The Sicatoka

I asked Mafia his opinion of Team Switzerland. He likes them and said their jersey is a big plus. < bah-dump-bump ... ting! >

No pity for self-inflicted wounds. But I do laugh at them.

Shouldn't have been in a position to be looking ahead 18 hours to Canada. Slovakia deserves some credit: they knew the scenario and made the most of it for themselves.

The US badly needs a W (regulation or OT), or yes, they'll likely be the 4A seed. And they won't know who they'll be playing until late as SWE and RUS play the last game of pool play. There's an outside chance it could even be the Czechs*. Who's laughing through all this? The team who "lost" on Friday. They've already locked the 1A seed and have today and tomorrow off to get ready for quarters on Jan 2. So, to Mafia's point, breaking the standard bracketing seems to have helped last year's silver more than last year's gold. *That might be a lie as I'm not 100% up to date on my IIHF pool play tie-breakers for seeding.

Will Lockwood for you on line one.

Unwatchable. It's a disservice to hockey to "showcase" these players' skills in this manner. If I wanted to see guys fighting snow covered ice I can go watch any number of outdoor rinks in ND.

Another reason why playing outdoors is silly.

That is every talk radio show, every genre. Fox Sports Radio is unlistenable at times because of it. Actually, I came up with the idea because I had FSR on.

Alley Oop? Grandpa Simpson?

When I see that guy on TV I wonder to myself if he can spell NHL.

"Yeah, uh, hi! Am I on? Oh, hi. First time caller, long time listener. Love your show. I think it's great. I've played along at home but never really done well but I'll give it a try anyways. I"m thinking Grant Mismash will want to get one on his old team, especially since he's not with the U20s, so I'll take him. Yeah, Mismash. That's all I had. I'll hang up and listen. Love your show. Thanks." < dial tone >

The outdoor game nostalgia is in a word: hogwash. Most of these kids grew up playing on artificial ice under fluorescent lighting at 0500 or 2200 hours. And I'm becoming more and more right every day as more kids are coming out of non-traditional hockey regions (see: CA, MO, AZ). But it's an "event" and television loves the scenery of a large stadium, bundled up fans, and the Charlie Brown snowflakes drifting in the air. And it'll continue until one day, one sunny day, on poor ice conditions, a superstar loses an edge and goes into the boards hard and career-ending. I wish that upon no one; however, I fear I'll see it.

If you spend all the scholarships on TEs, who'll pass the ball to them?

Lao Tzu salutes you.

Binded? BINDED? Good-golly man, are you trying to make Mafia's head explode!?!?!

< hand up > Um, question. I thought a coach can't talk about a recruit until that recruit signs an NLI. Additionally, I was under the belief that (other than signing day information released) a recruit was not supposed to appear on a team roster or other team lists until that recruit had matriculated*. If no NLI had been signed, how could a school talk about or introduce a PWO recruit? *Quit giggling.

Those were his personal assistants, no bodyguards, yeah, yeah, his bodyguards to um, ah, protect him from over-straining. Yeah. That's it.

Photo-linkage please.

SWE finishes off Belarus 4-1. Pretty sad when this is some of the best coverage I can find on the 'net. https://www.scoreboard.com/hockey/world/wjc/

RUS loses their opener to CZE by 5-4. SWE and Belarus tied at 1 after 1.

https://media.giphy.com/media/l3vRgXsgEhVf5I44E/giphy.gif

< Bleep > this "pick the gold" crap. That's for the front-runners. The people want to know: "Who's getting relegated?" I have the Danes (last of Group A) surviving a three-gamer and the Belarus team (last Group B) headed down to "IA".

For those with NHL Network: NHL NETWORK WJC BROADCAST SCHEDULE Dec. 26 Czech Republic vs. Russia, 12. p.m. ET Canada vs. Finland, 4 p.m. ET Denmark vs. U.S., 8 p.m. ET Dec. 27 Belarus vs. Sweden, 8 a.m. ET (tape delay) Switzerland vs. Belarus, 3 p.m. ET Slovakia vs. Canada, 7 p.m. ET Dec. 28 Finland vs. Denmark, 12 p.m. ET Sweden vs. Czech Republic, 4 p.m. ET U.S. vs. Slovakia, 8 p.m. ET Dec. 29 Russia vs. Switzerland, 6 a.m. ET (tape delay) Belarus vs. Russia, 12 p.m. ET Canada vs. U.S., 3 p.m. ET Dec. 30 Czech Republic vs. Belarus, 12 p.m. ET Finland vs. Slovakia, 4 p.m. ET Denmark vs. Canada, 8 p.m. ET Dec. 31 Sweden vs. Switzerland, 7 a.m. ET (tape delay) Switzerland vs. Czech Republic, 12 p.m. ET U.S. vs. Finland, 4 p.m. ET Russia vs. Sweden, 8 p.m. ET Jan. 1 Slovakia vs. Denmark, 1 p.m. ET (tape delay) Jan. 2 Quarterfinals Jan. 4 Semifinals Jan. 5 Bronze-medal game, 4 p.m. ET Gold-medal game, 8 p.m. ET

Your avatar; that statement; oh the irony.