Finland absolutely refused to shoot the puck.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Omg they’ve had to send the Zamboni out two extra times to shave the ice for the shootout. 🤦♀️
Omg they’ve had to send the Zamboni out two extra times to shave the ice for the shootout. 🤦♀️
And it's not at Mariucci! 😉
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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The Finnish goalie...
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Sweden with the WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Heja Sverige!
Canada vs Czechia about to start. Let's give Czechs!
A bummer about TSN basically owning this tournament is listening to these morons call the game. Completely in delulu land.
CZE is probably going to win despite being suspect, at best, with the puck near the blue lines. Man they give it up a lot
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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That was a good play on the blue line.....for an ENG. Way to go CZE!
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Hey, Martone!
True though honestly they looked like the better team all game and Canada was very suspect defensively.CZE is probably going to win despite being suspect, at best, with the puck near the blue lines. Man they give it up a lot
A bummer about TSN basically owning this tournament is listening to these morons call the game. Completely in delulu land.
I couldn’t disagree more. Gord Miller is fantastic.
'29, '40, '74, '76, '79, '02, & '03
GPL's Resident Cabin Enthusiast & Cadets Hockey Fan
He’s way too much of a homer. He’s fine if Canada isn’t playing.
Czechia knocks out Canada for the 3rd year in a row. The last two years in the quarter finals this year in the semi finals.
If the USA wants Canada they are going to have to take it from Czechia since they clearly own Canada. 😀
Mckenna acting like a huge douche the end of the third there complaining about the obvious cross-check called on him and then getting the two and 10 for abusing the official after the empty netter.
That was a great game. Back and forth all game. I kept waiting for Canada to take over and they never could. Good for Czechia. I hope they get their gold tomorrow.
That was a super entertaining game. I felt Czechia had a bit more skill throughout the lineup and they kept their heads when Canada didn't.
It's almost cliche that Canada loses their cool when things don't go their way. The officials deserve recognition for calling the rule book pretty consistently and late in the game when most refs swallow their whistles.
It felt like the referees were trying to find any way to let Misa’s faceoff violation go, but the linesman stood firm.
It felt like the referees were trying to find any way to let Misa’s faceoff violation go, but the linesman stood firm.
The TSN color guy certainly was.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It felt like the referees were trying to find any way to let Misa’s faceoff violation go, but the linesman stood firm.
The TSN color guy certainly was.
I’ll give Gord credit with this one. He was all over Johnson.
Johnson: Well I suppose he reaches out a bit…
Miller: And touches it. That’s a penalty.
Johnson: Who touches it after that?
Miller: The rule is clear, that’s a penalty.
Johnson: Does Canada gain an adv…
Miller: Doesn’t matter. That’s a penalty.
😆
It felt like the referees were trying to find any way to let Misa’s faceoff violation go, but the linesman stood firm.
The TSN color guy certainly was.
I’ll give Gord credit with this one. He was all over Johnson.
Johnson: Well I suppose he reaches out a bit…
Miller: And touches it. That’s a penalty.
Johnson: Who touches it after that?
Miller: The rule is clear, that’s a penalty.
Johnson: Does Canada gain an adv…
Miller: Doesn’t matter. That’s a penalty.
😆
Bingo!
I feel for Gord having to carry that numbnuts for two-plus weeks.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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I am pretty embarrassed by the turnout. It is a Sunday afternoon and tickets are practically free and nobody from the State of Hockey can bother to show up for a medal round game.
There is no way that the IIHF should ever plan to come back to Minnesota with the World Juniors. What a miss on our part.
They set the initial ticket prices at ridiculous rates, and the people responded by not buying tickets. Good, that's actually how it's supposed to work.
That, and a mostly uninspiring season from the Gophers in addition to not sending any stars onto the US team and I'm not surprised that the metro area folks weren't more enthusiastic about this tournament. Now if had we hosted in 2023 when you had 4 gophers including Cooley and Snuggy on the team, I guarantee the US games would be selling out.
Who actually set those initial ticket prices, because they were ridiculously high. It’s a bad look when you have to drop prices so much. It pisses off fans who bought them originally. Full package didn’t make clear there was no way you could go to all the games. I think someone really 🤬up. It’s too bad because timing and MN location should have been a winner. Someone got very greedy and it bit back really badly.
Dorothy: Who’s that?
Scarecrow: A man with an axe and a can of lube. I’ll ask if he wants to join us.
They set the initial ticket prices at ridiculous rates, and the people responded by not buying tickets. Good, that's actually how it's supposed to work
I have zero problem with someone trying to cut a fat hog because as the consumer, I have the final say. I said no.
The issue for the tournament organizers is that they stifled demand almost immediately. People like me who might have purchased tickets for several games got turned off, made other plans, and didn't come back.
A lot more at the game than I expected tonight. Probably all of us using our overpriced tickets we wouldn’t have been able to sell. 😂
Just give me a good game. I don’t even care who wins. Go hockey. 😁
I am pretty embarrassed by the turnout. It is a Sunday afternoon and tickets are practically free and nobody from the State of Hockey can bother to show up for a medal round game.
There is no way that the IIHF should ever plan to come back to Minnesota with the World Juniors. What a miss on our part.
They set the initial ticket prices at ridiculous rates, and the people responded by not buying tickets. Good, that's actually how it's supposed to work.
That, and a mostly uninspiring season from the Gophers in addition to not sending any stars onto the US team and I'm not surprised that the metro area folks weren't more enthusiastic about this tournament. Now if had we hosted in 2023 when you had 4 gophers including Cooley and Snuggy on the team, I guarantee the US games would be selling out.
Yeah IDK what else to say other than you're objectively right and I wish I waited on buying tickets until it was game day and saved a bunch of money. The fact that me and Cowgirl can't even come close to making our money back even tells you everything about the initial pricing. I couldn't sell the Switzerland ticket for anything even close to face (so I just went to that one) and lost money on the Sweden game. The tickets were near the red line lower bowl and both were games where USA was playing. The medal round is an even bigger disaster and I probably won't even make 1/7 of the $700 I paid where as if USA was decent this year I could've at least broke even or made a profit (or just went to the game of course).
Swedes looking surgical out there. Impressive team.
It is a tough road being down 2 to Sweden going into the third. Czechia needs something different to happen.Swedes looking surgical out there. Impressive team.
We are now the University of Minneapolis.
The IIHF head dude called us that, thanking us for the venue. 😂
So where is next seasons World Juniors?
Aloha!
Edmonton
And Red Deer. By base seeding, USA is slated for Red Deer, but I believe Canada can swap us with Switzerland if they want. (I believe the host can make one swap of similar seeds. USA would be the 3rd seed in Red Deer based on this year's results, with Switzerland the 3 seed in Edmonton).Edmonton
As someone who has been working on this tournament for a while, and spent nearly every day at the events:
-pricing remains a legitimate, huge gripe. Absolutely insane to expect jr hockey to fetch the prices in this economy. and someone made the point about the packages not being clear you could not attend all games - YIKES
-many of these players parents didnt even travel over. Current events affected attendance quite a bit. I enjoyed talking to many canadians during tournament and every single one brought this up. Everyone was banking on more Canadians showing up, whether you agree with that or not.
-The astroturfing by online Canadians and media was ridiculous. bitching about teams bussing to Tria with equipment on during a snowstorm. The facilities were great - and perhaps Canada should have won more games last year if they wanted to pick a better locker room. Finland had the right to pick the gopher mens'
-every team/staff/federation is full of incredibly kind people. Many asked a lot of ?s about high school and youth hockey here. and I can count on one hand the number of times I saw something from a player that made me shake my head, and these are teenage boys we're talking about.
-Most teams lost with class and dignity
-Slovakians were particularly amazing! As were the Swedes
-someone mentioned why should anyone here want to watch Sweden v Finland....well, besides being tremendous hockey (and those two in particular play a much better team game than the NA teams) they are full of future NHL stars. I watch HS hockey tournament every year despite rarely knowing anyone in there, and I wish our locals had come out in better support. I felt so bad for these kids playing in front of a nearly empty arena most of the time. The sold attendance did not match actual attendance for most games.
Next year, the two arenas are two hours apart, which I can't imagine after running between our two arenas.
Also, I heard from what I deem to be a very reliable source that Canada was asked if they wanted the locker rooms at Ridder (they used I think 3 of the auxiliary locker rooms there) and they very willingly said "yes, please"The facilities were great - and perhaps Canada should have won more games last year if they wanted to pick a better locker room. Finland had the right to pick the gopher mens'
yeah the actual canadian team/staff didnt seem nearly as hurt as the canadian media did. and yes, I agree with your sourceAlso, I heard from what I deem to be a very reliable source that Canada was asked if they wanted the locker rooms at Ridder (they used I think 3 of the auxiliary locker rooms there) and they very willingly said "yes, please"The facilities were great - and perhaps Canada should have won more games last year if they wanted to pick a better locker room. Finland had the right to pick the gopher mens'
I def would’ve watched the non-USA game if USA was playing in the other game but between the cost and me losing interest in the tourney after that I was done spending money on it. Also was a good day for NFL viewing and I paid for Redzone/wanted to get my money’s worth out of that. Some decided to double down on a sunk cost, YMMV.
That said I forgot about the all games package and the fact that it’d be impossible to make it worthwhile. Yikes is right.
From what it sounds like... the whole walk between the arenas video was meant to be a "hey, this is really cool" vs "why do we have to walk all this way?"
oh, im sure the IIHF may have meant to post it in a cool way, but a lot of keyboard warriors in Canada and Michigan/NY took the picture and ran with it to several online forums to bash us. Same with everything else - the player of game gifts, everything. A lot of "online Canadians" feel it should be there every year, and get particularly salty when they haven't won for years now.From what it sounds like... the whole walk between the arenas video was meant to be a "hey, this is really cool" vs "why do we have to walk all this way?"
I thought it was a great tournament. The venues were great (I may be biased 😉) and I enjoyed the games I made it to (the final three US prelims, all four medal round, and three games at Mariucci).
In hindsight I wished we hadn’t pre-purchased so much but I knew it was a risk; if the US made it to the medal round it would have definitely been a better investment but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m glad we did it.
My complaints would have been that it wasn’t publicized enough to the places you find the niche hockey fans, they really should have had more/better merch available BEFORE the tourney, and it was deceptive to sell full packages without explaining games were too close time wise to see them in full (not to mention you’d pay four times to park if you tried to attend them all.) It is unfortunate that world events prevented a better international fan base. That is not in our control, nor the fault of those who organized this event; I doubt Minnesota had much if anything to do with the ticket prices; (parking and food/beverages is a different story), so saying the poor turnout is Minnesota’s fault is unfair.
It’s also unfortunate so many quit watching if it’s not their team; the few who did attend after the US was out are clearly great fans of the game of hockey itself.
As we all well know, keyboard warriors without actual knowledge of facts are the loudest and spread misinformation like the plague.
Thank you to @nyc-gopher-fan and anyone else who worked hard to bring this event to our backyard. It’s great to hear that the participants showed class. It was a helluva last couple weeks and a lot of fun regardless! My bank account will hate me for awhile but I still consider it worth it.
I also still have the Sweden goal song stuck in my head, and now you can too. 😁
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuj0ePoQKEs
ummm have you heard the slovakian goal song??
tho I also loved Swedens. And Germanys. I got a great video of the Sweden section singing that song as the seconds counted down.
We considered cheering for Switzerland the entire tournament based on their goal song alone. Didn’t get to hear the Slovakia song too much, but it slaps.
@snowcool08 yeah the swiss song sounded very swiss, and many people loved it.
the slovakian song does hit harder when drunk slovaks are bopping around with horns on their head
When I heard it in the arena all I could hear was tikki-licky-bum which made me giggle every time I heard it.
I enjoyed watching the Sweden and Finland fans yell Sverige and Suomi back and forth; sometimes clapping in unison. The only Swedish and Finnish I know.
Yeah Slovakia picked a good song it kinda took the edge off getting scored against 😆
Yeah Slovakia picked a good song it kinda took the edge off getting scored against 😆
My son and I were at Slovakia-Germany early in the tournament. That Slovakia song was fun/catchy. Kind of glad the Slovaks didn’t run the score up more, I would have had it in my head for months