11 replies to this topic

[Juni Ori]

The IHWC has returned to where it once began from. Canada. Whom do you expect to succeed, whom to fail? Who's going to be the big surpriser, if any? What's your guess of the final ranking (medalist trio, perhaps)? Any thoughts.

A: Only good team is Sweden and even from them I'm not expecting much this year. But they can surprise, as always. Belarus, not bad, but will be second unless Switzerland surprises.

B: No question: Canada. Strongest of all. USA clear second, but Latvia or Slovenia? Who knows?

C: Finland, third of the top three countries. Then Slovakia, Germany and last Norway. No doubt.

D: Russia, definitely. Very strong this year, second on paper. Then Czechs, followed surprisingly closely by Denmark. Italy is in wrong league as always.

Top three: Canada, Russia, Finland. Order may be different. Followed by USA, Czechs and Sweden. Last two... Hmm... My bet goes to Slovakia and Germany.

Edit: Edited my guesses.

[Juni Ori]

Apparently I'm the only one really interested, but it doesn't stop me:

Interesting opening games! Belarus made everything very difficult to Sweden (5-6), Denmark caused some problems against Czechs (2-5) and Germany fought very well two first periods against Finland (1-5). Full respect to Germany. They played very wise and disciplined ice hockey, but were in the end without a hope against the Lions (=Finns, you fools ). I'm interested to see if Norway can do some miracles later tonight against Slovakia, but I wouldn't bet on it. Some minor changes to my expectations:

Belarus is definite second in A and they and Germany may go further than I expected. So my last two are - for now - Belarus and Germany, unless Slovakia plays better than I expect. Then they'll drop Germany.

[Tulac]

What is IHWC?

[Aristharus]

Ice Hockey World Championship or something like that, I reckon.

I'm not that into sports, and considering the thread's been up several days already, Juni might be kinda alone here.

[Juni Ori]

It sure looks I'm pretty alone here... DD's stupid college...

[Juni Ori]

Second double post, but I just had to laugh to my predictions (bolded where I was right, biggest surprises in capitals and final scores in parentheses):

A: Switzerland (9), Sweden (6), Belarus (3) and France (0). This would be hilarious without Finnish misfortunes.

B: Canada (9), USA (6), Latvia (3) and Slovenia (0). Shame I didn't even guess the last two.

C: Finland (8), NORWAY (4), Germany (3) and SLOVAKIA (3). Definitely unpredictable. And shame on Finns, losing point to Norway!

D: Russia (8), Czech (7), Denmark (3) and Italy (0). I'd be proud if this wasn't too easy in the first place. Admitted that Czechs did put up a surprisingly good fight against Russia.

In the end, 50% right (or little over, see Latvia / Slovenia). Luckily I didn't bet! To those, who don't know the system, last ones will be dropped out (France, Slovenia, Slovakia and Italy), points won against those teams will be dropped off and groups will be merged into two new ones:

E: Switzerland (6), Russia (5), Czech (4), Sweden (3), Belarus (0) and Denmark (0)

F: Canada (6), Finland (5), USA (3), Norway (1), Germany (0) and Latvia (0)

They'll play against those in their groups they haven't played against yet and after that four best qualifies. I'm more than anxious to see how Denmark can battle Sweden and Switzerland Czech? Best of all, the games continue tonight! Other battles I'll be waiting are Fin - Lat (friday) of course, Rus - Swe (saturday) and very interesting games at sunday Den - Swi, Fin - USA and Swe - Cze. Without a pause, at monday interest will focus on Swi - Rus (how far will the Swiss clock run?), Can - Fin and both night-matches Bel-Den and Lat-Ger.

Very interesting situation indeed, because Switzerland is almost certain to continue and what will be the final ranking of group E? My guess: Rus, Cze, Swe and Swi will continue. In F: Can, Fin, USA and... beats me. Could be any of those three. Let's say... Germany, because Norway's luck will run out and Latvia has been worse than Germany. If that would happen, some interesting pairs would meet, such as Fin - Swe and Cze - USA. Rus and Can would be the certain semi-finalists. So, my guess is that Fin wins Swe, USA wins Cze and the final ranking will be (bit surprisingly): Canada, Finland, USA and Czech! (If I understood the system right. It might be possible that Fin and USA switch places - hopefully not.)

[Juni Ori]

Hehe, Canada was in trouble as well with Norway (2-1), but what the hell did USA do? Or better said: what the hell did Anderson do? Even still USA won Germany 6-4.

This is stupid alone...

Edit: What the hell had I wrote there? Totally wrong result to USA-Ger...

[Juni Ori]

Strangest game so far, worst refereeing and oddest goal ever in world championships. What am I talking about? Finland - USA of course. Referees were so unprofessional I can't even believe it. Olli Jokinen 5 + 20 minutes for checking little off the limits, which would had been worth at most 2 + 10 minutes. Several others exaggereted situations - nice diving every now and then, yankees - and worst of all, many penalties by left unwhistled to Team USA. Most blatant tripping of Riku Hahl, which led to first goal of USA.

Until we came to third period. Clearly the very skilled but unexperienced Team USA lost nerve and began playing too rough. Frustrated they took more and more penalties and that led to strangest goal throughout the history of world championships: Fin 1st - USA 2. So many times have Finns wondered how can this happen to us, meaning unfair decisions, puck bouncing luckily to the opponent which leads to goal, etc, etc. Finally this way! And in the end - with little luck: 3 - 2!

Tonight: Canada - Finland. Toughest, most interesting and hopefully best game so far! Hopefully the referees are proficient this time!

Thank you Team Finland for so far!

[_r.u.s.s.]

*shameless selfpromotion*
http://www.ktoskym.info/ms2008/

also, if you find any bugs, tell me =P

[Juni Ori]

As the bronzegame is on (looking good right now (pre-edit edit: after first period), Fin 2 - 0 Swe), I thought I'd mention the known results:

5: Czech Republich
6: USA
7: Switzerland
8: Norway
9: Belarus
10: Germany
11: Latvia
12: Denmark
13: Slovakia
14: France
-----
15: Slovenia
16: Italy

So I was right about top two! Which one is better we'll see tomorrow, but Sweden surprised me positively and now I'm getting more and more confident about Finnish bronzemedal. Czech and USA fell below Sweden, but the trio is same as in my prediction. But then! Way to go Switzerland and Norway! Well done and those guys really surprised me. Positively. Only one I'm disappointed in is Slovakia. Very poor games.

EDIT: 4 - 0 ! ! ! At least that bronze that I predicted! *stands up to listen the finnish anthemy*

[Eagle of Fire]

Heh... I find it quite amusing that I live a few kilometers from where those events take place and that I could not care less, and then you are there oversea and can't wait until the next match is played.

[Juni Ori]

Well, only country where ice-hockey is so highly over-rated in addition to Canada happens to be Finland. Well, perhaps Sweden too, but who cares, they lost!

Immediate edit: I'm jealous btw...