Recovering from the Worlds, getting ready for the Stanley Cup Finals.
Read the whole thing at nhl.com or below.
NHL.com: World of hockey
Reply
Au revoir
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:
Nabokov
Here’s a little thing about Evgeni N.
IIHF.com: CAN-SWE
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.
Gun of a son
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).
May the games begin
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.
World stars
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).”
GB and RP
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.
Breakout
Here’s a shot from the press box.
WHC: Day 5
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.