MONDAY

Patiently waiting for the Germany v. Canada matchup this evening I find myself again watching the Spengler Cup. I noticed the clock counting down at the World Juniors and thought it might have been because the tournament is in Ottawa but the clock was also going down in Davos, Switzerland.

When did international hockey competitions start counting down? Aren't the clocks over there supposed to count up to the 20:00 minute mark? Are TSN and Sportsnet just changing the on screen graphics to reflect the typical North American clocks? Am I worrying too much about this?

-----

Pontiacs Stats:

The Pontiacs coaching staff often talks about 'shot mentality'. The thought process being the more shots you get the more chances you have to score but if you are shooting you are likely in the offensive zone and the more shots you get the more time you spend in the offensive zone.

So how does that translate into wins and losses so far this year?

When the Pontiacs record less than 30 shots they are 8-7-0-2.

When the Pontiacs get more than 30 shots they are 17-6-1-2.

And even better, when they have 35 or more shots they are 12-1-1-1.

Not bad.

-----

'Miracle' was on TV the other night. The movie is about the Americans gold medal hockey win at the 1980 winter Olympics. I had forgotten how the Canadians finished in that same tournament so I looked it up this afternoon.

I see Czechoslovakia beat Norway 11-0 in that tournament, the Soviets beat the Netherlands 17-4 and Canada beat the dutch 10-1. Apparently the 2009 World Juniors isn't the first tournament to have lopsided victories.

If only the IIHF would go back to an eight team tournament like it used to be. Like it used to be in 1993 for example, only eight teams in that tournament and it featured much more reasonable scores like the Czech and Slovak Republics beating Japan 14-2, Sweden squeaking past Japan 20-1 and Finland winning a nail biter 11-0 against the Germans.

Are 15-0 games thrilling to watch? No, but going back to eight teams isn't going to help that much and to think these blowouts are a new thing doesn't make sense either.

Move the Division 1 championships to September and let the winning nationals that qualify for the elite division play with the 19 year old players that earned their nation the right to play there. There will still be one sided scores but at least those qualifying teams will get to use the players that got them to the top level in the world.

The Canadians finished 6th at the 1980 Olympics by the way.