Only four remain, and we have to decide who plays for what
Semifinal Game 1: Sweden vs. Finland – 3pm
Do I even need to tell you why you should watch this?
It’s Finland vs. Sweden. It’s the most intense rivalry of the euro-sphere that doesn’t involve the Red Machine. Two neighbors who are otherwise perfect friends who have hyper-competitive play against one another. This is everything you could possibly ask for in a semifinal, with perhaps the sad understanding it will send one team to the Bronze Medal game.
For both sides, this can only be gut check time: Sweden had to put up with Latvia refusing to roll over and die, and a number of their faults, few as they were, began to crop up even as the Latvians got mostly steamrolled. Finland meanwhile, just came out of a game where they got badly outshot and relied heavily on Petteri Rimpinen to keep their medal hopes alive. While both are definitely good, Sweden might even be an all-time team for the country…they’re both distinctly more mortal than either one of them would care to admit. Now has never been a better time to prove your superiority over the old rival and go to the Gold Medal game on a viking battle-high.
Watch this game. It never disappoints.
Semifinal Game 2: USA vs. Czechia – 7:30pm
To say this will be an enormous test is an understatement.
Czechia as I’m sure you’ve no doubt heard eliminated Canada in a game that looked closer than it actually was, and frankly I think it speaks a number of volumes about the kind of team Canada wanted to be coming into this tournament, something I will leave for later on in this article. We can talk about that when it comes time. The point is, the Czechs have found their form; Hrabel is playing his heart out, the offense is clicking like a fine timer, and they just got the major confidence boost of playing and beating the so-called best nation in the sport.
Which is great, because boy are they gonna need it against the USA.
Unlike Czechia, the only team the US even mildly struggled against was Finland, and it was followed up by absolutely dunking on the Canadians and skinning the Swiss in the quarterfinals like they were small game. They are Czechia’s match in goals scored, they are playing like a fire-breathing dragon that’s had it’s eye spat in, and they’re looking to defend that gold medal with a hailstorm of opportunities to get to the net. That is, if they show up like they did against most of their opponents. Their game against Finland showed they’re still very capable of having a game where they start sluggish and try to use the third period to try and make up the difference, so if they can catch them there…the Czechs will have a great chance.
They just have to capitalize and quick because otherwise we may be watching a very good team get absolutely processed.
You should still
A Quick Word on Team Canada’s Quarterfinal loss
And now, a less quick word on Team Canada’s Quarterfinal loss
You’re only on top for so long.
Canada will still find their way to a medal in your lifetime. Hell, they’ll probably try to medal next year. They’ll be favorites and everything! The version of Canada you’re used to seeing will still inevitably exist.
At least, that is, if Hockey Canada has a “come to jesus” moment about this year and last year and makes changes. A lot of them. Big ones.
The reality that has faced Hockey Canada for decades and has largely gone unaddressed is that the titanic gap between the other nations that often show up to these tournaments, from Russia to the US to even Latvia, has been slowly closing; year over year. Maybe for some teams its a bit quicker because they have more kids signed up or they have better support networks for the best of their best to make it to the top of the sport and be just as much a group of potential NHLers as any other, but the gap is closing all the same.
Hockey Canada could have put the effort forward to be just as big a part of the changing face of Canada as it was in the olden days, ensure that little Canadian kids all over the country can get ice-time or at the very least a stick and an old net to practice on. Make sure it’s safe for all the boys and girls who show up to the rink. Or hell, failing all of that, they could at least send the best players available to these tournaments. Or even failing that…they could try to practice and actually build some chemistry.
Hockey Canada failed to do any of that, and look what happened.
The same team, almost the same score, and the same “shock” defeat (although I wouldn’t exactly call it a shocker or a “Stun Victory” if Czechia spent the entire game either tied or with the lead), with nearly the exact same player being responsible for sending them home for the second year in a row.
While journalists are doing the right thing and asking the right questions about why this team was constructed this way and why the decisions on team management were done in the way that they were, my expectation is that while the country’s program is run like it is, we are going to see something like this again. As it stands, Hockey Canada is woefully underprepared for smaller countries having taken the steps to improve themselves that they could meaningfully compete with them. Maybe they’ll get Bronze Medal every so often, maybe they might end up in the finals…but as it stands, this organization is not just abhorrent in the off-ice, moral standing type of things, but deeply, deeply misguided on how they construct and build their teams for on-ice play.
The thing about being on top is that everybody else is crawling up that mountain to try and knock you off, and Hockey Canada seems completely blindsided by that fact.
And as a fan of international hockey, you will not see me eulogizing their failure. Instead I’ve come to bury them with a sneering grin, because that attitude doesn’t just end with failure, it deserves failure. If you come to tournaments, or hell, any hockey game at all, assuming victory as a birthright? Not something you have to claw out of 60 minutes of a contact sport?
I have no pity. What will happen next is your own fault.
Anyway, there’s some great World Juniors games being played today against teams that actually give a s#!t about being competitive, so let’s sit back this afternoon and watch them.