In case you missed it Russia shocked most all of this country, coming back from a 3-0 deficit with 5 unanswered goals in the 3rd period to win the gold medal match in Buffalo last night, and I am here to tell you that is the best result for the sake of this tournament and junior hockey where ever it is played around the world..
Here are 2 reasons why, and remember I coached junior hockey in Europe in the British Ice Hockey league, so I see it from an international perspective.
1. With all due respect to TSN who have done a great job of turning this event into the next coming of the Olympics, only Canada, Russia and Sweden give a damn about it as we all know, mainly just Canada. We spend more money on our 2 goaltenders than the Norwegians do on there entire junior program !! It does international hockey no good at all to come over here every year to be fodder for the big red and white Canadian machine. They need to continue to see they can slay Goliath in his own den to give their programs hope.. Canada, with all our depth, junior infrastructure, coaching, talent and damn it, money, could field 4 teams for this event and have them all in the semi's. So shouldn't we be in the final every time ??
2. Only 1 Russian player plays in the CHL, all the rest play in Russia now, so this win is huge for their junior program, which remember was threadbare just 5 or 6 years ago before the advent of the KHL.
The timing of this tournament over Christmas and New Year is perfect for TV, and the fact we win or are in the final everytime makes it perfect chest thumping entertainment for us. However now that the cameras are gone, and the lights are out there is a full schedule of games in the OHL tonight in places like Belleville, Peterborough, Guelph, Brampton etc and they will be playing in front of their usual handful of fans and family, and there will be nothing more than a byline in the 4 dailies on Friday reporting on the results.
My pals Gord Miller, Pierre McQuire, Bob MacKenzie, James Duthie, Kypper, Doug MacLean etal will all return to their NHL beats and won't be seen or heard covering a junior game until the Memorial Cup and the Czech's, Finns, Norwegians, Swiss, Yanks, Russians and Swedes will all return home with little or no fanfare, but at least they go knowing that one of them, not the almighty Canadians won the gold.... and that is great for the development international junior hockey, and the future of this event.
Bryan Angus
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