The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

[slickdtc]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

"See you Thursday?" he asked uncertainly, glancing nervously in Kevin Lankinen's direction

Cracked me up. Good luck today! Want to see a close game to make tonight relevant but I think Canada gets their frustrations out on the poor Finns in a couple hours here.

USA getting some rest for a few guys including in net.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Completely forgot the end of this tournament is in Boston.

Canada vs US in Boston should be fun too.

Also, can games start earlier?

Hockey especially I find that they never start when it says so.

An 8pm game with an 8:25 puck drop? A 1pm game with a 1:20pm puck drop.

Gets annoying watching games to the point where at times I'll just tune in late on purpose because I'm not waiting 30 minutes for it to start.

[slickdtc]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Uh oh, Finland in trouble already

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Maybe they should've flexed the games on the final day?

Sweden vs USA will be completely useless.

[WWF80sKid]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Maybe they should've flexed the games on the final day?

Sweden vs USA will be completely useless.

I was thinking that too.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

I was thinking that too.

Only reason I can think they didn't is because of tv.

ESPN would obviously rather USA in the primetime slot over Canada, even if USA is playing a meaningless game.

Also sounds like now that the game is meaningless, teams are calling Sweden trying to get their guy to sit. Obviously first come basis since they only have so many on the roster they can sit.

Practices resume in the NHL tomorrow, Oilers seem to have gotten to Sweden first with the call to sit guys.

Perhaps another reason the meaningless game wasn't moved. Now it gives teams an option if they're able to in having guys just sit out.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Canada about to blow a 4-0 lead when SN was even advertising the Canada vs USA rematch...

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

1996 World Cup

Format: Two groups of 4 teams; group winners get bye to SF, 2nd/3rd place teams play crossover QF
Participants (Group North America): Canada, USA, Russia, Slovakia
Participants (Group Europe): Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany
Locations: Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Philadelphia, Stockholm, Helsinki, Prague, Garmisch (Germany)

QF Canada 4 Germany 1 (Montreal)
QF Russia 5 Finland 0 (Ottawa)

SF Canada 3 Sweden 2 (2OT) (Philadelphia)
SF USA 5 Russia 2 (Ottawa)

Final G1 Canada 4 USA 3 (OT) (Philadelphia)
Final G2 USA 5 Canada 2 (Montreal)
Final G3 USA 5 Canada 2 (Montreal)

USA wins 2-1

If Canada/USA hadn't already supplanted Canada/Russia before now, this sealed the deal. Canadian hockey fans were feeling cranky and insecure (what else is new?) before this tournament even started. The dollar sucked and had already claimed the Nordiques and the Jets. (Were the Oilers and Flames safe? Could anyone aside from the Leafs afford stars?) Why was the tournament name changed? (Along with the worst trophy downgrade in sports history, and got even worse in 2004.) In one of the most "little brother" controversies of all time, Canadians were ticked at Bob Costas arbitrarily changing the criteria for the "fastest man in the world" after Donovan Bailey won gold at the 100m in Atlanta (leading to the embarrassing 150m race between Bailey and Michael Johnson the following year). As Maj no doubt remembers, even the WWF picked up on this weird vibe and ran with a "Canada vs USA" rivalry throughout '96 and '97, climaxing with the Montreal Screwjob. Anyway, I digress.

USA were no worse than co-favourites heading into the inaugural World Cup and were deserving winners. The 90s crop of Americans stars (Modano, Hull, Leetch, LaFontaine, Chelios, LeClair, Weight) were peaking and hungry. Canada probably had a slightly better roster top to bottom, but were held back by Glen Sather, who was still stuck in the 80s and gave the most ice time to his boys, 35-year-olds Gretzky, Messier, and Coffey. And yes, even though Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy had won the previous 2 Stanley Cups, the #1 job was handed to Oilers starter Curtis Joseph.

Another goalie stole the show, though: Mike Richter. Canada won Game 1 of the best-of-3 final on an (offside) goal by Steve Yzerman but were outplayed. USA were the superior team in Game 2. In Game 3, however, Canada came out guns a-blazing and should have won going away, only to be stymied by one of the greatest goaltending performances in history. The shots were 32-14 after 2 periods, but a Lindros goal at 19:55 of the 2nd made it only 1-1. A fluky goal by Adam Foote with 7 minutes left looked to be a backbreaker for the US, but Canada unwisely began to sit back and protect the lead, and it cost them dearly, with the USA pumping 3 past CuJo (plus an empty netter) in the last 4 minutes, and USA had their 1st (and only, at least until Thursday night) best-on-best tournament victory.

Notes and Fun Facts:

- Like father, like sons: Keith Tkachuk dropped the gloves with Claude Lemieux only seconds into the Canada/USA round-robin game
- Canada's double-OT win against Sweden in the semis was one of the most exciting games I've ever watched (thanks in part to one of Bob Cole's best performances on the mic). The Swedes had ridiculous chances in the 2nd OT, including the loudest CLANG off the crossbar I've ever heard
- This was the 1st best-on-best tournament for the artists formerly known as Czechosolvakia; both finished last in their groups, including the 2nd-most shocking 7-1 win in German sporting history
- This was a tweener point in history between camping out in front of Ticketmaster and buying tickets online; you could only purchase WC tickets by phone up here, and unsurprisingly, the Canada/Russia game in Vancouver was sold out in 30 seconds (I did manage to snag a ticket for a pre-tournament CAN/USA game here, a 3-1 Canadian win)

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[slickdtc]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

The big USA/CAN rematch is set. Gotta finish the job on Thursday.

Tonight should be a fun one even if it’s meaningless. I think there will be some pride on the line, for both teams. Love to see my guy Ersson get the call to rep the Swedes in net.

[bhurst99]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Finland never known for a sense of humour.

Finland has a chance to do something very funny.

Sent from my SM-S928W using Operation Sports mobile app

[slickdtc]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Good start for the Stars & Stripes.

Those Tkachuk bros are really about it huh? Poor Brady lost in Ottawa.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Why did they schedule the finals for Thursday and not Wednesday?

NBA fully returns Thursday, Wednesday just has a single game on the west coast.

Wednesday would've been best for this tournament to end instead of ending it Thursday and then NHL resumes less than 48 hours after.

[l3ulvl]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Completely forgot the end of this tournament is in Boston.

Canada vs US in Boston should be fun too.

Also, can games start earlier?

Hockey especially I find that they never start when it says so.

An 8pm game with an 8:25 puck drop? A 1pm game with a 1:20pm puck drop.

Gets annoying watching games to the point where at times I'll just tune in late on purpose because I'm not waiting 30 minutes for it to start.

I know this isn't the gear grinder thread but this drives me nuts not knowing when a game actually starts. Stop telling me when coverage starts, TELL ME WHEN IT STARTS!

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

I know this isn't the gear grinder thread but this drives me nuts not knowing when a game actually starts. Stop telling me when coverage starts, TELL ME WHEN IT STARTS!

It's annoying too because they do advertise coverage starting 30 minutes before the game, but the game doesn't start at that time either.

Like an 8pm game, coverage starts at 7:30, but the game doesn't start until 8:25.

I noticed Sportsnet had also changed their ticker. The ticker which always shows upcoming games or current/last nights scores now lies about game times too. If its a game on their channel, they'll show it on their ticker as the pregame start time and try passing it off as the game start time.

It's not even an advertisement for the game, it's the actual game.

Like it'll show something like "Bruins vs Sabres at 7:30pm and Leafs vs Habs at 7pm." But the Bruins vs Sabres game is scheduled for 7:30 but Leafs vs Habs isn't actually starting at 7pm, they just mislead people.

[Kobalt]

Re: The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

Canada gets Makar back for USA so USA somehow might counter that with the only other DMan in the same tier as him.