the world of jim

This is the day we’ve been waiting for.  Off to the rink in a few minutes.

Today will be a quiet one.  The three games are fairly insignificant and we’re going to rest up and get ready for the big games tomorrow.  Also, a little more study time for Stew 🙂

Had a wonderful dinner in the Japanese steakhouse in the hotel – it wasn’t Tokyo Dad, but it was nice time – we sat with a former Eatonian (now working for the Bay in Toronto – who didn’t give me his name because he in town on “business” but was out on a date with I’m pretty sure a co-worker), another couple from Saskatoon and a fellow from Ottawa.  Good times.

Semi-final day has arrived.

Game 1 – Canada vs. the Swiss.  We’ve seen the Swiss play very well and their goalie is outstanding.  The first period is totally cat & mouse.  I’m not quite sure who’s playing with who but the period is very carefully played by both sides.  Shots on net relatively even, neither side taking any huge chances.  2nd period sees more action.  Things open up and more chances are taken.  Canada clearly dominates and the Swiss try to catch up but can’t.  The 3rd period brings more of the same.  The Swiss take more chances leaving their goalie vulnerable and the score gets run up a  bit.  Then the nasties start to happen.  It’s too bad because we lost a defenseman in one of the last plays of the game in a completely needless hit from behind (our guy got a separated shoulder – out of play for 6 to 8 weeks and certainly won’t be playing in the gold medal game).  I had immense respect for the Swiss team up to that time in the game.  They’d kept it reasonably clean up to that point in the game.  Off the gold medal round we go – will it be our 6th in a row or merely our 12th medal in a row?

Game 2 – US vs. the Swedes.  The Swedes went 4-0 in the preliminary round.  But we know how good the US squad is.  Both teams come out strong.  The Swedes are noticeably bigger but seem reasonably fast.  The play is great but once again, the refs seem to favour the US and most of the calls are against Sweden.  The shots on net are reasonably close and both teams have ample opportunities to score but the US strikes first.  Unfortunately for the Swedes, they’re either too slow or the goaltending too weak, but they can’t keep up and Team USA wins to go onto the gold medal game against Canada.  It’s certainly not what the crowd wanted, but the US obviously wanted the game more, and our boys are going to have to bring the best game of their lives tomorrow.

The Medal/Relegation rounds have arrived.  To recap where all the teams are at:

Pool B                          Pool A

1st Sweden                  Canada

2nd Russia                    US

3rd Finland                   Switzerland

4th Czech                     Slovakia

5th Austria                    Latvia

Three games today – however, because I’m such a mean guy, I let Stewart sleep in (again) and to allow him some study time, we skip the relegation game.  (Relegation games are between the 4th and 5th place teams to see who gets bounced from next years tournament – likely Austria and Latvia at this point)

For the first quarter-final game, it’s the Russians versus the Swiss.  The winner goes on to meet Canada in the semi-finals.  On paper the Russians should easily handle the Swiss.   But we know the Swiss have a great goalie and we haven’t seen the Russians play yet.  But they did finish 2nd in their pool and the Swiss finished 3rd in our pool by upsetting the Slovak’s in their last game.  The game itself for the most part was quiet – both teams playing well.  The scoring breaks out in the 2nd period with the Russians up 2-1.  They seem stronger but the Swiss faster.  A lot of penalties are called against the Swiss.  The third period brings much the same strong play but no goals in sight.  In the dying seconds of the third, the Swiss score to tie the game and force overtime.

4 on 4 overtime arrives and both teams appear to play a fairly neutral style of play.  It almost seems as though they want a shoot out.  But again, in the dying seconds of overtime, the Swiss score to win.  Their second upset win in two days.  They face Canada today.  We beat them handily before but I don’t think they’ll go down without a fight and our boys better be prepared and at their best.

For the second quarter-final, it’s the US versus Finland.  The US finished 2nd and the Fins finished 3rd.  We don’t have a lot of hope for the Fins but since we’ve never seen them play, we can always hope for another upset.  The Fins play well, out shooting the US by a margin of 2:1 – which is really quite something.  They’re certainly faster than the US but simply cannot put the puck in the net as well and they don’t have the plays to make it happen.  Every once in a while though, they’d do all the right stuff and score but it’s too little and they can’t keep up.  The US wins and they go on to meet the Swedes today.  It should be quite a match as Team Canada did beat Sweden in a preliminary game but Sweden won all four of their pre-medal games and have lost two years in a row to Team Canada in the gold medal game.  I’m sure they want another shot at it, but I’m pretty sure the US will want it too.

Now for some non-hockey stuff.  We wandered over to “WorldFest” between games and I finally managed to have some perogies – they were delish (the ones at the rink were deep fried and quite terrible).  We also managed to stumble across a version of a Tiny Tim’s donut shop but they were really greasy.  Good, but way too greasy.  So then we found a fudge shop.  Imagine that.  Quite good and reasonably priced at $6.50 per slice.  Hopefully by the end of the trip, we’ll manage to get through as many flavours as we can.  It’ll be tough, but we’re from Toronto eh, and we can do it.

Happy New Years everyone from beautiful downtown Saskatoon where it was a balmy -30C with a windchill of only -10C on top of that for a grand total of -40C – nothing at all for a couple of boys from Toronto.

No hockey today – it’s a travel day for the Regina teams to come up to Saskatoon – quarter finals begin tomorrow.

We started the day off quite late (I must be a great Dad to let his son sleep in till 12:30, right?).  Had a brunch buffet at the hotel and headed off to the movie theatre for a double-header – Sherlock Holmes and Avatar.  Both movies were great.  A note to anyone travelling this way and wanting to see a movie – get the tickets a head of time – the line ups were crazy.

Back to the hotel (6 hours later) to find a plate of squares and brownies in the “club lounge” – and in about 5 minutes they were suddenly gone.  How does something like that happen?

Hope everyone is well and we’re now in the home stretch – the medal rounds are in just a few days.