2023 World Juniors

[state of hockey]

Czechs tie it near the end, win with 50 seconds left in OT.

[state of hockey]

This look from Sweden will never get old for me.

[Kepler]

Czechs starting fast with the first 2 shots on the Swedes.

[Kepler]

Germany hasn't been used like this since the Thirty Years War.

[Kepler]

The Czechs have decided to stop farting around. This game is 6-1 halfway through and could be 12-2.

Only 5 of the 22 players in the Czech lineup play in their domestic league, which is a true good news / bad news story.

[Kepler]

All this over 25%?

Well, you know, it's what I've got, man. Among my F4 (SVK, CZE, ITA, NOR) it's the one that needs the biggest push.

We are not a particularly distinguished people. I'm fairly certain I am among the most accomplished 10k Slovaks who have ever lived, and I have done nothing.

[PrezdeJohnson09]

What a terrific game between Slovakia and Switzerland. Loving the parity this year in the tournament.

[Spartanforlife4]

No, no, no; the political unit is nothing. The People is everything.

Insofar as Slovakia is a government and a set of institutions, it's just another player in the War of All Against All at the nation state level. It could be Russia or the US or Burkina Faso. They are all fungibles.

Insofar as Slovakia is "the land of the Slovaks," it's a referent to a clan of sloping-foreheaded white trash back to which I can trace 25% of my DNA. That is what is sacred.

The reason I don't root for the USA is it is only a political entity. The class of people who are Americans is the global population who believe in the single foundational truth of America, the only statement in any formal document that has value:



That's America, and no country points to it. Only people point to it, wherever they happen to be. There is no American ethnicity -- that's what the traitors will never understand. They think they are Americans because they were born here, but they aren't, because the American people is a matter of mind, not blood.

If there was a hockey team that represented the American people I'd root for it, but there cannot be because America isn't a nation state. It's the "last, greatest hope of mankind." The closest there is to an American hockey team is the Left.

All this over 25%?

And doesn’t this grand nation-state vision fall apart when you have countries who allow immigration? Unless you really love places with racist policies like Hungary, the natural conclusion is going to be teams that look like England or Holland or the US than teams where everyone has the same name structure.

[Kepler]

Norway beat Kazakhstan to get bumped up. They had the same record in that division and if the Kazakhs had won they’d be in instead. I’d like to see France get in someday too, although I know it’s pretty unlikely. Just fun to see the jerseys with a big ol chicken on them.

Fun fact that is relevant to our earlier topic. That big ol chicken (the Gallic Rooster) is the symbol of the French People,



while Marianne (the chick who always has her boobs out) is the symbol of the French principles (liberty, equality, brotherhood).

[state of hockey]

Norway beat Kazakhstan to get bumped up. They had the same record in that division and if the Kazakhs had won they’d be in instead. I’d like to see France get in someday too, although I know it’s pretty unlikely. Just fun to see the jerseys with a big ol chicken on them.

[Russell Jaslow]

This is fun: the lineup of teams waiting in the lower pools to try to move up:

• Denmark
• France
• Hungary
• Japan
• Kazakhstan

And then the group below them:

• Croatia
• Estonia
• Italy
• Poland
• Slovenia
• Ukraine

And then the group below them:

• Great Britain
• Lithuania
• Netherlands
• South Korea
• Spain
• Romania

After Italy let's get the Brits to the WJC. We'll see if they can keep up with the Latvians in drinking.

Denmark has been in it before. I got to see some of their exhibition games in Rochester before the last Buffalo tournament.

I wonder what’s going to happen when Russia and Belarus are allowed back in? That will happen eventually.

[Russell Jaslow]

Oh wow. At the tourny, or later?

At the tourney. January 2,4,5. It’s been that way for awhile.

[Kepler]

You posted a lot of text for someone who supposedly doesn’t care.

Caring != caring about you

[Jimjamesak]

This is your go to insult, and indicates you think other people are performing for (or against) you. That isn't what this place is. I can assure you, nobody cares about your reaction to their statements. Please stop embarrassing yourself and just enjoy what you enjoy. Relax. Chill.

You posted a lot of text for someone who supposedly doesn’t care.

[Kepler]

“Slovak people” is just a political construct no different than “American”. It’s an 18th century justification for “my people are different and special than yours”

It's actually worse than that. Slovak self-identity didn't start until the 19th century, which is really late. But, to be fair to My People, the language is about 1500 years old. Language is an important part of identity. But it didn't become important to Slovak-speakers until the Hungarians began forcing a policy of Magyarization on their children. At that point they felt they were losing something valuable (and it was accompanied by other forms of economic and political persecution) and that made them start to coalesce into a social unity.