Much like the Memorial Cup, the World Junior Club Cup doesn't offer many chances for a team to make an impression.  After two games in two days, we already know one of the Finalists for the championship, as Energie Karlovy Vary of the Czech Republic have already clinched Group B with a pair of shutout wins over Mälmo Redhawks (Sweden) and Dinamo-Shinnik (Belarus).  They'll close out their group sessions against Canada's Fort McMurray Oil Barons, who were eliminated after a tight 3-2 loss to Mälmo in which they outshot the Swedish club 47-21. 

Meanwhile, Group A is still up in the air, and the EJHL All-Stars have surprised the competition with two impressive victories to date over MHL teams.  HK Riga was first to face the American team, losing 4-2 despite a late third period surge.  The junior club of the KHL's newest entry, Lev Poprad of Slovakia, had a much worse day on the 31st, losing 7-2 to the EJHL team.  However, with HK Riga beating CSKA, and CSKA beating the Slovaks, we have some uncertainty heading into the final day.  CSKA can still make the finals with a regulation win over the EJHL team on Friday, combined with Riga not winning in regulation.  Riga would need a huge goal differential to stand a chance of making the final, while the EJHL team just needs to push their game to OT for a final berth on Saturday.

The MHL website has a lot of the game stats, but since they're all in Russian and using the Cryllic alphabet, it's taking a bit of time for me to compile them.  I'll try and get more on the individual performances, but for now here are some team stats:

World Junior Club Cup

Group	Team	Pts	GF	GA	SF	SA	Next Opp.
A	EJHL All Stars	6	11	4	55	65	CSKA Moscow
A	HK Riga	3	4	4	62	59	Tatranskí Vici
A	CSKA Moscow	3	4	5	65	40	EJHL All-Stars
A	Tatranskí Vici	0	5	11	43	63	HK Riga
B	Energie Karlovy Vary	6	5	0	37	38	Fort McMurray Oil Barons
B	Dinamo Shinnik	3	3	1	49	32	Mälmo Redhawks
B	Mälmo Redhawks	3	3	6	36	71	Dinamo Shinnik
B	Fort McMurray Oil Barons	0	2	7	66	47	Energie Karlovy Vary

One wonders if they'll allow a league All-Star team again in this pre-season tournament, especially since a lot of the clubs have players participating in senior men's camps right now, especially CSKA and Mälmo.  Fort McMurray really dominated the territorial play against Mälmo but found themselves unable to tie the game up, and that's why the shots stats are so lopsided there.  In all, the tournament looks to be pretty competitive, with Energie Karlovy Vary trapping their way to the Final while the EJHL team strikes early and don't give up their lead.

The action resumes on Friday in the early morning for the North American audience (5 AM EST), but the Final on Saturday is somewhat reasonable at 8 AM EST.

What started as a behind the scenes discussion at last summer's World Hockey Summit is now a somewhat modified reality:  junior clubs from eight different countries will be competing this week in Omsk, Russia for this trophy.  It isn't the star studded lineup of national champions the organizers had hoped for, but the inaugural tournament offers intirigue for those of us who like to compare the quality of the various leagues.  The Russian Minor Hockey League, entering its third season of existence, will be represented by four different clubs, including the only team to win a championship last year:  CSKA-Krasnaja Armija Moskva, or the youth team of CSKA Moscow (Red Army).  The other three MHL entries represent Latvia (HK Riga), Belarus (Dinamo-Shinnik), and Slovakia (Tatranskí Vici).  Beyond the MHL, teams from top junior leagues in Sweden (Malmö Redhawks) and the Czech Republic (HC Energie Karlovy Vary) will be joined by two teams from second and even third tier leagues in North America:  the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the AJHL (arguably Canada's top Junior A circuit), and a team of Eastern Junior Hockey League Selects representing the USA.  The EJHL is considered the top third tier junior league in the USA, well behind the USHL (Tier 1) and NAHL (Tier 2). 

The lack of any Canadian Hockey League teams (QMJHL, OHL, WHL) is a real disappointment for the organizers.  There are logistical concerns for sure, but concerns about the quality of play seem, well, out of line.  Russian junior Select teams take on Canadian All-Star teams every November in Canada before sellout crowds in the Subway Super Series, and for the first time, the Russian Selects won that series last fall.  The team was composed almost entirely of MHL players, with a few ringers from CHL teams added depending on the location of the games.  The Russian team has to travel from Atlantic Canada right across the country to British Columbia within a two week time span to play six games, hardly an easy journey to make.  I think some reciprocity should be in order.

Dmitry Yefimov, the Managing Director of the MHL, had this to say in an interview on the MHL website given by Maxim Zamyatin of Allhockey.ru:

Why don’t the CHL clubs want to send their players to the tournament in Omsk?

"It’s hard for me to answer for the Canadians. In my opinion, I find it impossible that they wouldn’t
want to come here because of our low level hockey, because we proved our level at the World
Championships six months ago."

Maybe they don’t see our team as a worthy opponent because of the MHL? Remember the
condescending attitude they had towards our players at the Summit Series in 1972.

"Prejudices can be shattered on the ice. Our team went to the Super Series last fall and also won
the World Championships. That’s an indication of the quality of the league and the players in
the league. Maybe a lot of it is due to the fact that politics get involved in junior sports in North
America. Politics can often put pressure on sports and maybe somewhere out there lies the answer
to the question on why teams from Ontario or Quebec don’t want to play with us. To send a team
here is a difficult decision for them; it means that someone must take responsibility, also for the
result."

And we have it easier here? Some of our teams are going there all the time.

"Yes, it is easier here. We look at our work as hockey. For example we sent the team Red Star to
play there two years in a row. Fox went to Boston recently, they ended up in third place, and we’re
fine with that. Hockey is a game where everyone can’t win. We see this as a serious sports project
that is about development. We are ready to play with the CHL teams or any American league teams
in general, and if we lose, it’s not a tragedy. If the Canadians don’t bring CHL teams to play here, is
it worse for them than it is for us? I don’t know."

What can you say about the North American teams that are coming over?

"I don’t think they’re weak. In general, the average level of junior hockey is very high in Canada. I
get so many questions about the level of Canadians and Americans! I want to say this; let’s watch
the games, watch those teams play, and then we can say if they are weak or not. If we already have
our minds set on the North Americans being weak, we can see them surprise us in the end."

We simply know very little about the Canadian Oil Barons from Alberta and the American team
from the Eastern Junior Hockey League. That’s why we’re asking.

"We know very little about junior hockey in both North America and Europe in general."

Translated by Teemu H of Broad Street Hockey

While the whole conversation is interesting, the part in bold is where Yefimov seems to be calling the CHL chicken. 

As for the USHL:  later in the interview Yefimov claims that the representatives from that league were more concerned with what kind of team Canada was sending then the rest of the competition, so you can read into that whatever you'd like.

Continue reading this post »

I did this last year, so I figured I'd do a post on this year's Final here. 

Boston's Canadian-ness makes superfan Don Cherry shed a tear, but they are led by their only European up front.  Krejci and Bergeron are really the two leaders, as Bergeron would be just behind Krejci in minutes played if not for missing two games due to injury.  While I haven't shown on here the league in which these players came from, its a curious note that the much maligned QMJHL essentially produced the top Canadian forwards for each team in the Finals.  In fact, Vancouver's Canadian contingent is quite unique:  Mason Raymond is not a major junior graduate, but an AJHL/NCAA alumni, meaning that Raffi Torres at 9th on the depth chart is actually the team's top OHL or WHL grad.  And Torres is only ahead of Samuelsson due to Samuelsson's injury.  This might partially explain why Canadians outside of BC aren't rallying behind the orca...  the Anglo-Canadian makeup of the forwards is incredibly weak.  Meanwhile, Boston could be confused for a major junior team with its makeup at forward. 

Ryan Kesler is obviously the Canucks' focal point up front.  The Sedins get deployed in almost exclusively offensive situations, while Kesler gets deployed wherever needed.  The strong Scandanavian contingent continues with Danish forward Jannik Hansen, who is the first player from Denmark to play in the Stanley Cup Final.  He's the key component of Vancouver's 3rd line, and really has been incredibly underrated to date, as has Vancouver's second American forward, Chris Higgins.  Boston has been the healthier team overall, only using top prospect Tyler Seguin as a result of Bergeron's injury, and then keeping him around ahead of tough guy Shawn Thornton.  Meanwhile, Vancouver has used a rotating cast of players on a rarely used fourth line. 

Continue reading this post »

Not a surprise here, but the IIHF announced today that no agreement was made on the IIHF's proposal for the 2011-12 CHL season, so all plans for the league have been cancelled.  The CHL existed for one season back in 2008-09, but lost their sponsorship deals during the global financial crisis and since then they have not been able to re-launch.  This was the second attempt to re-launch, after pulling the plug on the 2009-10 season late and leaving many clubs angry and demanding compensation.

SC Bern of Switzerland's NLA took it a step further and has taken the IIHF to court over the lost season, and compensation for the lost year has been a sticking point in re-launching the project.  Some clubs, particularly those based out of the Nordic countries, are looking to launch their own international competition based more on market strength than club strength, called the European Trophy.  The tournament launched in August and September of 2010 with the final tournament being the Red Bulls Salute in Salzburg, Austria.  With conflicting tournaments, a lack of trust between the clubs and the IIHF, and the inability of all the various national federations to adequately satisfy their members' demands, this failure to re-launch is no surprise.

It's too bad.  A CHL would have put a lot of players and teams in a bigger spotlight, and would have been very interesting to cover here on this site.  Instead, we'll have to just be satisfied with the source leagues themselves, many of whom could use the extra revenue and exposure the CHL would provide them.  Another benefit of such a prominent competition would be the recruiting tools for the member clubs on players, many of whom are leaving their national leagues for more prominent ones.  Risto Pakarinen did a piece on the struggles of the SM-Liiga in retaining players, with Finnish players going to not just the NHL and AHL, but to the KHL, Elitserien, and even the NLA.

They'll probably try again for 2012-13, but the CHL looks more and more like a one shot deal, at least as first proposed by the IIHF.

Today's games aren't televised, aside from the Spengler Cup, and I'm too late for the first one.

Spengler Cup

Sparta Prague 3 vs. HC Geneva-Servette 4

Geneva gets rewarded with a win after a hard fought loss yesterday against SKA St. Petersburg.  Tomorrow, Prague will take on St. Petersburg and if they win, goal differential could determine who gets the bye to the semifinal. 

Team Canada vs. Spartak Moscow

We get our first look on TV of Head Coach Mark Messier and his crew of NLA All-Stars, with AHL goalie Jeff Deslauriers on hand as well to help out.  Moscow lost to HC Davos yesterday 4-2, and while a loss doesn't eliminate them, it'd be a nice boost for the team.  I assume we're about to see Dominik Hasek in one of his last  North American television appearances.

IIHF U20 WJHCs

Slovakia vs. Germany  , 7:00 EST at HSBC Arena in Buffalo

A big game for both teams, especially Germany, whose comeback bid vs. Switzerland came up short.  A loss here would certainly put Germany in the relegation pool.  Slovakia is making their tournament debut, and if they plan on making the quarterfinals, this is a win they need.

Czech Republic vs. Norway  , 7:00 EST at Dwyer Arena in Niagara

Tournament debut for the Czechs, who should be able to handle the weak Norway team.  The Czechs surprised some people with their strong play in the pre-tournament games.

Stick around to talk about the games!

I won't be spending a ton of time on it, focusing more on the WJC's than this long running tradition of the alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, but here's a short look at what's ahead at this year's Spengler Cup.

The tournament has been expanded to invite four club teams from across Europe, plus the two permanent fixtures:

• Geneve-Servette from Switzerland's NLA
• Sparta Prague from the Czech Republic's Extraliga
• SKA St. Petersburg from Russia's KHL
• Spartak Moscow from Russia's KHL
• HC Davos, the hosts from Switzerland's NLA
• Team Canada - a non club 'national' team made up of professionals mostly from Switzerland's NLA, but sometimes from the AHL (eg. G Jeff Deslauriers of the Oklahoma City Barons) or other leagues
  

Teams can add up to six players (5 skaters and 1 goalie) from elsewhere for the tournament, so it's not necessarily a pure club championship of any kind.  The teams are invited based on appeal and availability, so it's really just about bringing a sampling of some of Europe's top professionals to Davos to put on a show for the fans.  Last year's winners, for example, were the KHL's Dinamo Minsk from Belarus, but they aren't back to defend their title.  The teams that are here, though, include some one time powers of the tournament. 

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The IIHF has finally managed to resurrect the Champions Hockey League, a format left for dead after one highly publicized season in 2008-09.  After two years of false starts, sponsors backing out, and clubs beginning to seek compensation in court for lost revenue, the IIHF announced today that an agreement had been made amongst the federations of the top seven European hockey countries to re-launch the league next year.  The deal is a three year deal, so barring further issues with sponsorship, it should provide the financial framework for the format through 2014.  The CHL was a hot button issue during this summer's World Hockey Summit in Toronto, and it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the deal sees the league through the Sochi Olympics, as the IIHF is starting to look at the hockey world through the four year Olympic cycle.

For those wanting some insight into the negotiations, here's a clue from the IIHF's statement:

The IIHF will provide financing and personnel resources for the implementation of the Champions Hockey League, thus committing to an excess of CHF 1.5 million per year to cover the expenses for league administration and game and league operation.

Furthermore, the IIHF will provide settlement compensation for the cancelled 2009-2010 Champions Hockey League season. (To the clubs which were due to participate in the 2009-2010 CHL).

Note: The payment of the settlement fee is pending confirmation of participation in the Champions Hockey League re-launch project. The implementation of the settlement program implies withdrawal of any legal claims towards the IIHF.

An argument could be made that SC Bern's legal battle with the IIHF might have forced this settlement, and framework for the future format.

Continue reading this post »

I've got an update concerning the report from the MHL website (Russia's top junior hockey league) that the city of Omsk had been awarded the right to host the first ever Youth World Cup.  A spokesperson for the IIHF sent me an email this morning saying that the information was incorrect, and that no decision has been made by the IIHF as to their involvement in this event, as well as there has yet to be confirmation from the participating nations in this event.

In short, the MHL website jumped the gun on this, and although the proposal seems to be quite in line with previous reports on the matter, this event is still in the planning stages.  We have no idea whether or not there will be a Canadian junior team participating in a tournament against a MHL team, or if a Swedish SuperElit team will also be taking part, for that matter. 

I apologize if the information I provided got anyone overly excited, but hey...  if a league's official website has it, I'm going to at least bring it to people's attention, especially since there was buzz about the event being planned. 

So, I guess, what do people think about the proposed event?  Can it be done?  I've heard the event would be in late August/early September, which would fit in with any junior hockey team's preseason timetable.  And certainly the Russian federation has done the CHL favours in the past, what with sending a team over to participate in the Subway Super Series every year, helping the CHL make some money.  Is this a good way for the CHL to return the favour?