-minute misconduct.

"We showed great character and great heart in coming back," said defenceman Brandon Gormley. "But in the same sense, we dug ourselves in that hole in the first two periods."

In a wild third period, Canada got three goals in a 2:39 span by Dougie Hamilton, team captain Jaden Schwartz and Brendan Gallagher to pull within 6-4. The first two of those goals came in a span of 23 seconds.

Gormley narrowed the gap to 6-5 on a Canadian power play, firing a slap shot from the point past a screened Russian netminder Andrei Vasilevski at 14:17.

If you were there, to paraphrase the Team Canada slogan, it was by turns painful, stunning, thrilling and inspirational. It was also unforgettable and a second straight excruciating loss to the Russians for Connolly, one of four Canadian players who returned from the 2011 team.

Asked to compare the two disappointments, the laconic Connolly fought to control his emotions.

"Uh, yeah, I don't even know how to explain it," said Connolly, oblivious to the fact that he faced the media with a contact lens stuck to his forehead. "It sucks.

"Obviously, last year was a gold-medal game and this year was a semifinal. We had chances right at the end to score goals.

"We're that close to tie it up, even though we didn't play well early. It sucks."

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

World Junior Hockey 2012/ Cole: Battle-hardened Russians shatter Team Canada's illusions

Cam Cole, Vancouver Sun January 3, 2012

CALGARY – First they self-destructed. Then, they almost put the pieces back together.

But there is no consolation in it for Team Canada’s teenagers.

From down by five goals to Russia in the third period, to one goalpost shy of a miracle comeback in the final minute, their consolation – a shot at the bronze medal Thursday afternoon against Finland – won’t put much of a smile on their faces, even if they can find the gumption to give it their best shot.

Tuesday night’s 6-5 loss to their bitter historical rivals leaves Canada out of the gold medal game for the first time in 11 years, and the spoils will now go to the winner between Russia, going for back-to-back titles, and Sweden, which hasn’t won the championship in 20 years.

“It’s not what we came for,” said Brett Connolly, whose goal early in the second period gave the illusion of a modest bounce by the Canadians, who’d given up two first period goals.

The illusion didn’t last.

The Russians reeled off three goals of their own in answer, two of them completing a hat trick for captain Yevgeni Kuznetsov, and added another in the third to go ahead 6-1.

And though something magical almost happened in the final 15 minutes, the Canadian kids themselves must have been the only ones in the building who really believed they could dig themselves all the way out.

“It’s a tough feeling. Obviously going through it last year [when the Russians scored five unanswered on Mark Visentin to win gold], we wanted to do the same thing. We battled right to the end, and had a good third period, but we’ve got to get ready at the start,” said Connolly. “We can’t give up five goals [on the first 15 shots] and expect to win.

‘We just made costly mistakes that turn around and bit us. I’m proud of the way we battled back. We didn’t quit. But it sucks.”

Five goals on their first 15 shots.

Either the Russian juniors are the world’s most deadly snipers, or all the thousands of words that were spent trying to guess at the identity of Canada’s No. 1 goaltender for 10 days turned out to be a giant waste of time.

The Canadians were, for two periods, utterly outclassed. In goal, yes, but at every other position, too.

Team Canada’s backstops – first Scott Wedgewood, then Visentin after Wedgewood had been steamrolled in a collision following Kuznetsov’s third goal – were only the last line of defence in a total team meltdown.

They have no one else to blame for it. Not even, said Canadian head coach Don Hay, the perception that they had too soft a route to the semifinal.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “Maybe we were a little nervous to start with, but we didn’t do things we normally do, driving pucks down the wall and getting pucks and traffic to the net. Once we started doing that, we had more success. But it was just too big a hole.”

It wasn’t only that Hay’s team came out nervy, or that the Canadians were outskated, outsmarted, out-acted, and even out-hit. What really rankles is that they made every one of the Russians’ pre-game observations come true.

They weren’t as battle-hardened, after a cakewalk in Pool B, as the Russians, who had overtime tests against Sweden and then, in the quarter-final, the Czech Republic.

The Russians were, as their stars Kuznetsov and Nail Yakupov had matter-of-factly stated following the Czech game, the better team. Faster, more clever, more skilled.

“He is our captain,” said coach Valeri Bragin, of Kuznetsov, the Washington Capitals’ next great Russian. “This is how he should play in games like this. He is our most experienced player, he is playing professional league already, I am happy with the way he played.”

The usual Canadian plan, in these situations, is to come out of the gate pounding the body – think Steve Downie, wallpapering the first Russian he saw in 2006 – but Tuesday, the visitors weren’t co-operating by putting themselves in position to be hit. By the time the Canadians arrived, they were elsewhere.

Further complicating matters was the Russians’ ability to con the referees, American Ian Croft and Finn Jyri Petteri Ronn, into calling a series of penalties, especially in the first period, few of which seemed to bear much relation to actual events on the ice.

But coping with diving and soccer-like histrionics – we lost count of how many Russians lay on the ice, then staggered to the bench, bent over, covering their faces – is a part of playing the European teams, and Canadians are supposed to know better than to play into their game.

In the second period, in addition to everything else, they lost their discipline and took penalties they did deserve.

“It’s a rivalry, it’s Canada-Russia,” Connolly said. “They don’t like us, we don’t like them. You could see that at the end, they were right up in our face. It’s hard to swallow.”

Even the between-periods introduction of several dozen members of Teams Canada over the past three decades didn’t go off without a hitch, when the host in the audience buttonholed Pat Quinn for an interview and introduced him as Pat Burns, who died last year.

For the Russians, though, the night was extra sweet. They had boasted, and backed it up. Kuznetsov’s hat trick, and singles by Nikita Nesterov, Alexander Khoklachev and Nikita Kucherov — the last two on Visentin — were just enough to hold off Canada’s improbable third-period blitz of goals by Dougie Hamilton, Jaden Schwartz, Brendan Gallagher and Brandon Gormley.

Gormley’s goal, to make it 6-5, chased Vasilevski and Russian coach Valeri Bragin replaced him with backup Andrei Makarov, who kept the door shut, barely. In the frenetic final minute, Ryan Strome rang a shot off the right post and Connolly just failed to swipe the rebound home.

“I think everybody’s taking the loss hard. We wanted to have the opportunity to move on, and that’s no longer there,” said Hay, whose job now will be to get his players back up somehow to play for the bronze.

“Every game you play is worth playing for,” he said. “It’s an honour to win a medal in this competition, and our guys respect the fans, and respect each other, and I expect them to play hard.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Canadian heartbreak continues

Vicki Hall, Calgary Herald January 4, 2012

Trust Dougie Hamilton to put such a crushing loss into perspective.

Mere minutes after shaking hands with the enemy, mere minutes after hearing the final horn blow on his golden-coloured dreams, the Team Canada defenceman saw the positives in a 6-5 loss to Russia in the world junior hockey championship semifinal.

“I think we left it all out there,” the Ontario Hockey League’s scholastic player of the year told a crush of reporters. “It’s pretty unfortunate that the first two periods didn’t go our way. I think the third period was one of the most special periods of my life.

“Moving on in my career, I think I’m going to take a lot from that period.”

Down 6-1 in the final frame — with some Calgarians already selling their “Sweden vs. Russia” gold-medal game tickets on the Internet — the beleaguered Canadian teenagers launched an improbable comeback that will likely shock many in Eastern Canada upon awakening this morning.

Before a despondent crowd, the Canadians roared back with three goals in a span of 2:39 by Hamilton, Jaden Schwartz and Brendan Gallagher.

At 14:17, Brandon Gormley blasted a shot in from the point on the power play to make it a one-goal game. Russian coach Valeri Bragin yanked goalie Andrei Vasilevski and dispatched Andrei Makarov to clean up for the final five minutes, 43 seconds.

The Canadians peppered Makarov with seven shots — and Ryan Strome cranked one off the post in the final minute — but failed to close the fairy-tale ending.

“I don’t think we needed any more time,” Hamilton said, in a display of maturity way beyond his 18 years. “The goalie stood on his head and we hit a post. I think we could have had 10 goals in the last 10 minutes. It’s just the way it goes sometimes. I think everyone wanted that goal pretty bad. We kind of lost sight of it and got frustrated.”

In the history books, the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship will go down as a record-breaker in terms of profits but a heartbreaker for the home side.

For the first time in 11 years, Canada will not contest gold. That honour goes to Russia and Sweden on Thursday night. The Canadians play Finland on Thursday afternoon for bronze.

On this night, Canada outshot the Russia 56-24, but don’t be fooled by that stat. The Russians, when they had chances, buried them. With the likes of Washington Capitals prospect Yevgeni Kuznetsov and Nail Yakupov, projected to go first overall in next June’s NHL Entry Draft, they didn’t miss.

Kuznetsov collected three goals and an assist. Yakupov finally showed off for the NHL scouts in attendance with four assists.

“We just won,” Kuznetsov said through an interpreter after the game. “And it’s clear that we’re stronger than Canada.”

On the third Kuznetsov goal, Alexander Khokhlachev roared into the picture, rammed into Scott Wedgewood and clipped the Canadian goalie in the head with a skate. The shaken netminder skated off the ice and made way for Visentin.

The goalie change made no difference, in the beginning, with Khokhlachev scoring on the first shot on net on the Canadian netminder.

Now a group of 22 devastated teenagers tries to regroup to contest a bronze medal in a tournament with only one objective for the host nation. Gold.

“The chance for gold is over,” Hamilton said. “I mean, I’ve dreamed about that gold medal for a long time. And just to not be able to have that in our sights is kind of disappointing. Obviously it’s going to be tough but at the end of the day, it’s still a bronze medal and we’re going to do whatever it takes to win it.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

2012 world junior hockey/ Johnson: Friberg ‘one in a million’
Swedish star’s confidence grows exponentially as the tournament goes on

George Johnson, Calgary Herald January 3, 2012

CALGARY – And now the artistic mark from the Swedish judge …

“Well, at least they didn’t boo him,’’ reasoned Max Friberg, the trace of a grin on his lips. “So he must have done it better. So I give him a 10.

“I laughed a little bit at him.

“I told him ‘Great celebration’ or something during the handshakes. And he said, laughing.’’

Finland’s Joel Armia may have aped Friberg’s controversial Swiss shootout stick-ride in Tuesday’s semifinal, but Mini-Max has hitched the ride to the world junior hockey championship gold-medal game.

It’s a pity people in this town have cast him in the role of villain. He’s a go-to guy. For goals, for quotes. Easy to take a shine to.

“I don’t know if they do,’’ joked Friberg, when asked about Calgary’s burgeoning love affair with him. “If they meet me in person, I hope they will like me better.’’

His legend at this tournament only continues to grow. Tuesday, the game-tying strike with Swedish arms leaden from shooting, at 18:16 of the third period, and then another successful shootout try.

Another winner, as it turned out. Naturally.

This guy seems to be at the epi-centre of everything good for the Swedes.

“He’s one in a million,’’ repeated Swedish coach Roger Ronnberg. “What more can you say. You don’t find character like that in many players.’’

Eight goals in aggregate now. Two shootout winners. A couple of at-the-death snipes that ended in crucial overtime and shootout triumphs.

It’s hard to choose a more deserving tournament MVP as we head into the final.

His game-equalizing strike couldn’t have been more dramatic. A fatal clearing attempt by Finnish goaltender Sami Aittokallio, gloved down by an alert Johan Sundstrom, who spotted Friberg heading for the front of the net.

A guy as hot as Mini-Max is at the moment isn’t missing a chance of that relative simplicity.

“It was wobbling a little bit. I had the time to think, ‘Don’t miss this. Don’t miss this.’ But it ended up well.’’

The shootout goal had a good deal of theatricality. As the din began to rise, move out and around the Scotiabank Saddledome as he skated in tight circles for his turn, Sweden’s second, Friberg gave his stick a dramatic, exaggerated little waggle of defiance. Impossible to miss.

“I was just doing it to pump myself up, I guess,’’ he said none too convincingly.

Then after zipping the puck past goaltender Johan Gustafsson, he raised his arms, basking in the escalating booing.

Gotta love a kid like that.

Back home he’s only scored one goal for Timra IK. But this tournament is his coming-out party.

“Here? Confidence. I guess. I have much more ice time, play on power play. I feel that they trust me here and they know what I can do.’’

Once again, the Swedes — who overcame a three-goal deficit to edge the Russians in OT, win the group and earn the bye to the semis — were forced to regroup and show great perseverance. They pounded 57 shots at Aittokallio through the regulation 60 minutes and the additional 10 in overtime.

But it wasn’t until William Karlsson finally cashed on the power play 3:11 into the third period before they breached the Finnish goaltender’s stronghold.

“It’s what we have to do, when we give them leads,’’ sighed Friberg. “It was the same against the Russians. They will get tired, as well, after a while. I think we had more energy than them, both in the third period and in the overtime. I think it matters in the shootout, as well.

“We’re strong mentally. We never give up. We never stop until we are the winners.’’

The Swedes had only themselves to blame for the uphill climb. Both Finnish goals were highly preventable.

Miro Aaltonen, sweeping wide around defenceman Mattias Backman, created the first. In the danger zone, four Swedes were spotted standing around, gawking, as Alexander Ruuttu crept silently into the slot to convert the centring pass.

On the second, a dozing Ludvig Nordstrom was expertly pickpocketed by Joel Armia who turned smartly and snapped the puck behind Johan Gustafsson.

Once more, though, the Swedes pulled themselves back from the abyss.

“The guys got frustrated not scoring on all the chances,’’ admitted Ronnberg. “It was a hard game to coach, a hard game to play for the players.

“It’s tough when you’re under one goal, and tough when you’re under two, to stick to the game plan. I’m really impressed with the character of the guys to turn this game around.’’

No deficit seems to be too great.

For Friberg and his resolute mates, the end of the exhilarating ride ends Wednesday. One way or the other.

“I’m really excited, obviously. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win a gold medal at world juniors,” he said.

“Maybe it helps that the crowd has been against us since the first game. We just play. We do exactly the same.

“One more game to win,’’ mused the most popular man in Calgary at the moment. “For a gold medal.

“So they can hate me as much as they want.’’

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Jenner, Isangulov suspended at world juniors

The Canadian Press, Jan. 04, 2012

Canada's Boone Jenner and Russia's Ildar Isangulov have each been suspended for their next games at the world junior hockey championship.

Jenner will sit out Canada's bronze-medal contest Thursday against Finland while Isangulov won't play in Russia's gold-medal showdown against Sweden later in the day.

In the second period of Canada's 6-5 semifinal loss to Russia on Tuesday, Isangulov elbowed Jenner was received a minor penalty for it.

When Russian captain Evgeni Kuznetsov made a comment to Jenner after the incident, Jenner speared him and received a major and game misconduct.

The International Ice Hockey Federation's disciplinary hearing determined upon review that Isangulov's elbow was to Jenner's head.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Russian talent too much for Team Canada

Globe and Mail Podcast, Jan. 04, 2012

Globe and Mail writers Eric Duhatschek and Allan Maki call in from Calgary to discuss the world junior hockey tournament.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/russian-talent-too-much-for-team-canada/article2291234/

Download (.mp3)

[audio src="http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01359/Junior_1359178a.mp3" /]

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Sale of the St. Louis Blues gets interesting

David Shoalts, Globe and Mail, January 4, 2012

The situation regarding the St. Louis Blues sale grew interesting this week when it was reported NHL commissioner Gary Bettman enforced a deadline that put Matthew Hulsizer’s bid out of contention for now.

This means minority owner Tom Stillman and his group of local partners is back in front. But it doesn’t look like they are home and cooled out. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the details on the murky situation.

Representatives for Hulsizer and Stillman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Since Bettman does not often enforce sale deadlines (see Coyotes, Phoenix), this is intriguing. While the Post-Dispatch report indicates Hulsizer was doing some tap-dancing on his financing, the deadline could be Bettman’s way of showing he likes Stillman’s group better.

Stillman, who holds 10 per cent of the Blues, is also the chairman and chief executive officer of Summit Distributing, which handles beer. Even better, he has a blue-chip group of partners headed by the Taylor family, which owns Enterprise Holdings.

Enterprise Holdings counts Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car among its subsidiaries. The company is also based in St. Louis, which would fend off any talk, no matter how far-fetched, of the Blues moving.

Landing such a well-heeled ownership group is a big deal for the NHL, which has more than enough owners held together by chewing gum and binder twine.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Easy round robin backfires on Canada at world juniors

Roy MacGregor, Globe and Mail, Jan. 04, 2012

In some ways, the world junior hockey championship has become a victim of its own success.

At least as far as Team Canada 2012 is concerned, knocked silly for two periods in the first true test it faced and then, once it finally found itself, not quite able to mount the comeback that would have taken it for the 11th consecutive year into the gold-medal game.

“It’s not the end of the world,” Canada head coach Don Hay said Wednesday morning at the Hockey Canada practice complex here.

And it most assuredly isn’t. Far from it, considering this young and healthy team of future millionaires still has a chance to make it 14 years in a row on the podium – including five consecutive gold medals – Thursday afternoon when it meets Finland to decide the bronze medal.

“Not many teams,” Hay added unnecessarily, “that can say they came away from this tournament with a medal.”

Just three of the 10 – and that may be where some discussion might take place.

There is simply no denying the success of the world junior tournament, especially when it is played in hockey-mad Canada. The 2012 organizers believe they will set new tournament records in attendance (600,000 tickets), in revenues ($80-million plus), in 50/50 draws (a win equals the price of a new home in most other parts of the country) and perhaps even in television viewership.

To no surprise, the tournament has grown. There are more teams, now 10 where there were once eight, and it goes on for a long two weeks. The teams get divided into two groups – one in Edmonton this year, one in Calgary – and while the divisions are dictated by the results of the year before, it can prove sadly out of balance, as was the case in 2012.

“You play the games you are scheduled to play,” Hay said Wednesday without saying anything more.

So let us expand for him. Canada played Finland, Czech Republic, Denmark and the United States. The hockey in Edmonton was dismal, for the most part. The Canadians ended the round with an aggregate score of 26-5. They were never challenged, never tested, though they pretended to have met “adversity” briefly New Year’s Eve when the Americans came within a goal in a 3-2 Canadian win.

They saw no adversity whatsoever. The Americans came back because the game had already been rendered utterly meaningless. The Canadians had a 3-0 lead and lost focus just as a little U.S. pride kicked in.

In never losing in Edmonton, the Canadians arrived in Calgary with a bye straight into the semi-final, straight up against the speedy, skilled, determined Russians. The Russians scored first – the first time the Canadians were ever behind in the tournament – and were up 6-1 early in the third period. The Canadians had been stunned by the first true challenge they faced.

“We kind of didn’t know how to deal with it,” said goaltender Scott Wedgewood, who was pulled before the game was half over.

They figured it out, though – as so often happens to Canadian players – and they became a true team in the third period and very nearly pulled off perhaps the greatest upset in tournament history. But it was too late.

What, however, if they had only been truly challenged before the semi-final? Ten teams is too many, especially considering the weakness of the likes of Latvia and Denmark. There has even been a proposal – heaven forbid – to go to 12 teams and a longer tournament.

Canada might have been far better off not to have had that bye. It might have benefited from having to play in the quarter-finals on Monday, as Russia had. One more chance to find that elusive team.

If the Olympics can be used as a fair guide, history suggests that a little early adversity, true adversity, is exactly what Canadian hockey players thrive on. At the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Canada lost in the early going 5-2 to Sweden and had to play Finland in the quarter-final. It squeaked through with a 2-1 victory, then whipped Belarus 7-1 in the semi-final and won the gold medal with a convincing 5-2 victory over the United States.

Similarly at the Vancouver Games in 2010, Canada lost early to a strong U.S. team, 5-3, beat Russia in the quarter-finals 7-3 and barely survived a late-surge by spunky Slovakia to win the semi-final match 3-2. The NHL stars won their second Olympic gold by beating the Americans 3-2 on Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal.

In both instances, the Canadians were tested early and also had that extra game in which to find their team personality.

Something that took until the third period of a must-win game in Calgary.

And by then it was too late.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Canada looking through bronze-coloured glasses

Eric Duhatschek, Globe and Mail, Jan. 04, 2012

It was almost 14 years ago – when most of this edition of the world junior team was getting ready to enter kindergarten – that Canada faced the same sort of hockey challenge: Trying to get motivated to play for a bronze medal, when all it really cared about was taking home gold.

The tournament was the 1998 Winter Olympics and for the first time in history, Canada had entered a team of NHL professionals for the event in Nagano, Japan. Things were going pretty well, too. Canada swept through the preliminary rounds and then widely outplayed the Czech Republic in a semi-final game that went to a shootout.

Sadly, they could not find a way of getting a shot past goalie Dominik Hasek. Many lamented the fact head coach Marc Crawford left Wayne Gretzky on the bench for the shootout, but the way Hasek was playing– at the top of his game, in the midst of winning multiple Vezina Trophies – he probably could have given all 18 Canadian skaters a shot and not scored a goal.

The loss left Canada playing Finland for the bronze – the team’s only bad moment in the tournament.

Between games, Canadian players muttered the gold-or-nothing mantra. It was clear they felt it, and it certainly showed against the Finns. Even though they outshot Finland 39-15, the sense of urgency that characterized their play earlier in the tournament was missing. (Also, a goaltender named Ari Sulander badly outplayed future Hockey Hall of Fame member Patrick Roy.) On the way to the mixed zone, to interview players after that desultory loss, the International Ice Hockey Federation contingent was waiting in the wings, getting ready to present the Finns with their medals. Security wasn’t then what it is now, and they permitted me to peer into the shiny boxes.

I wondered at the time: Two years from now, or 10, or maybe even 30 down the road, would the Canadian players eventually regret that they allowed an opportunity for an Olympic medal to slip through their fingers?

Even if it wasn’t the desired colour, would it matter to their grandchildren? Probably not.

An Olympic medal is an Olympic medal and what was largely overlooked about Canada’s Nagano experience was how well it played in the tournament overall. It was a point executive director Steve Yzerman made over and over in the run-up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics: The 1998 Canadian Olympic team, which won nothing, might have been better than the 2002 team, which won everything.

The difference was in the timing of the games they won. In 2002, the Canadians sputtered through a 1-1-1 preliminary round, but drew Finland, Belarus and the United States in medal play – no Russians, no Czechs, no Swedes. Yzerman’s point was, in a tournament with so many viable teams and so many variables that can decide a single game, sometimes it comes down to luck.

In Canadian junior team’s 6-5 loss to Russia on Tuesday, if Ryan Strome’s last-gasp shot bounces off the goal post and into the net, it would have forced overtime and who knows how that might have turned out? Instead of Canada nursing the wounds of a nail-biting loss, maybe it would be celebrating another Jordan Eberle-in-2009-style, come-from-behind win.

Seeing the faces of the players postgame Tuesday, it was easy to understand their disappointment. (They held a 56-24 edge in shots.) That’s why tournament organizers schedule a day in-between nowadays – to let the losing teams get over the disappointment and focus on the new goal: winning what you still can win.

“That’s the message coming across,” forward Brendan Gallagher said. “It may not seem all that important now, but 10 or 20 years down the road, that bronze medal sounds a lot better than fourth place.

“No matter when you’re playing or what game, you’re going to go out there and play your hardest. We’re playing for that crest on the front of our jersey and it’s going to be a fun game to play in still – and we’re really going to enjoy it.”

Watching how Gallagher conducts himself on and off the ice, there is little doubt he will be giving his all against a Finnish team Canada crushed 8-1 in the tournament opener. Nor was he the only one saying all the right things Wednesday, about preparation, about playing to win for all the right reasons.

One can only hope they end up doing all the right things as well.

Maybe not today, but somewhere down the road, they’re going to be glad they did.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Sweden has chance to correct its world junior history

Eric Duhatschek, Globe and Mail, Jan. 04, 2012

Sweden is in the unique position of being a traditional hockey power that usually does badly in the world junior tournament – just one championship in its history, compared to 15 for Canada and 13 for the combined Soviet Union and Russia.

How does one explain that unlikely phenomenon?

“It’s because the world juniors is a real hard tournament to win,” Sweden coach Roger Ronnberg answered Wednesday, as his charges prepared for the gold-medal game against Russia on Thursday. “If you go to the Stanley Cup, it’s best-of-seven. It’s totally different. Here, it’s a short tournament and it’s all down to one or two games. Here, we have to win the right game.”

On Tuesday, Sweden advanced to the final by capitalizing on a miscue from Finnish goalie Sami Aittokallio to tie the game late and then prevailing in the shootout. The victory sets up a rematch with the Russians, a team Sweden defeated 4-3 in overtime to end the round robin.

Sweden came from three goals down to beat the Russians, in what was the best game of the tournament thus far, thanks in part to Russia’s propensity for taking undisciplined penalties that permitted the Swedes to score a bunch of power-play goals. Sweden’s power play has been dynamic in this tournament, especially early on, and for all the attention paid to sparkling draft-eligible players Filip Forsberg and Sebastian Collberg, the country’s most effective forward is the 143rd pick in the 2011 entry draft, Max Friberg.

Anaheim Ducks, take a bow. Mad Max could be the steal of the draft. Sometimes, 5-foot-11 guys that don’t naturally demonstrate a scoring touch have something special that permits them to play well in the big games.

“I hope Sweden has one big game left,” said Friberg, who has been a quote machine in this tournament, but stayed on message Wednesday, “and I will do everything I can, too, to be a part of it. We won [the world juniors] one time I think and it’s been 31 years, so we really have nothing to lose.”

For Friberg and the Swedes, winning a gold medal after so many years of futility would be a fitting end to a thus-far successful event. They are the only undefeated team left standing.

Friberg has been booed in Calgary since he rode his stick like Tiger Williams to celebrate a shootout goal over Switzerland in the round robin, but in the aftermath of Canada’s loss to Russia on Tuesday, fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome immediately started to cheer: “Go Sweden Go.” So even if the Swedes weren’t the people’s choice before, they may be now.

“They did?” Friberg said. “It would be great to have the fans on our side.”

As for how the tournament has unfolded, in front of full houses throughout, Ronnberg spoke for all the visiting teams when he described it as “the experience of a lifetime – for those kids to play in this environment, to play in the full buildings, in front of people who know hockey – because the culture of hockey, here in Canada, is so strong. Everybody’s talking hockey, and everybody understands hockey. They are thrilled.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Friberg tries to shed villain tag

SCOTT FISHER, QMI Agency, Jan 4 2012

CALGARY – Max Friberg exchanged his black hat for a white one.

The black one never fit that well anyway.

The soft-spoken Swede was never comfortable thrust into the role of the villain — the same role Russian showboat Evgeni Kuznetsov thrives in.

"Is he the biggest villain now?" Friberg asked hopefully after Wednesday's workout.

"Well, that's good not to be the baddest. I don't like to be bad. I always like when people like me.

"This was nothing I asked for or wanted, for the crowd to be mad at me."

Friberg inadvertently drew the ire of the Saddledome crowd in Sweden's second game of the tournament, when he rode his stick past the Swiss bench after scoring a shootout goal.

The crowd booed loudly.

When the fans gave the same treatment to Kuznetsov, the Russian captain responded by cupping his hands to his ears. He relishes being hated in Canada.

Friberg appeared sincerely hurt when his celebration went over like a lead balloon.

He apologized repeatedly the following morning and vowed his stick-riding days were behind him.

It was suggested to him, sarcastically, that the Calgary fans love him.

"I don't know if they do," he said. "If they meet me in person I hope they would like me better."

A few nights later, he had the fans behind him as he led the Swedes back from a 3-0 third-period deficit to beat Russia 4-3 in overtime.

The Dome crowd will be solidly behind the Swedes during Thursday's gold-medal tilt with the Russians (6 p.m. MT, TSN).

"I think it's great we will have the crowd on our side," Friberg said. "I think they helped us a lot the first time we played Russia.

"The last 10 minutes they said 'Go Sweden Go' and I think we got a lot of energy from it.

"So I hope they will help us in the final."

Friberg has become the Swedish Jordan Eberle in this tournament.

Every time the Swedes have needed a big goal, the Anaheim Ducks prospect has delivered.

He had a hat-trick against Latvia and scored once and added the much-talked about shootout goal against the Swiss.

He had the game-winner in a romp over Slovakia and then forced overtime with 40 seconds to go against the Russians. Oh yeah, he also set up the overtime winner.

In Tuesday's semifinal, the Swedes needed another late comeback against Finland and Friberg again scored the equalizer with 1:44 left — and then won it in the shootout.

If Sweden wins gold for the first time in more than three decades — and perhaps even if they don't — Friberg is an easy choice as tournament MVP.

All of this success is not something he's used to.

"I've only scored one goal this season," he said. "But I think the national team knows what I can do.

"It's confidence and much more icetime. I'm playing the powerplay and I feel they have confidence in me."

He's become a household name in a little over a week. He's even inspired others to copy 'The Friberg.'

When Finland's Joel Armia scored in the semifinal shootout loss to the Swedes, he celebrated by copying Friberg's celebration.

"I laughed a little bit and I told him 'great celebration' when we did the handshake," Friberg said. "And he laughed.

When asked to grade Armia's celebration, Friberg showed a sense of humour that hasn't waned throughout the tournament.

"They didn't boo him, so he must have done it better," he said. "I give him a 10."

He's been a 10 throughout the tournament.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Russia confident in captain Kuznetsov

WES GILBERTSON, QMI Agency, Jan 4 2012

Nobody has collected as many points.

Nobody has made as many enemies.

And, heading into Thursday's gold-medal matchup with Sweden at the Saddledome, nobody seems to be having as much fun at the world junior tournament as Team Russia captain Evgeni Kuznetsov.

If this guy is feeling any pressure, he's certainly not showing it.

"Well, he won a gold medal last year," reasoned Russian legend Igor Larionov, a three-time Stanley Cup champion and Hockey Hall-of-Famer who's attending the world juniors as a player agent.

"So what do you have to lose? You've already been a champion. You have a chance to lead the way to the young guys. That's what he's been doing."

Kuznetsov didn't talk to the media after Wednesday's practice at WinSport Canada Athletic & Ice Complex, but that didn't stop everybody else from talking about him.

The Washington Capitals prospect has only hit the scoresheet in two games so far — a near-record nine points against Latvia in the round-robin and a four-point effort against Team Canada in Tuesday's semifinal showdown — but still owns the tournament scoring lead.

He also seems to relish his status as a villain at the Saddledome, fuelled by his on-ice celebrations and inflammatory comments about the patriotic crowd.

"He is funny guy. He is funny in life. He is funny in the rink and on the ice," said Kuznetsov's linemate, Nail Yakupov. "He's not funny 24 hours in the day, but sometimes in the dressing room, in the rink. When we have a game, he just stays focused and talks to the guys, like, 'C'mon guys, we want to win something.'

"He is a good captain. He is a good guy and he helps the team."

Kuznetsov is the only returnee from Russia's golden group in Buffalo and will try to lead his country to a second consecutive celebration in Thursday's tournament finale.

The Swedes, who finished fourth last winter after a three-year medal spree at the world juniors, haven't won gold at this event since 1981.

Despite having to field questions about losing two potential teammates in the September plane crash that killed the players and staff of the Kontinental Hockey League's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the Russians have undoubtedly been the most relaxed squad at this tournament.

Maybe, too relaxed.

In their roundrobin finale against Team Sweden on New Year's Eve, the Russians watched a three-goal lead evaporate in the third period and eventually suffered a 4-3 overtime setback.

After surviving another extra-time scare from the Czechs in a 2-1 quarterfinal thriller, they skated to a 6-1 lead against Canada in Tuesday's semifinal but had to hang on for a 6-5 victory.

Russian head coach Valeri Bragin, whose been on the bench for three previous gold-medal games at the world junior tourney, admitted the third-period collapse against Sweden in the preliminary round was reason for concern.

"The game in the group stage, we have to win because it was 3-0 after two periods. Even when we were leading 3-2, we have to win that game," Bragin said through a translator. "I think we'll take a lesson from that game, but I think the Swedes — like us — have really a great motivation because they don't win the world juniors for something like 30 years.

"But before the finals, the chance is always 50-50. They have desire. We have desire. The game will show who is stronger. Right now, it's difficult to predict."

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

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