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2021 World Championships

Enjoyed watching the games last night. Some thoughts:

1- we really need a North American based viable pro league. The shot disparities in these games are absurd. 62 to 7 last night for Canada. 40 to 10 or something like that for US over Finland. I love the international game but I hope the USA Hockey and Hockey Canada higher ups are watching this, and thinking about all the great Canadian and US players who have nowhere to play and could give similar or better competition to the Canadian and US national teams.

2- I love watching Fillier skate the puck end to end. She got another goal in Canada’s 5-1 win.

3- Clark is having a nice tourney as a 3rd line winger. Drew a key penalty to get Canada to a 4 on 4 situation that set the table for Fillier’s goal. Assisted another goal later in the game. Nurse has been converted to a 4 line center. Rattray remains the extra forward. No change in lines yet for Canada this tourney. After winning the player of the game award in game
1 and being a plus 4 that game, Rattray got about 5 minutes of ice time last night.

4- Ambrose and Thompson are a fun d pair. Both finished plus 3 yesterday, a team high.

5- Desbiens still hasn’t had the game she wants to have probably, giving up a goal with 1.7 seconds left. Have to think Maschmeyer will get a look at some point.

6 - jersey game is strong on Team Canada , they went with their Sunday best - the red OSU looking ones, can’t wait to see what they wear next.
 
Good insights Lindsay but I will play devil's advocate here and say that the current investments the US and Canada make in their women's team over the other national teams to cause such a disparity in play may result in the demise of women's hockey as an Olympic sport. No other national teams that I am aware of "centralize" their entire roster a full year before the Olympics. Most of these teams cannot afford that and as a result get a few weeks of camps together throughout the year and that is about it. None of the other teams that I am aware of "pay a living wage" to their national teams. What is the result? Not only do the US and Canada have a much larger natural talent pool to pull from, but they also now train much longer. This really helps widen the gap between the NA programs and the rest of the world. Women's hockey has been an Olympic sport now since 1996 and it still basically boils down to the US and Canada for gold/silver; rest of the world compete for bronze. Anything can happen in any given game (ala Sweden in 2006, Finland last worlds) but unless there is more parity, I fear for the future of the sport. It is much more likely the rest of the world will go the route of Sweden and pull all investment since it simply cannot compete with the NA programs.

If you look at the rest of group A, the group B teams would be much more competitive with Russia, Switzerland and Finland then those 3 are with the NA teams. Given how the seeding works, it will be near impossible for anyone in group B to ever reach group A (the top group B teams never have a chance to play the bottom group A teams - group A 4-5 play each other while group A 3 plays group B 1, etc.). This is even more of a disincentive of the national programs to investment in their women's hockey team.

I know most of us feel like we don't invest enough in our women's teams (US side especially..) but compared to the rest of the world, it is a significantly higher than what they can do or afford. A viable pro league that all the top players in the world could play in would help, but financially that needs to stand on its own (as discussed in prior threads...)
 
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Over the years, the possibility of women's hockey losing its place in the Olympic program due to lack of competition has been discussed a number of times. People have pointed to the demise of baseball & softball as an example. The problem doesn't seem to be one country investing more heavily in a sport and dominating the competition (think China identifying divers at about the age that they can walk or Russia in artistic swimming).

When European countries don't participate in a given sport, then it has a harder time gaining a foothold. Baseball and softball require their own unique facilities, and for an Olympics in Paris, there isn't much need for those fields after the Games. These seem to be global sports, but not in Europe, so they struggle more than sports that are popular on that continent.

If men's hockey isn't going away, then the facilities for women's hockey aren't single-purpose, and they can also double at least as practice rinks for figure skating and/or short-track speedskating. There aren't that many true team sports in the Winter Olympics. Curling. Bobsled. Most of the others are taking an individual sport like skiing and constructing a team competition out of it. So women's hockey provides a nice made-for-TV type of event in a way that some winter sports do not.

Yes, it would be nice if women's hockey made gains in other countries. However, I think that the scores of games are less one-sided now than they once were. This is due in part to not having Canada and the US play the lower-tier teams with the current Olympic format.
 
Off work today for my kids first school day, and it works out I get to watch a 2 pm USA RUssia game.

1- big flex by USA to take players in and out of their roster last game, and play Hensley rather than Cavallini. It would be amazing if we saw Frankel today. Buchbinder hasn’t played yet, beleive she is injured.

2- The Zumwinkle scouting report by ARM is accurate, no surprise there. Her game has transitioned to the senior int’l level, 2 goals so far this tourney.

3- Zumwinkle Scamurra Cameranesi is most fun line to watch so far for me. New and productive. Obviously Knight, Decker, Coyne
are great but we are used to seeing them.

4- There’s always rumblings around Knight. I read takes both positive and negative about her play so far. What I love about her game is how she always comes through in the end. She got shut down on 2 glorious chances last game, didn’t get rattled and scored a classic Knight goal in front of the net, outmuscling a defender and banging home a rebound, to ice the game 3-0. With that goal she tied the world championship record set by Cammi Granato, with 44. Does she break record today?

5- looking Forward to seeing the line up and game
today!

5.1 - Roque doing a nice job centering the 4th line. I think she could handle being a winger higher up the depth chart but someone has to be 4th line center and shes had a few beautiful feeds to people.... someone will hammer one home soon.
 
Whew so first I cried putting my kid on the bus for the first time in 17 months, then at lunch my preschooler had his first day of school ever (sniffle) and now the intermission photo montage of Hilary Knight with all the little girl hockey players she’s inspired got me. Montage ended with a pic of young Britta Curl holding Knights stick. What a day. Knight broke the record, 45 goals, assisted by Decker, who broke a record on same goal - all time US assist leader at worlds with 39.

Britta Curl also got her first goal today, and set the scene for the montage ending photo. Tessa B and Carla MacLeod crushing it on the intermission. Just loving it....next challenge for TSN is to round up some footage of old Knight world championship goals and give us a reel. :-)

Third period upcoming. 3-0 US.
 
Waiting for some more coverage from the big outlets in advance of the US Canada game... stuck with my observations in the meantime, haha.

1- Canada dismantled Switzerland 5-0 yesterday. Maschmeyer with the shutout on 12 shots including a breakaway. Emily Clark with a short handed game winner after she banged home a Turnbull shot on the rebound. What a great tourney for her; she was invisible in the Calgary PW event.

2- scary moment in the third watching Poulin take a slap shot to the chest. She left the game but Kingsbury said she is ok, post game. I have not witnessed a lot of scary plays live; that was unsettling and I’m so glad she’s ok.

3- still no power play or first period goals for Canada in the tourney.

4 - worth tuning in for college fans just to watch Fillier. Alongside the excellent Spooner and Daoust, that second line is like a first line. At one point Fillier and Poulin were on Pp together, even though no goal on pp yet, they just looked great together. The play that Poulin got hurt on Fillier and Poulin were out there defending a 5 on 3 pp. Fillier seems to do it all. That line got 3 goals yesterday (2 for Spoomer and 1 for Daoust).

5 - Jenner sat this game out and Rattray was first line. Jenner should be fresh for USA game. O’Neill made her debut and had some solid shifts as well.

6- similar to our convo the other day, not only can the other countries not get shots against Canada and US, the physicality of the programs are also on different levels from the rest. Seeing this interpreted as playing cheap by some...I don’t know if I agree with that but certainly US and especially Canada play very close to the line of what is a penalty and what isn’t.

7- Bourbonnais scored her first of the tourney yesterday and in her intermission interview with Bonhomme I learned she wears 25 (for Canada, not sure about Cornell), just like a player she looked up to... Tessa Bonhomme. Great stuff.
 
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Big game at 6 pm tonight. Canada has said Poulin will not play, out of an abundance of caution.

want to share two podcasts if you are looking for women’s worlds commentary:

Erica Ayala of Locked on Kraken (has lots of quotes from Joel Johnson, also Knight amd
Decker):

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca...ly-podcast-on-the-seattle-kraken/id1572857724

second is me! Amateur production but hope I have some semblance of knowing what I’m talking about. :-) As you know I love talking hockey and don’t think there’s enough on the women’s side so can’t help but jump in. Hope more passionate women’s hockey fans continue to join the online fandom in someway as I love hearing/reading what others think. My pod is Unapologetically a bit mom focused... I feel mommy hockey podcasts are also underrepresented, lol. Thanks for always being a welcoming community here...I appreciate that there is somewhere to chat women’s hockey and this place is the best.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stops-starts-a-womens-hockey-podcast/id1572763069

So awesome this day has finally arrived, predictions anyone?
 
Always good to see US vrs Canada but everyone knows this is just the "pre-season" game and largely meaningless outside of pride - the 'real' game will be in the championship.

I really hope with the strength group B has shown (especially Czech - wow) and the clear separation between the NA and rest of group A teams, that the tournament format goes to a more traditional "pool A" and "pool B" with the US in one pool, Canada in the other. Standard pool play then the top 2 in each pool go to the 'medal' rounds while the bottom 2 in each pool go to the "relegation" rounds. 3rd place winners can play a best 2-of-3 to figure out who finishes #5 and #6 in the tournament. Would make for a much more exciting tournament and give teams like the Czech a legit chance to bounce out Switzerland/Russia. As of right now, it is hard to get too excited for this US-Canada match up knowing it is just a pride game, and then watch both the US and Canada spank their respective Group B counter parts (Japan and Germany). I think Czech might have a chance for a win over Finland (was last worlds the aberration or this one - it looked like for a bit there they could be on par with the US/Canada but look to have fallen back to the mean) but even so don't think it moves them up enough in the rankings to become #5 in the world. I think Czech would give a beat-down on the Swiss and could probably beat Russia too but we won't get to find out and won't for at least a few years at best in the current format.
 
D2D said:
I'll go with the USA, 3-1 with an empty netter.
Click to expand...

yes have to give the US the edge especially with Poulin out. I have a feeling there will be more goals but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Canada looks good, that is for sure so I certainly won’t be surprised if they win. That Fillier line is mighty good. Pretty veteran 3rd line for Canada too with Johnson Clark Turnbull. Maybe they can be the difference.

Desbiens vs Cavallini in net. Apparently according to a certain hockey stats model Canada’s goalies give them the edge. We shall see.
 
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Cornholio - I think you might be on to something. I’m pumped for tonight since Covid took away a year of games but we do see an awful lot (in normal times) of Canada US exhibition games and they are broadcast nowadays so don’t really need another.

I know that in the past that was not true so to only see US and Canada play each other once at these tourneys used to be a downer.

sounds like group b has some compelling Hockey happening. Women’s hockey will need to continue to adjust to the evolving landscape.
 
Can 5 - US 0 after two.

The way that Canada started this game coming out of the blocks full steam ahead reminds me of the US when they did the same thing in their first meeting at the Worlds in Burlington, Vermont (2013?).

Canada's forecheck is absolutely suffocating the US...no time and no space.

The US seems to be suffering Canada's fate during that game...surprise, confusion, frustration and disbelief.

We've seen enough of these two teams to know that the next meeting could be the opposite as it was in Burlington in the Gold Medal Game.
 
Canada was flying that’s for sure. The new younger players full of energy and yes the forecheck is suffocating and non-stop. No time or space for USA players. The USA will respond if both meet in gold medal game. Should be pretty exciting
 
D2D said:
Based on what we saw tonight, highly unlikely the U.S. will be able to turn the tables against a very determined and highly skilled Canadian team. But for sure I would bet on a much closer game than what we saw tonight.
Click to expand...

It's all part of JJ's master plan to win the gold. The US will certainly do it. You heard it here first. Let's go Red and White and Blue.
 
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