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The start of this tournament is now just nine days away. Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention, but so far there seems to be ZERO buzz for this event?

All the Cdn-based games are in the four western, mostly smaller, cities that have hosted a WJHC tournament in the last 20 years -- Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Red Deer and Vancouver. I suppose the fact that no games are scheduled for Toronto means less attention from the national media, but that should change as the team is scheduled to convene there on the 20th -- presumably for press conferences/media interviews/etc -- before departing on the 21st for a five-day training camp in Moscow.

I see the Russian team will be coached by former NHLer (and former Canuck) Sergei Nemchinov.

Sources: here and here

Yawn

Not the same

We have a great junior tourny yearly. Why this?

I'd rather see allstar tournys of the 4 NA major junior leagues

Like Nelson95 said, we have the WJHC, this is just another useless tourny.

Secondly, we don't have the rivalry we once did with Russia. This is an attempt to rekindle the 70's and early 80's but doesn't even come close. We no longer view Russia as the big bad guys, if anything they are now viewed as our poorer long lost cousins.

If they really wanted to drum patriotism and hype then it would have been better to do it vs. the Yanks. But that might lose it's intensity.

Personally, I think this is just someone's (or multiple people's) idea at trying to relive the past. Trying to create some nostalgia for today. either that or Russian hockey needs some more $$ and they are getting a fair chunk of change out of this.

Sorry, but if I want a good U20 hockey series, call me at Xmas. Or better yet don't call me as I will be in front of the TV watching the games...

I know that this isn't close to what it was back in '72 but I'm still pretty excited about this series. Yeah it won't have as much intensity and it won't be as exciting as the WJC but this is still a great chance to see some very talented kids playing before they're NHL superstars. Getting the chance to see the likes of John Tavares and Alexei Cherepanov in person is just too tempting to pass up. I'll be getting my tickets soon.

I didn't buy tix for gm 8 cause it will be nothing more than an exhibition by that point

Nothing to see here, folks. Just keep moving along.

This Russian team is not a good one as they were shellacked by the Canadians again tonight.

The Russians should prob bring their NHLers to make this interesting.

Does Brent Sutter know the meaning of the word lose? Pierre Maguire is already anointing him to coach our next Olympic team.

You can't question his record to date. 17-0

What was the final? The last I heard it was 5-2 or something.. only 5 minutes in...

Canadians kick ass and allways have!

Lionheart wrote:What was the final? The last I heard it was 5-2 or something.. only 5 minutes in...

Canadians kick ass and allways have!

Canada won 8-1 tonight and have swept the first five games by an aggregate of 25-7. This is how it was supposed to be in 1972!

Sutter, his staff and the players will not consider these last three games a victory lap -- I think they really want to run the table on this now.

is anyone going to the Vancouver one?

I think "decimating" would be the proper term for what Team Canada are doing to the Russians.

Actually, I see a lot of talent on the Russian team... I think the problem, as the broadcast team (Peter Loubardias and Pierre McGuire) were noting this afternoon, is that Canada is playing as TEAM... the Russian boys aren't. It's not that we're so much better, it's that we play so much better TOGETHER - each Russian player is having to go up against 3-5 Canadians pretty much by himself (I say "3-5" because of the number of times we've been shorthanded, including some LONG 5-on-3s).

I'm going to the Vancouver game but I'm not as excited as I thought I would be.

yeah im going as well, a once in a lifetime opportunity