Tag Archives: Team Canada

IIHF

The Junior Report #2- You The Mantha!

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Welcome one and all to the second edition of The Junior Report!

Well the games have officially begun. It was Day 1 of the 2014 World Juniors! No more pre-competition now the games really mattered. Canada opened up against Germany and like the previous “pre-competition” games Canada found themselves down early as a weird bounce put the Germans up 1-0. Canada quickly responded with a beautiful set up and play by Matt Dumba (7th Overall 2012 Minnesota Wild)  to tie it up at 1-1 then go up 2-1 before Adam Pelech (65th Overall 2012 New York Islanders) gave away the puck for the Germans to tie it up at 2-2. Canada then took control for the rest of the game and was lead by Anthony Mantha (20th overall 2013 Detroit Red Wings) who scored a Hat trick and lead Canada to a 7-2 victory. Canada played well and you can see the chemistry coming together just need to wake up early in the game as other teams might not be as easy to come back against. In other scores Russia dominated Norway by a score of 11-0. The USA topped the Czech Republic by a score of 5-1 and Sweden sneaked by Switzerland 5-3. Canada takes on the Czech Republic on Saturday Morning 11:30am EST on TSN.

Now when I decided to give this blog/article a shot I didn’t feel like just doing play by play I wanted to give something else something different to read that you might not read everywhere else so In the coming editions of The Junior Report! We will look back at the NHL Success or failures of the last 10 players that donned the “C” for Team Canada. We will also look into if Canada performs better on home ice or not. Also an article on the infamous “Punch-Up in Piestany”. That and many more on future editions of The Junior Report !

For Boredhockeyfan.com I am Dan Thompson, ‘Have a Good Night And A Pleasant Tommorow”

Hockey Media

NHL 14 Demo – Thoughts and Points

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For those who havent played it/downloaded it, the NHL 14 playable demo was released recently, and in it, contained three game modes. Play Now, which consisted of playing the third period (and overtime/shootout if needed), between the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks. NHL ’94 Anniversary mode, which contains the third period between the Bruins/Blackhawks, and Hockey Ultimate Team, which contains you receiving a random pack, and facing off in a tournament against the Halifax Mooseheads, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Team Canada respectively.

A quick analysis on each, possibly detailing what the retail version of NHL 14 could be all about.

NHL ’94 Anniversary mode should be available to play online multiplayer. It is only there as a replacement for the Winter Classic, which wasn’t played due to the lockout. This mode would be more fun being able to play online, as I feel the mode just wont be enough purely as offline single player/multiplayer. NHL ’94 mode is more than fun, and even the beginner would be able to do well in this mode, as opposed to needing to do tricks and dekes in order to be successful in other modes.

Ultimate Team from what I saw, seems to be fairly similar to the NHL ’13 model, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it would be a lot better if they re-introduced permanent training to your players.

Play Now was just a normal game, giving you the chance to show off the new fighting mechanic, the new dekes, and everything else you can think of. The fighting mechanic is 1000% better than previous editions, although they seem to happen a lot more regularly than even a real-life NHL game, which can be bothersome, and just like Madden and FIFA, the game’s looks are tweaked to look better, but the overall feel is pretty much the same as last year’s edition.

General

Guess Who’s Going To Sochi

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The NHL and NHLPA have made an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), to allow NHL players to participate in the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

Since Nagano in 1998, NHL’ers have been able to represent their respective countries, and 2014 will be no different with an estimated 120 or more players, weill be representing the 12 countries competing.

The NHL schedule will take a break from February 9, 2014 to February 26, 2014, to allow the NHl’ers to participate without the NHL franchises they play for being affected by their loss. This also means that Team USA and Team Canada will be favourites once again,along with Team Russia, who would still have been affected if this deal didn’t go through, but not as much due to the strength of the KHL.

The preliminary rounds will be made up of three groups, consisting of four teams each. Group A will have Russia, Slovenia, Sl0vakia and the United States. Group B sees Austria take on Canada, Finland and Norway, whereas Group C will see the Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland and Sweden do battle.

Full schedule details can be found by clicking this LINK, which will take you to the IIHF website.

General

Why The Lockout Was A Good Thing

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It was. I assure you. I know it may not seem like it, and that people predict it will kill hockey in the United States. But, the lockout may not have benefited the NHL as much as a full season may have, the lockout allowed players to play elsewhere. Where else would Joe Thornton, Patrick Kane and Loui Eriksson play in the same team, if it wasn’t for the lockout? Speaking of which, here is just a small example of where the lockout was actually beneficial.

SPENGLER CUP

The Spengler Cup is an invitational tournament played in Davos, Switzerland every year, and normally contains European hockey powerhouses, and Team Canada, which is mostly made up of European-based Canadians. However, this year’s edition of the Spengler Cup was a little different. For starters, Team Canada was stacked this year. The biggest name competing for Team Canada in 2011 was former NHL Goaltender Marty Turco, with only three other players currently playing outside of Europe. However, thanks to the NHL Lockout, Team Canada was able to select from those locked out, then playing for teams in Europe, as well as the four outside Europe selections. It wasn’t just Team Canada that benefited, with other teams competing in the Spengler Cup, being able to include NHL-based stars playing in Europe as well, allowing for stronger lineups, and including names familiar to the viewing public, due to them playing in the National Hockey League pre-lockout.

IIHF WORLD U20 CHAMPIONSHIP

Ah yes, the World Juniors. Where the brightest and best up-and-coming stars of the world of hockey come together to compete for their country, usually made up of the best young prospects that will be the names called out in the next NHL draft. This season was different however, this season, the NHL was locked out. Which meant that the best juniors currently applying their trade for an NHL team could compete for their country if they so chose to, allowing the likes of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to be available for Team Canada, and Nail Yakupov for Team Russia as opposed to being on the ice for the Edmonton Oilers. Every country competing had at least one player currently on an NHL roster, and not having those players, quite possibly would’ve led to a completely different result than what actually happened. Who knows, Canada may have actually won a medal!

THE CASUAL VIEWER

No casual viewer of any sport wants to sit down for an entire 82-game season, as chances are they’ll be bored inside the first 20 games and not watch the season out. But, this season is a shortened season, maybe 50 games maximum, and the casual viewer may tune in for the first 20 or so games, but rather than being 60 left.. there’s only going to be 20 or so left, which could very well mean that the casual viewer may be more intrigued as divisions will be tighter, the playoffs will loom, players will be fresher, and hockey will thrive again. Even ESPN are dragging Barry Melrose out of cotton wool, and called it ‘the top story of the day’. When ESPN start caring about hockey, you know it’s getting serious.

There is just a sample of what having a lockout actually improved. The lockout wasn’t all bad, but now that’s it’s back, don’t ever leave again. Lockouts are bad bad things.