IIHF World Championships: Day 1 Open Thread

We've got a full slate of six games today to kick of the 2012 IIHF World Championships. Here's a quick list of games to use as a guide. For North Americans, the games start bright and early... so the early games, including the debut of the United States, might be over by the time you read this. I've shown times as Central European Standard Time and in North American Eastern Standard Time.

Here's a list of broadcasters by country/region from the IIHF. For the United States, NBC Sports Network will provide coverage of the American games, while in Canada games will be covered by TSN, including all games involving Team Canada.

The IIHF is streaming the games for free online via YouTube, but there are a lot of countries that are being blocked from the coverage. The countries blocked include the USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Ukraine. Basically this is great for Canadians, central and western Europeans, and the rest of the world.

Here's where you can find the rosters of the teams (PDF files), courtesy of the IIHF. You can also check out the club stats of the players at Elite Prospects. My previews are linked below:

Part 1: The Longshots

Part 2: The Pretenders

Part 3: The Contenders

Stay updated and discuss the action in the comments. Enjoy!