Canadian is a good look for you, Ebs. (photo: Tricia Hall/flickr)

The 2012 IIHF World Championship is set to take place between May 4th and 20th, with three games on May 4th and the medal games happening on the 20th. It will be held in Helsinki, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden.

This year, the tournament has a new format. The preliminary and qualification rounds have been made into one round with two pools of eight teams. Group A (Finland, Canada, USA, Switzerland, Slovakia, Belarus, France and Kazakhstan) will play in Helsinki for this round, while Group B (Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Latvia, Denmark and Italy) will face off in Stockholm. The top four teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals. According to Wikipedia, “This was done as it rewards consistently strong teams instead of those who make ‘upsets’.” The semifinals and medal games will all take place in Finland.

There are three other divisions that exist in separate tournaments; Division I, Division II and Division III play in Slovenia, Poland, Iceland, Bulgaria and Turkey. I didn’t even know that Great Britain had a men’s hockey team. Shows what I know, I guess.

Edmonton Oilers RW Jordan Eberle accepted his invitation to play for Team Canada at this tournament; the entire roster has yet to be announced. Predicted forwards include Eric Staal, Jarome Iginla, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Rick Nash – all of whom won gold with Team Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver – along with stars like Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, Jamie Benn and Evander Kane. Sportsnet predicted the entire roster, naming Eberle as one of their third-line forwards, as well as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as an extra in the forwards department, and Devan Dubnyk as an extra in the blue paint.

Eberle is well known for his incredibly clutch goal back at the 2009 World Juniors – the Canada/Russia semifinal game that was 5-4 in favour of the Russians; 5.4 seconds were left on the clock when Jordan Eberle tied the game up to send it into overtime, later winning it in the shootout to carry Canada to the gold medal game. Canada won their fifth gold medal in a row that year.

I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the rosters – and hopefully seeing Canada take home the gold (before doing it again at the 2014 Olympics).

Captain Shawn Horcoff was the third star in tonight's 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. (photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

Edmonton Oilers at Anaheim Ducks – March 5th 2012

This was the first of a two-game California road trip for the Oilers tonight as they made an appearance at the Honda Centre. The last time these two teams played, the score was 5-0 in favour of the Ducks, who are in the middle of a last-chance playoff push. These two teams have two more games this season – April 1st and 5th – and the home sides are getting equal opportunities.

The Oilers came into tonight’s game off a 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday, and were looking to ruin as much as they could of the 12th-place Ducks’ postseason hunt.

- LW Taylor Hall had seven points in his last six games going into tonight’s game

- D Theo Peckham is no longer on IR but was questionable tonight – did not play

- LW Linus Omark was called up from OKC – did not play

- G Nikolai Khabibulin has 12 career wins against Anaheim

- G (Anaheim) Jonas Hiller played in his 26th straight start – a franchise record for the Ducks

- RW Jordan Eberle’s 61 points had him tied for 14th in NHL scoring

- The Oilers’ power play unit is ranked 1st in the NHL – they have a 21.7% average

- Edmonton was 4-5-1 going into tonight’s game, having lost 3 of their last 4.

The three stars were Corey Perry, Bobby Ryan and Shawn Horcoff in tonight’s 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

» Continue reading “Edmonton 2, Anaheim 4: Recap”