Castanet

With the NHL lockout having no end in sight, this is a big year for the WJC, both in terms of the talent available, and the number of interested fans. I'm sure many hockey fans, starved for high-level competition on TV, will watch more games and follow the tournament more closely than in past years.

With the injury to Colton Sissons, the Kelowna Rockets will not be represented on any of the WJC teams this year. This seems a little odd to me, but it goes to show the high level of players, coaches, and training staff the Rockets tend to produce.

With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on board, expectations of Team Canada will be very high.

So if you're a hockey fan, will you watch? If so, will you watch more intently than in previous years? This year's tournament will take place in Ufa, Russia...meaning start times in the early morning here on the west coast. This will mean firing up the PVR for many Canadian hockey fans. Personally, I'm looking forward to the tournament, and hoping to watch as much of it as I can.

Been watching World Juniors for years, always good hockey.

JayByrd wrote:With the injury to Colton Sissons, the Kelowna Rockets will not be represented on any of the WJC teams this year. This seems a little odd to me, but it goes to show the high level of players, coaches, and training staff the Rockets tend to produce.

Sorry but that statement doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If the Rockets were producing such a high level of players as you state would they not have more players on the Canada squad?

I was at a recent Rockets game and didn't see anything to overly impress. Stands were little more than half full so I must not be the only one.

What I meant was, the fact that it's almost expected the Rockets will be represented in some way on Team Canada, shows the kind of talent we've had here in recent years. Maybe I'm the only one who's gotten used to that.

The current Rockets roster doesn't have eye-popping talent, but I've been very happy with the progression of Sissons and Damon Severson. Madison Bowey is also looking like he could be a very good pro defenceman.

Bsuds wrote:I was at a recent Rockets game and didn't see anything to overly impress. Stands were little more than half full so I must not be the only one.

I have to agree there somewhat. There is no one really outstanding on the rockets (other then Myles Bell), but they are getting the wins because of team effort not just one guy. As for the fans, the team sucked last season so I guess it will take a while for fans to come back. They had a run of like 250 sellouts in a row till this season.



As for the World Juniors itself I always look forward to this tournament every year. Most countdown days till Christmas I count down the days till world juniors. I was reading somewhere that there could be 6 players that would be playing in the NHL that could make the team and with the NHL cancelling games till the 30th don't think we are going to have to worry about them leaving the team if NHL comes back.

Its going to be interesting this year though with the time. Going to have to either stay up late or wake up early. Here is team Canada schedule

Wednesday, December 26
Canada vs. Germany 4am/1am
Canada vs. Germany* 1:30pm/10:30am

Friday, December 28
Canada vs. Slovakia 4am/1am
Canada vs. Slovakia* 1:30pm/10:30am

Sunday, December 30
Canada vs. USA 4am/1am
Canada vs. USA* 8pm/5pm

Monday, December 31
Canada vs. Russia 8:30am/5:30am
Canada vs. Russia* 1:30pm/10:30am
Canada vs. Russia* 7:30pm/4:30pm

* rebroadcast

Full schedule http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/feature/?id=4124

The puck has dropped!!!!!! The 2013 World Juniors have officially begun!! LETS GO CANADA!!!!!!

Anyone up watching?

Watched a couple of games today - couldn't stay up last night for anything with all the turkey etc.

Thankful for the PVR with these early/late starts, although I forgot to record the Russia-Slovakia game, which sounded like a good one.

I thought the overmatched German team played well, and managed to capitalize on some of Canada's breakdowns. I'm not sure if Canada's effort yesterday would have been good enough against a stronger opponent.

JayByrd wrote:I'm not sure if Canada's effort yesterday would have been good enough against a stronger opponent.

I don't think it would have been good enough to beat US or Russia. Canada needs to smarten up. They were making sloppy line changes.

jackthebumblebee wrote:HAha the after party for the Germany vs Canada game was hilariousness! Watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6z46HmsWng

This video was from 2010 Winter Olympic's in Vancouver not from WJ in Ufa Russia.

Lets Go Canada!

Next up USA vs Canada on Sunday........ then Monday Russia.

Wait and see on IIHF on the 2 hits in todays game against Slovakia.

I have to say I am not impressed with Canada's effort today. They barley won that one. They had many opportunities to seal the deal, but couldn't and then they were hanging on to dear life at the end.

So tomorrow Canada plays its final Regulation game against Russia. The winner of this finish 1st in Group A and gets a bye into semis.

jaz301, I watched the game and it really looked like a typical game, particularly between these two teams. I have been watching the WJHC for many, many years and your description of the game would be suitable for countless contests since the tournament's inception. Sometimes it's hard to remember that they are teenagers and, in general, not professionals. I was not surprised to see them hanging on in the last minute and might even have been disappointed to see otherwise. Go Canada!

j watson wrote:Sometimes it's hard to remember that they are teenagers and, in general, not professionals.Canada!

That is true. Sometime you do forget they are just kids. Like I go to quite a few rocket games during the season and its the same thing with that. You get frustrated when they make a bad play or are not doing well, but you got to remember these are 16-20 year old's still learning the game and will make some mistakes (not to say we don't see this in the NHL).