WJC - 2026

[mygarske]

On 12/26/2025 at 6:50 PM, brianvf said:

Bob didn't even want him on the team!   

Nope, not good enough. This decision coming from a guy who is coaching one of the legacy programs in college hockey, right out of the top 20. How USA Hockey let this happen should be investigated right up there with the Somali fraud scams in Minnesota. 

[cberkas]

55 minutes ago, tnt said:

Yes, he certainly has a motor on him.  I definitely would take another Ollie Josephson type player.

PoG also

[mygarske]

My 2 day update from the WJ tournament. 

A client had a suite & invited me & a buddy to both games. Being a MN company, there were several former Gopher players there, 3 of them with solid NHL careers. Listening to their take on both games was fascinating. None of them had a single good thing to say about Motzko, & a couple played for him. The main theme, he has no clue how to coach high-end talent players, and letting him coach the WJ's is the worst possible position for Team USA. 

One guy said the overplaying of Mooney is killing the kid personally, and the most obvious of many horribly bad coaching decisions by Motzko so far. He said all the scouts & coaches see Mooney is clearly out of his league & putting him on the #1 PP & constantly on the PK where he just isn't physically or skill-wise strong enough is embarrassing. They said the kid & his agent know how bad he looks, but Bob doesn't see it or give a 💩 because he's a Goofer. Most were convinced Mooney will cost the U.S. a game at some point.

A bunch of agents & NHL scouts dropped in to see the former players. Again, consensus was Motzko seemed to be trying to coach Team USA OUT of the medal round. Every one of them thought it was the dumbest thing in the tournament to not have Zellers out every third shift, second prize, breaking up Zellers, McMorrow & Spellacy. 1 guy played defense in the pros, he said the top 4 for U.S. have been horrible. He hadn't watched EJ at UND, but what he saw in game 2, he would put EJ in top 4 over any of the returning players. 

The guy hosting let everyone know me & my buddy were UND grads & Sioux Hockey fans, they all said they were very impressed with this year's Sioux team & thought our boys had a chance to make a run. All of them said Motzko was shorting Zellers & scratching Emery because they are Sioux players, no question.

One of the scouts showed me his Insta-Stats (SP?) account on his phone & said it is insane to not play Zellers based on all kinds of scoring metrics. He said it was more insane to play Mooney, Lee, McKinney, etc. when their numbers get worse with more ice time. He also showed me the U.S.'s "top 2 lines" data, & said if they were his players he's be worried they would be sent down to the AHL. It was a ton of data that they all knew well, the guy told me basically any coach in the NHL doing what Motzko has been doing would have been fired in less than a month. Someone said too bad Bob didn't get hit with the puck, then they could let Garrett Raboin take over & have a shot at making a medal round. 😬 

[The Sicatoka]

“Top 4” D for both North American squads have been somewhere between lackluster and questionable. 

[The Sicatoka]

2 hours ago, mygarske said:

Nope, not good enough. This decision coming from a guy who is coaching one of the legacy programs in college hockey, right out of the top 20. How USA Hockey let this happen should be investigated right up there with the Somali fraud scams in Minnesota. 

I heard it was John van Beez that laid down an edict.

[brianvf]

Just now, The Sicatoka said:

I heard it was John van Beez that laid down an edict.

Correct.

[tnt]

Finland absolutely destroying Latvia 8-0, outshooting them 38-6.  Of course we’ve seen teams don’t always play great before the medal rounds, but pretty stark difference from Canada’s game with Latvia.  

[Wilbur]

56 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

“Top 4” D for both North American squads have been somewhere between lackluster and questionable. 

They are over playing Kleber to a fault.  There are no byes into the quarters.  You've got to roll your d men until it gets to those playoff games, then shorten the bench where necessary.  They are playing too many games to have a kid at 24 minutes on day two.

We all wear green glasses, but what is happening with Emery is a joke.  11 shifts yesterday against the Swiss?  They aren't the little sisters of the poor, but you are setting yourself up for failure there over the short grind.

Wish that game had went to OT like Canada's game to prove a point.  Mooney just isn't physically mature enough yet.  I can't believe the late game minutes he got yesterday.

[brianvf]

UND hockey players doing well at WJC

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/und-players-thriving-in-opening-days-of-world-junior-championship

Quote

Cole Reschny just finished his press conference Saturday at the World Junior Championship and began walking back to Canada’s locker room.

He paused at a television in the hallway between Mariucci Arena and Ridder Arena to glance at the USA-Switzerland game. Right at that moment, Will Zellers sniped the corner of the net from a bad angle for his third goal of the tournament.

“Not surprised,” said Reschny, who is playing for Team Canada.

Quote

“Right now, I’m loving it, because I don’t have to play him right now,” Zellers said of Reschny’s success. “I love Cole. He’s such a pro player, such a good 200-foot game. It’s always nice seeing North Dakota guys get rewarded like that.”

 

[TwamleyShuffle]

Canada plays Denmark next. No offense, but if Keaton doesn’t play that game against what many consider the worst team in the tournament, I don’t think we see Keaton play in the tourney. Hope I’m wrong, pulling for him

[MafiaMan]

Late to the party here as I attended all 5 games at GCA this past weekend while keeping an eye on Mariucci.  
 

My two cents so far…

I don’t want to EVER hear someone tell me that Minnesota is the “State of Hockey” again.  Ever.  500 people in the stands at Mariucci to watch Czechia vs Canada?  Maybe 3,000 for the opener at GCA between Sweden and Slovakia.

What a total embarrassment.  

[Dustin]

9 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

Late to the party here as I attended all 5 games at GCA this past weekend while keeping an eye on Mariucci.  
 

My two cents so far…

I don’t want to EVER hear someone tell me that Minnesota is the “State of Hockey” again.  Ever.  500 people in the stands at Mariucci to watch Czechia vs Canada?  Maybe 3,000 for the opener at GCA between Sweden and Slovakia.

What a total embarrassment.  

Not that I am defending Minnesota and their claim of "State of Hockey" but not sure what you were expecting for games not featuring USA or Canada.  On TV, the atmosphere seems great for USA games, and the Canada games have more attendance than you claim. https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2026/wm20/schedule Click on "Game Centre"

12/26 - USA vs Germany - A: 14,276

12/26 - Canada vs Czechia - A: 5,502

12/27 - USA vs Swiss - A: 13,984

12/27 - Canada vs Latvia - A: 4,146 

[fightingsioux4life]

Just now, Dustin said:

Not that I am defending Minnesota and their claim of "State of Hockey" but not sure what you were expecting for games not featuring USA or Canada.  On TV, the atmosphere seems great for USA games, and the Canada games have more attendance than you claim. https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2026/wm20/schedule Click on "Game Centre"

12/26 - USA vs Germany - A: 14,276

12/26 - Canada vs Czechia - A: 5,502

12/27 - USA vs Swiss - A: 13,984

12/27 - Canada vs Latvia - A: 4,146 

Were those numbers "butts in seats" or "tickets sold".

The two are rarely the same.

[Dustin]

I think I say this every year, but I would like to see Winnipeg and Grand Forks team up to host a WJC.  Put USA's group in Grand Forks, put Canada's group in Winnipeg.  Other pairs of cities that are about the same distance apart have hosted together (Regina/Saskatoon, Halifax/Moncton, for example).

[Dustin]

6 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Were those numbers "butts in seats" or "tickets sold".

The two are rarely the same.

I understand.  But they tend not to be off by a factor of 10, either.

 

[MafiaMan]

8 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Not that I am defending Minnesota and their claim of "State of Hockey" but not sure what you were expecting for games not featuring USA or Canada.  On TV, the atmosphere seems great for USA games, and the Canada games have more attendance than you claim. https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2026/wm20/schedule Click on "Game Centre"

12/26 - USA vs Germany - A: 14,276

12/26 - Canada vs Czechia - A: 5,502

12/27 - USA vs Swiss - A: 13,984

12/27 - Canada vs Latvia - A: 4,146 

[UND69er]

35 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

Late to the party here as I attended all 5 games at GCA this past weekend while keeping an eye on Mariucci.  
 

My two cents so far…

I don’t want to EVER hear someone tell me that Minnesota is the “State of Hockey” again.  Ever.  500 people in the stands at Mariucci to watch Czechia vs Canada?  Maybe 3,000 for the opener at GCA between Sweden and Slovakia.

What a total embarrassment.  

Know what you mean. During HS state tourney maybe, but mostly the state of the fair weather fans. 

[MafiaMan]

23 minutes ago, UND69er said:

Know what you mean. During HS state tourney maybe, but mostly the state of the fair weather fans. 

A group of Twin Cities hockey fans in my section yesterday didn’t even know the other group was playing at Mariucci…

[ND_Texan]

20 hours ago, mygarske said:

Nope, not good enough. This decision coming from a guy who is coaching one of the legacy programs in college hockey, right out of the top 20. How USA Hockey let this happen should be investigated right up there with the Somali fraud scams in Minnesota. 

Bob probably didn't recruit him right there in his back yard, so if he does well it will reveal his incompetence. Well I've got news for you, Bob....too late.

[cberkas]

 

[UND69er]

40 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

A group of Twin Cities hockey fans in my section yesterday didn’t even know the other group was playing at Mariucci…

A few years ago at Marriuci some Gopher fan near me was yelling at Joe Finley to go back to Canada. ....... Joe was from Edina!! Knowlegeable??

[cberkas]

1 hour ago, MafiaMan said:

Late to the party here as I attended all 5 games at GCA this past weekend while keeping an eye on Mariucci.  
 

My two cents so far…

I don’t want to EVER hear someone tell me that Minnesota is the “State of Hockey” again.  Ever.  500 people in the stands at Mariucci to watch Czechia vs Canada?  Maybe 3,000 for the opener at GCA between Sweden and Slovakia.

What a total embarrassment.  

It's an embarrassment for USA Hockey and Minnesota, but I'm not surprised when you see Mariucci and Amsoil not full for games during the season. I was expecting these games to be sold out with all the hype. This feels like the Buffalo debacle all over again. 

[Dustin]

8 minutes ago, cberkas said:

 

I was probably at one of those games!!  That is awesome.  All the more reason to get the WJC back to Grand Forks.

[cberkas]

1 minute ago, Dustin said:

I was probably at one of those games!!  That is awesome.  All the more reason to get the WJC back to Grand Forks.

Grand Forks/Fargo WJC would do better or even Grand Forks/Bemidji 

[Dustin]

16 minutes ago, cberkas said:

Grand Forks/Fargo WJC would do better or even Grand Forks/Bemidji 

I was told by someone that the event has gotten too large for Grand Forks to be the primary host, so I figured a city with an NHL arena and fan base (Winnipeg) would help make the case.  But perhaps Fargo and Grand Forks would do, too.