After two periods in the Germany - Russia match at the IIHF World Championships in Bern on the opening day of the tournament I knew what this blog would be about. A period later, the Russians had blown that idea out of the water (or off the ice if you like). The idea surfaced again after two periods of the Sweden - Austria game on Saturday but the final period blew the idea off the ice as well. What on earth am I talking about? Anyone know?
OK, I'll carry on with the idea then. When I was only a lad (no age jokes now) and playing team sports, I won't say which one, winning by a "walkover" was a real high point of the week. Now, I don't mean the opposing team not turning up physically, I mean giving them a real thrashing. It wasn't so much about humiliating the other team; it was more about showing your superiority. The score line was the most important thing, who would remember a 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0 win? But an 8-0, 9-0 or even 10-0 score line you could brag about. I don't feel bad saying it; more often than not I was on the losing side! At what age or at which stage of your career does this urge desert you?
Getting back to the Ice Hockey World Championships, the two matches I've highlighted both stood at 3-0 to the "bigger nations" after one period with both Russia and Sweden showing their superiority. However, they both took their foot of the pedal for the second period. Why? Surely professional athletes like these don't need to rest after just 20 effective minutes? This was when the idea for this blog surfaced. Didn't the players think it was fun any more? Russia continued to show their dominance, not letting Germany have a look in and went on to score two more goals in the third to win with ease. Sweden, on the other hand, should consider themselves lucky to come away with only one goal against them in the second period. Austria could have easily reduced the arrears still further or even equalized before the end of the 40 minute mark. Now Sweden came back too in the third to score four more goals without reply and won the match more than comfortably. But what happened to both these teams in the middle round?
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Conference play-offs for the Stanley Cup are in full swing. Unfortunately "my" team was knocked out this weekend but the tournament goes on. At the time of writing, Vancouver, Detroit, Boston and Pittsburgh are through to the next round. San Jose took the chance to extend their series with Anaheim to six matches and Chicago gained a one match advantage ahead of match six after a big win against Calgary. The latest matches saw New York Rangers and New Jersey lose their one match advantage in match six and now the ties are all square with one match to go.
(Update: San Jose weren't able to cash in on their sixth match against tie-winners Anaheim and another win for Chicago sees them into the next round.)
