IIHF Worlds 2015
May. 21st, 2015 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkI'm sick, and it sucks. At least I'm getting better now, but that means I have to find the motivation to do actual work again, which is difficult enough without long breaks. I hope I'll be healthy enough during the weekend to go to a Eurovision public viewing event, but I doubt it.
I didn't even post about IIHF Worlds yet! Worlds was fantastic. I got really into watching it this year, unlike last year so it was a bit of a surprise. But a very good one! The tournament was a lot of fun, from several perspectives.
Team Austria mostly played well, but had some extremely unlucky bounces and ended up getting relegated to the lower division again, same as for the past every two years. This time I'm really annoyed though: after the last game they had good chances except if France beat Latvia in OT, so of course that was exactly what happened. AND Austria had more points in the end than Denmark (and Slovenia): originally the rule was the last two teams would be relegated, but they changed it to "last team of every group" at the last possible moment. Fuck that. Now we have to do the elevator again.
Good things that happened: we beat Switzerland and Germany (though unfortunately not in regulation), had a better goal differential against Canada than Germany (1-10 to 0-10 - we actually scored a goal against them *g*), and I got to know and appreciate several players on our national team. Unfortunately my favorites don't play for Vienna: Starkbaum the goalie plays in Sweden, and tiny but determined & very good D-man Heinrich plays for Salzburg.
From a hockey perspective the games were fantastic to watch. The combination of high skill + bigger ice + the refs not letting many things go meant that the game flow was great and the hockey was beautiful. I didn't watch as many games as I wanted, but I enjoyed them a lot.
DD went to Prague and watched several games live, I'm envious. (I did have an opportunity to join her, decided not to and I'm pretty sure it was the right decision, but still.)
From a hockey player fan perspective this tournament was SO GOOD. Especially team Canada. Sid became Captain Triple Gold! And became friends with the Flyers on the roster, especially Giroux: they played well together, the goals on which they assisted each other were beautiful, and in the end there was even a hug, miracle :) Giroux and Seguin as roommates is also a stroke of luck (I want to know more roommate assignments...) And so many players talked about how much they admire Sid, like MacKinnon and Ekblad and Seguin, as someone who also appreciates Sid very much I enjoyed that.
Then there's the Czech team, with Jagr and Hertl and Voracek, sadly almost no fic about them. Jagr got tournament MVP, of course he did. How is he so good at his age.
And of course team Russia! Poor Geno. And Ovi. But they did win it last year, so I'm not feeling too sorry for them. We got a picture of Geno visiting Sid near the team Canada locker room after the gold medal game, that was nice.
I didn't even post about IIHF Worlds yet! Worlds was fantastic. I got really into watching it this year, unlike last year so it was a bit of a surprise. But a very good one! The tournament was a lot of fun, from several perspectives.
Team Austria mostly played well, but had some extremely unlucky bounces and ended up getting relegated to the lower division again, same as for the past every two years. This time I'm really annoyed though: after the last game they had good chances except if France beat Latvia in OT, so of course that was exactly what happened. AND Austria had more points in the end than Denmark (and Slovenia): originally the rule was the last two teams would be relegated, but they changed it to "last team of every group" at the last possible moment. Fuck that. Now we have to do the elevator again.
Good things that happened: we beat Switzerland and Germany (though unfortunately not in regulation), had a better goal differential against Canada than Germany (1-10 to 0-10 - we actually scored a goal against them *g*), and I got to know and appreciate several players on our national team. Unfortunately my favorites don't play for Vienna: Starkbaum the goalie plays in Sweden, and tiny but determined & very good D-man Heinrich plays for Salzburg.
From a hockey perspective the games were fantastic to watch. The combination of high skill + bigger ice + the refs not letting many things go meant that the game flow was great and the hockey was beautiful. I didn't watch as many games as I wanted, but I enjoyed them a lot.
DD went to Prague and watched several games live, I'm envious. (I did have an opportunity to join her, decided not to and I'm pretty sure it was the right decision, but still.)
From a hockey player fan perspective this tournament was SO GOOD. Especially team Canada. Sid became Captain Triple Gold! And became friends with the Flyers on the roster, especially Giroux: they played well together, the goals on which they assisted each other were beautiful, and in the end there was even a hug, miracle :) Giroux and Seguin as roommates is also a stroke of luck (I want to know more roommate assignments...) And so many players talked about how much they admire Sid, like MacKinnon and Ekblad and Seguin, as someone who also appreciates Sid very much I enjoyed that.
Then there's the Czech team, with Jagr and Hertl and Voracek, sadly almost no fic about them. Jagr got tournament MVP, of course he did. How is he so good at his age.
And of course team Russia! Poor Geno. And Ovi. But they did win it last year, so I'm not feeling too sorry for them. We got a picture of Geno visiting Sid near the team Canada locker room after the gold medal game, that was nice.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-21 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-21 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-22 02:01 pm (UTC)We didn't watch, but we caught a little bit of one game while we were in a restaurant (they had a television on at the bar and were watching it). Looked exciting!
-J
no subject
Date: 2015-05-28 09:57 am (UTC)