Canada - Ivan Hlinka Champions (Part II)

[Dosing]

Fair enough but I also see the Swedes being confrontational against other teams as well.

I do have to disagree about the insecure in Buffalo comment. I was there and thousands of us Canadians stayed and applauded the Russian kids after the won.

Canadians expect to win every international tournament. You can't fault us for that. But, at the same time, I think we are very sportsmanlike on the ice.

Well theres a big difference between going at someones comment and going at someone for winning the gold. There's also been some pretty bad comments towards the swedish team through out the years, but no one here will make a big story of it, and other european teams wont mind any bad comments either, that kind of behaviour is seen as good between-game rivalry over here, and most will take it with a "ill get you later" smile, rather then running of shouting to the media. And i like the canadians attitude on the ice to the good old american spirit "nothing else matters as long as you win"

 

[Yakushev72]

Does anybody know why the Hlinka tournement is not televised
in Canada at least the final I have a tradition to email the
sports channels and ask why they respond by not responding
great customer service

Can you imagine if you were a marketing executive for TSN and you were trying to sell advertising time to companies for the Ivan Hlinka Tournament, a tournament of post-pubescent hockey players to be held in Slovakia in mid-August? TSN would be forced to donate the time. No country in the world has anywhere near the level of interest in the sport of hockey as Canada, but even in the Great White North, the viewing public would be limited to those who post on HFBOARDS. All those posters who complained about TSN were lucky to get a blow-off e-mail telling them thanks for your interest, but we're not!!

 

[zorz]

Yeah I think there is just not enough interest for this to be televised. Czech TV started recently to show 1 game of Czech team from every home junior tournament, which is great if you ask me. I think they are doing that more like charity than for profit. Almost nobody cares about any preparation games like this in all sports but soccer. That's the real world.

 

[OttawaRoughRiderFan*]

Yeah I think there is just not enough interest for this to be televised. Czech TV started recently to show 1 game of Czech team from every home junior tournament, which is great if you ask me. I think they are doing that more like charity than for profit. Almost nobody cares about any preparation games like this in all sports but soccer. That's the real world.

Can you imagine if you were a marketing executive for TSN and you were trying to sell advertising time to companies for the Ivan Hlinka Tournament, a tournament of post-pubescent hockey players to be held in Slovakia in mid-August? TSN would be forced to donate the time. No country in the world has anywhere near the level of interest in the sport of hockey as Canada, but even in the Great White North, the viewing public would be limited to those who post on HFBOARDS. All those posters who complained about TSN were lucky to get a blow-off e-mail telling them thanks for your interest, but we're not!!

I disagree (especially with Y72's post which is wrong on every point)...

First, people use to say the same thing about the WJR's. Now all of Canada thinks of Christmas as a time for family, presents and (WJR) hockey. Have you ever seen the ratings for the WJR's in Canada?

Also, when Canada played Russia in an 8 game Junior Tournament in 2007 recreating the 25th anniversary of the Summit Series, the ratings in Canada were great! I remember reporters making fun of us Canadians because so many people got up at 5 am (myself included) to watch the Russian home games.

So please say money cannot be made on this tournament. TSN makes TONS of money off Junior hockey in this country and they owe it to the kids and the fans to support this tournament.

 

[MrWilson*]

Helloooooooo....the tournament is over folks.

Summary

Bunch of guys that should've been there, weren't. Bunch of guys that were supposed to be elite, weren't. Bunch of guys that no one really talks much about, were great!

Typical over-hyped gathering of 'talent'. If anything, the weakest parts of many highly ranked players games were exposed and the window of opportunity was opened for others.

Can we move on now?

 

[Yakushev72]

I disagree (especially with Y72's post which is wrong on every point)...

First, people use to say the same thing about the WJR's. Now all of Canada thinks of Christmas as a time for family, presents and (WJR) hockey. Have you ever seen the ratings for the WJR's in Canada?

Also, when Canada played Russia in an 8 game Junior Tournament in 2007 recreating the 25th anniversary of the Summit Series, the ratings in Canada were great! I remember reporters making fun of us Canadians because so many people got up at 5 am (myself included) to watch the Russian home games.

So please say money cannot be made on this tournament. TSN makes TONS of money off Junior hockey in this country and they owe it to the kids and the fans to support this tournament.

I should explain my thoughts better. As hockey crazy as Canada is, TSN and other networks have obviously made the judgment that not enough viewers would watch 16-and 17-year old hockey players play in an event called the Ivan Hlinka Tournament in Slovakia in the middle of August. At least not to the extent that they could attract advertisers to fund the expenses. I think it is unrealistic to suggest that TSN has a responsibility to broadcast the tournament at their own expense out of loyalty to the fans, when there is no hard data on how many fans are aware of and eager to watch this tournament in the middle of summer. i suspect that if they could show sponsors a good-sized audience, the tournament would be televised.

 

[hototogisu]

I should explain my thoughts better. As hockey crazy as Canada is, TSN and other networks have obviously made the judgment that not enough viewers would watch 16-and 17-year old hockey players play in an event called the Ivan Hlinka Tournament in Slovakia in the middle of August. At least not to the extent that they could attract advertisers to fund the expenses. I think it is unrealistic to suggest that TSN has a responsibility to broadcast the tournament at their own expense out of loyalty to the fans, when there is no hard data on how many fans are aware of and eager to watch this tournament in the middle of summer. i suspect that if they could show sponsors a good-sized audience, the tournament would be televised.

Agreed 100%. You can't even compare the WJCs to Ivan Hlinka, it's apples and oranges. And, if TSN did start to televise the Hlinka tournament, they'd have to be prepared to lose money on it for a few years like they did with the WJCs.

Another big factor working against showing the games in North America - no live Canada games. Asking viewers to tune in to watch unknown teenagers play hockey in August in a tiny rink in Eastern Europe is one thing, but asking them to do it on a tape delay? Good luck.

It's not unreasonable to email TSN/Sportsnet to ask them about showing the games - it's the only way to let them know that there is a market, no matter how small. But I wouldn't hold my breath in terms of seeing it happen any time soon. The best we can hope for is probably better streaming and archiving from an online site.

 

[Czechexpert]

My amateur all stars of "Piestany" group (USA, Finland, Russia, Slovakia):
Andrei Vasilievski (Russia) - Ville Pokka (Finland), Teddy Doherty (USA) - Jusso Ikonen (Finland), Alexander Barkov (Finland), Vincent Hinostroza (USA)

Other interesting players:
Finland: D Rasmus Ristolainen, D Niklas Tikkinen, LW Teuvo Teräväinen
Russia: RW Denis Kamaev, C Arseni Khatsei, C Bogdan Yakimov
USA: D Ian Brady, RW Brendan Silk, C Cristobal Nieves, LW Jordan Masters
Slovakia: C Marko Dano, C Matej Paulovic

I expected more from Alex Galchenyuk and Mikhail Grigorenko.

My all stars of group in Piestany: Vasilevsky-Pokka, Lehtonen-Teuräväinen, Nieves, J.Ikonen . Tough call among centers as Galchenyuk and Barkov would also deserve to be named there.
Finnish first line Teuravainen-Barkov-J.Ikonen was really fun to watch. Outside of several Finns there were hardly any D who impressed me.

 

[habsrule4eva3089]

amateur footage

1st period


By any chance will you be posting up footage of the finals like have you had previously done so a year ago? Hope you do!!!

 

[DrPabloRamirez]

I was only in Piestany this year. Final game was played in Breclav.

 

[Keeptdos]

While Sweden have a lot of talent we don't have the depth to match Canada obviously because we have a lot less hockey players. Sweden can beat Canada sometimes and i guess we beat Canada more in round robin because every game against Canada have to be played like a final.

Why Sweden may be more confrontational now is maybe because we've moved focus from Finland as a rival to Canada. Also Canada can be huge gaping *******s when it comes to hockey so Sweden is just responding.

So you rather lose to Finland than to Canada? Sorry but that's hard to believe.

 

[J17 Vs Proclamation]

I disagree (especially with Y72's post which is wrong on every point)...

First, people use to say the same thing about the WJR's. Now all of Canada thinks of Christmas as a time for family, presents and (WJR) hockey. Have you ever seen the ratings for the WJR's in Canada?

Also, when Canada played Russia in an 8 game Junior Tournament in 2007 recreating the 25th anniversary of the Summit Series, the ratings in Canada were great! I remember reporters making fun of us Canadians because so many people got up at 5 am (myself included) to watch the Russian home games.

So please say money cannot be made on this tournament. TSN makes TONS of money off Junior hockey in this country and they owe it to the kids and the fans to support this tournament.

This is ludicrious. TSN owes you nothing. If it wishes not to broadcast this event, it's within its right too and certainly doesn't owe a small hockey crazed minority to show the event.

Would it be cool? Sure. But we are talking about an U-18 event in the middle of summer here. It's a minor event that wouldn't make financial sense to broadcast.

I also find your idealic view of Canada rather humerous. All heart and desire? Not even sure what that actually means, but assigning these two intangible "traits" to the entirety of your nation seem asinine and frankly delusional.

 

[Tomas W]

Hmm Canada always win, it's booooring! And annoying.

And this Sweden losing finals stuff must stop right now. Not that Ivan Hlinka is the most imp. tourney ever.

 

[His Beardliness*]

Hmm Canada always win, it's booooring! And annoying.

And this Sweden losing finals stuff must stop right now. Not that Ivan Hlinka is the most imp. tourney ever.

As long as we're undefeated in olympic finals

 

[Rshields]

Although Canada had an exceptionally dominant showing there is no doubt the other teams also had some outstanding talent on display.
This tournament may be fondly remembered by those of us who were watching as a coming out for a large group of players who are going to be big contributors in pro hockey. It's a real treat to be able to watch them develop.
If TSN had covered it more the talking heads would have typically singled out one or two stars to spin up and in my opinion not given credit to the way the Canadians came together as a team. No one or two players were featured on that team and that to me is why they were so dominate.
Two "ataboys" to DrPabloRamirez for being the HF boards on site coverage.

 

[Ward Cornell]

As long as we're undefeated in olympic finals

but Sweden isn't in Olympic finals vs Canada!

 

[Tomas W]

but Sweden isn't in Olympic finals vs Canada!

You might have forgotten Lillehammer 1994, but Corey "the stamp" Hirsch hasn't I'm pretty sure.