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Posts Tagged Canada

Jack Campbell’s Captain America Mask

Dec 31

Posted by Eddie in Media | 2 Comments

This week the World Junior Championships is being held in Calgary and Edmonton. The best players under 20 are playing in the annual tournament that began Monday. Canada and the United States looked very strong in their opening games. Today, the border countries are finishing round-robin play with a showdown at Rexall Place.

The Americans have had recent success in the tournament. This year wasn’t so fortunate for the United States. Yesterday against the Czech Republic, they had several chances to win the game. A failed penalty shot attempt midway through the third period turned the game around as the Czechs rallied around goalie Petr Mrazek and scored three goals in the final 10 minutes to win 5-2. With the loss and a loss to Finland earlier this week, they appear to be headed to the regulation round instead of the medal round. A failure considering they have many players from last year’s bronze medalist squad in addition to winning gold two years ago.

The match against Canada won’t be easy considering they are undefeated and have defeated the two teams that beat the Americans by a combined score of 13-1. They topped Finland 8-1 and the Czech Republic 5-0 during the tournament.

The two remaining games the Americans will have in the tournament will take place January 3 and 4 at the Saddledome in Calgary. The game on 1/3 will be against Latvia while the opponent is still to be determined for the last game. It will be the loser of today’s game between Slovakia and Switzerland.

One thing that I noticed was United States goalie Jack Campbell’s mask. He went with the Captain America theme as seen Monday night when they defeated Denmark 11-3. The top junior American goalie, Campbell was the first goalie selected in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He was taken 11th overall by Dallas. Campbell also led the Americans to the gold medals at the 2009 and 2010 World U18 Championship, as well as a gold and bronze respectively in the 2010 and 2011 World Junior Championships. His club team is the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL.

United States goalie Jack Campbell and his Captain America mask.

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EB Predicts Olympic Winners

Feb 16

Posted by EB in Soap Box | 2 Comments

With a break in the NHL season, the Olympics are now upon us. After a poor opening ceremony, the fun begins as the Men’s Ice Hockey starts today. Now being the omniscient person that I am, I will pick the winners.

Gold: Russia

Alexander Semin, Pavel Datsyuk and Alexander Ovechkin on the first line will be the dominant line throughout the tournament. The fire power will be strong with these three as well as Datsyuk leveling out the line with his excellent two way play. Now if that line does not tickle your jolly, how about Maxim Afinogenov, Ilya Kovalchuk and Evgeni Malkin on the second line? Two very talented lines with two very solid goalies, Ilya Bryzgalov and Evgeni Nabokov, will be the key to their success. Weakness to look out for will be their defense, but do not expect it to be that weak with names such as Sergei Gonchar and Andrei Markov.

Silver: Canada

I am hesitant to even put them in a medal standing, and yes I am aware that is a bold statement. The team is stacked with players such as Sidney Crosby, Dany Heatley, Jonathan Toews, Joe Thornton, and the list goes on. Still though, I do believe their home town advantage will carry them this far but not to the gold. The pressure the team will be feeling will be too great and they will fold under pressure just as their World Junior team did against USA a few months back. And just like the Juniors, watch for Canada to take unnecessary penalties that will cost them the gold.

Bronze: USA

Perhaps a long-shot, yet I have to show the love for my home Country. USA is young, dangerously young, both inexperienced and too naive to know that they shouldn’t be in it to win it. Zach Parise, Patrick Kane, Jack Johnson, Ryan Miller and Jonathan Quick make up a feisty group of guys. Add in the inability to have “Matt Man” and  “Support Our Troops” on the goalie helmets, plus the unfortunate passing of Brian Burke’s son Brendan, the team has a lot of motivation to keep them playing hard.

The views and opinions expressed are solely that of an educated guess. Such opinions may be inaccurate or may be changed after seeing the first round. Let’s go USA!

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Canada hosts USA for Gold Medal Game Tonight

Jan 5

Posted by EB in News | 1 Comment

Gold Medal game between Canada and the USA.Tonight, Team Canada defends their gold medal game against Team USA in the World Junior Under 20 Championship game. The game will begin at 8 PM est on the NHL Network.

The favorite to win is Canada, seeing they have won the tournament the past 5 years, on top of it being played in Saskatoon Canada.

Is it a case of David and Goliath? Not quite. The Americans are playing well and proved that in the preliminary meeting between the two teams where Canada was decided the victor in a 5-4 win in a shootout.

The game will be played hard nose and to the end from both Countries. Definitely the thing to watch tonight, unquestionably over the NHL schedule.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

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What is Hockey?

Dec 28

Posted by EB in Soap Box | 6 Comments

The preliminary rounds of the International Ice Hockey Federation World Under 20 Championships are under way and some superb hockey is being played. I highly encourage you to watch some of the games, especially USA and Canada on New Year’s Eve.

Despite all the talented players from around the world, I am drawn to focus on minuscule detail of two games. Sweden beat the Czech Republic 10 – 1 and Canada defeats Latvia 16 – 0.  In the wake of all this, the focus is on records being broken and not that of what hockey stands for.

Hockey is a team sport that teaches many things that are not only used on the ice but off the ice as well. Growing up, I remember after every game shaking the hands of the opponent. To this day, I still shake hands with the opponent after the game in my recreational league. Why? Simple; team sportsmanship.

Perhaps I am old school, but you should never defeat a team so badly as Sweden and Canada has done to their opponent. Not only is it disrespectful to the opponent, but disrespectful to the game of hockey itself. It saddens me that any coach would allow their team to do such a thing, and even more saddened, that fans would encourage such things.

Maybe because they are young, maybe because Canada is showing off for their home crowd, maybe Sweden is trying to prove their capability, maybe this or that, either way, I hope both teams are humbled by the end of the tournament.

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