You know I have a soft spot for hockey Dads. I've got one, and I am one.

I just got a letter from last week. In the envelope, there was a picture of me interviewing Henrik Lundqvist.

Risto: "What's your name?"
HL: "Henke Lunkvist"
R: "What's your favorite team?"
HL: "Ilves."

You know what I mean.

I think the price just went up.

Recovering from the Worlds, getting ready for the Stanley Cup Finals.



Read the whole thing at nhl.com or below.

» Continued

And we came to the end. After 19 days in Quebec, with 29 games covered, I climbed down the 89 stairs from the Colisée Pepsi press box for the last time, in a hurry to get to the mixed zone to get the players' comments.

Then, just a couple of last things, and we were done. Check out www.iihf.com for our full coverage over the past three weeks. Some of that came from here:

Here's a little thing about Evgeni N.

Just a quick note about tonight's game. Here's the preview.

QUEBEC CITY – It’s a year of reruns. Both semi-final matchups are the same as last year. Canada meets Sweden, the land of system hockey. Shane Doan is the Canadian captain, Kenny Jonsson the captain of Team Sweden. Canada beats Sweden 4-1.
Well, that would be getting ahead of things.

The whole piece is here.

Two of the cutest moments of my World Championship have involved the same two people: Mikhail Grabovsky, and his father (and in the background probably father's father, although that's just my guesswork).

» Continued

It's taken us two weeks to find out that Slovenia and Italy will be relegated from the top division and that Russia, Sweden, Finland, Canada, the US, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland will play in the quarterfinals.

» Continued

This could be fun:

"A Champions Alumni Game with former hockey stars will be played when the current World Championship players have a day off, on May 15 at 19:00 at the Colisée Pepsi. Like last year, coaching legend Scotty Bowman will headline the coaching staff. Other coaches include Lou Vairo, Geraldine Heaney, and Barry Smith.

World Stars roster: Goalies: Sean Burke (CAN), Bobby Farrelly (USA). Skaters: Glenn Anderson (CAN), Jim Balsillie (CAN), Philippe Bozon (FRA), Doug Brown (USA), Ray Ferraro (USA), Mark Fusco (USA), Cammi Granato (USA), Raimo Helminen (FIN), Jyrki Lumme (FIN), Angela James (CAN), Jari Kurri (FIN), Igor Larionov (RUS), Vladimir Malakhov (RUS), Mats Naslund (SWE), Patrick Roy (CAN), Esa Tikkanen (FIN), Scott Young (USA)."

Today I had a short rendezvous with Gary Bettman, the commissioner. Of the NHL. That ain't coming back to Quebec.

And before that, I had another meet with Lundqvist, I'll have something about him tomorrow.

Here's a shot from the press box.

Ironically, or, paradoxically, or just surprisingly, I've come to appreciate the small hockey nations more now that I've seen them up close for a few days.

Anyway, here are a couple of things I wrote today.

Nicklas Bäckström.

Goalie clowns.

I seem to be on a Dane streak. Here's my latest story, on the Danes, on iihf.com.

Closing the gap

Edit: Here's a recap of Sweden v France game.

This is actually copied and pasted from our IIHF World Championship blog, but it's been a long day - only 12 hours at the rink today, though - and I have nothing left in my brain. So, I'll do what I actually like doing best: I quote myself.

----

QUEBEC CITY – “Hey,” he says, “what did you think about our line last night?”

He, Petri Skriko, former NHLer and a three-time World Championship player for Finland, flashes a very happy smile. As he should because “their line” was simply amazing the night before. The line is Russian’s Alexander Semin - Sergei Fedorov - Alexander Ovechkin, the “Washington line”.

Skriko is the Washington Capitals’ pro scout these days, and in Quebec City to scan the best of the international hockey before heading out to Halifax to check out the rest of the teams.

Ironically, when Skriko himself was drafted to the NHL - as 157th player, on round 8 - by the Vancouver Canucks, he was never scouted. By a pro scout, anyway.

“I had a teammate called Stu Ostlund on my team, SaiPa, in the Finnish league. He was finishing up his career and when he went back home after the season, he told the Canucks about me, and they just went ahead and picked me.

“The year after, I was elected tournament MVP in the World Juniors. When I then signed my first contract, the GM took me to his office and showed me a sign he had had made. On it, was my face and a text, ‘I AM A GENIUS’,” Skriko told me, laughing.

“Too bad he wasn’t there anymore when it was time to renegotiate my contract.”

Quebec is celebrating its 400th anniversary, so the city is preparing for a big party, with a lot of events. It's a nice city, in all of its Frenchness, and what seems to be thousands of restaurants.

One of them is this crêperie. It's a nice place, but not too pricey. At least if you believe the name. Non-Swedish speakers, click here.

The best World Championship site is iihf.com, so check it out. I'll just throw here these two previews that have been posted, and will post some more behind-the-scenes stuff here in the future. Like how I saw a young woman interview Team Russia's assistant coach, interrupt the interview for a second, lean towards the coach, and wipe his cheek clean from bread crumbles, then continue with the interview.

But here are the previews:

Finnish Lions and Tre Kronor.

Hockey fans of the world are making their way to Canada for the IIHF World Hockey Championship. I was sitting next to a German fan on the plane on my way to Quebec.

Stereotypes are based on something, and I now know whom the stereotype of Germans is based on. It's a hockey fan with a long hard rock hair, leather pants, an oversized national team sweater, and a posse of five.

At the passport control, the immigration officer asked another German fan to delete the photos he had snapped a few seconds earlier. Unfortunately, the language barrier had no Checkpoint Charlie. Fortunately, he, too, had his posse close at hand, and everything was settled in a peaceful manner.

One of the people in the group then blurted, "don't worry, he's Finnish."

Funny, I used to say my misbehaving friends were Swedes, until I married one.

From now on, they're German.