With my football blog concentrating on the women at the moment, I thought it only fair to turn my attention to women's ice-hockey as well.
The Hockey Canada Cup starts Monday evening in Vancouver's GM Place and will be a strong test for the Olympic organizers as well as for the four nations expected to battle it out for the Olympic 1-2-3. Women's teams representing Canada, the USA, Sweden and Finland will fight it out to gain the psychological advantage ahead of the Games next year. Favourites for this tournament as well as the Olympics are Canada and the USA with Sweden and Finland likely to duel for third place.
The Canadians won their first Olympic title in 2002 in Salt Lake City and with home advantage will have an unbelievable pressure on them to win next year. They've dominated women's ice-hockey for years and are reigning Olympic Champions from 2006 in Turin and won the eight World Championships between 1990 and 2004.
Recent years though have seen the USA take over a certain dominance after winning the World Championships 2008 and 2009, so they will give the Canadians a run for their money. As said, Sweden and Finland are expected to take 3rd and 4th place but Sweden did shock everybody by beating the USA to reach the Olympic final in 2006.
Staying in North America but returning to men's hockey and the NHL, once again the continuing story of the Phoenix Coyotes throws a "curve ball" (am I on the right continent for a curve ball?). Not only has Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie set a deadline to withdraw his bid, the group headed by Jerry Reinsdorf has withdrawn their bid and the NHL itself has entered the fray with a bid of its own! A new bidder is also a group of American and Canadian investors called Ice Edge Holdings but their bid is contingent on reaching an agreement with the city of Glendale regarding the lease of the ice stadium. The lack of an agreement with Glendale was the reason the Reinsdorf group pulled out.
So how many episodes of the Coyotes Saga have there been so far? Regardless, there will be more to come before the NHL reaches its first face-off.
All the best.
