Want to watch some great hockey, watch the Juniors play. The final last night, Sweden vs Canada, will be a classic in years to come.

Well this year the tournament was kind of boring....also the attendance was low. Even when Team USA played, there was a lot of American fans dressed up as empty seats.
Overall, I think there was more Canadian fans that went to the games in Buffalo, then there was American fans in the whole tournament. Which doesn't look good for the IIHF in the US.

The games also haven't been spectacular. Even the outdoor game between Canada and the U.S.. Although it was close, the camera angles of the outdoor game didn't provide the viewing excitement it deserved. Hope they don't do that again.

The out door game was kind of fun, but the snow clearing delays made for a long game. There was hardly any icing since you couldn't get the puck to plow through the snow down to the other end...lol.

I was hoping Slovakia would have done better. USA/Czech game was a blowout so it wsn't really fun. CAN/SWE was epic!

USA losing to Sweden in the Semi's made the Final a non issue for American fans I'm sure.
I'm not a fan of the outdoor games. It slows the game down too much. I don't even see the appeal of going to an outdoor game. The seats a ridiculously far away, bad sight angles.
The outdoor game thing has been beat to death.
Canada Sweden final was a great game. Probably the only sell out of the tournament. And that was because of the Canadian fans.
Give Sweden credit, they played great. They could have very easily won that game.
1-1 with 1:40 to go.
I felt for the Swedes, they were heartbroken.
Not sure who said it on TV, but they said "and people says the tournament matters to Canadians". I don't think so.

I very much enjoyed the series, and the Sweden vs Canada game was one of the best I've seen in a long time -- The pace of that game was off the charts, and I feel for the Swedish kids as you could tell how much the event meant to them -- they played a hell of a game.

It's sad to see that the event was so poorly attended. Just Sad.

As a transplant from Canuckistan living in the US, gratz to the USA boys for earning the bronze (first 3-peat medals showing for them), and I'm, of course, glad that the Canadians recovered from the heartbreaker shootout loss in the outdoors game (though the US definitely earned that win) to persevere and win Gold. Kudos to them and their coaching staff for keeping on track. I guess the team I feel sorriest for though is the Czechs -- to give up two touchdowns and a safety worth of goals (7-2 vs Canada, 9-3 vs USA) in the final two elimination / medal games of the tournament is just brutal. Ouch.

@WangoTango -- that was a point Ray Ferraro made iirc - he was refuting that premise (that evidently others had said) and his point was that it clearly, very much, matters to the kids and families of the participants, and I'd further add that it also matters to true fans of hockey, as these kids will be the new crop of NHL pros in coming years -- and rightfully so, the talent at that tournament was impressive imho.


Cheers,
4 <S!>