IIHF World Championship | Day 10 | May 8th, 2011

My hockey week is shit! Pardon the expression, but it is. Why must Russia and Switzerland add to my hockey sorrow? Oh well, Russia is still in the running, but the Swiss are pretty much out of the race.

[Czech Republic-Russia] 3-2. I managed to catch bits and pieces of this game. Was at my parents' place for Mother's Day, so could not sneak away for too long to watch hockey ;) ... but what I saw was gritty, aggresive, intense, almost emotional mixed up with moments of the complete opposite. Weird game. And it is never right when one guy stands out for aggresive behaviour. Quoting Jaromir Jagr on Yevgeni Artyukhin: "He’s just a huge guy. It’s tough to stop him when he wants to hit somebody, because he’s like a huge monster coming after you. One [hit] was pretty bad because our guy didn’t have the puck." I admit this guy is rough lol ... but would not mind him on my Flyers, with a bit of polish ;)

[Sweden-Switzerland] 2-0. *sighs* I like the way the Swiss play, so why do they forget how to be offensive when it really matters? Sweden have qualified for the Quarter Finals and the Swiss have a tiny sliver of hope, but lets face it, it is not going to happen for them. Again. I tried to figure out what scenario they would need, but the standings and schedules have been set up so awkwardly on the IIHF site that I let this endeavour go. If someone has it figured out, please leave me a note lol {edit: Sven figured it out, thanks ... the Swiss would have to beat the USA, and Norway would have to lose to France ... sounds impossible!}

[Slovenia-Belarus] 1-7. Poor Slovenia. That was some ass-kicking they suffered and with a score like this it is not hard to tell who dominated ;) This was one of the two Relegation Round finals. Basically it was who wins stays, who loses drops to Division I. And lets just say Belarus safeguarded their spot in the Top Division with some fury ;) ... as for Slovenia, well not even sure if Anze Kopitar could have saved them, but I am sure his presence would have helped the Slovenians along. Back to Division I for them, but it was a good run.

[Latvia-Austria] 4-1. Another pretty conclusive score in the second Relegation Round final. Could not find a stream for this one, nor for the other game, so just summing up a few things I have read: Latvia was the more accomplished team, creating chances, whereas Austria had very little scoring chances. Which is much in keeping with the rest of their tournament.

Tomorrow a busy sked. Six games and it is as if everyone is playing lol ... will be scorewatching at work, it is crazy to have very early games on a Monday! So finally I get to watch a tournament with some normal European times and they still manage to make it impossible for me to watch ;)