WORLD JUNIORS: CANADA TOPS GERMANY, BUT THE GAME WAS KINDA BORING

What was really striking about Canada's 3-1 win over Germany earlier today at the world junior hockey championship is how it spoke to how much more competitive the tournament is compared to five years ago, thanks to the great equalizer of banal defensive hockey.

(Efficient but somewhat soulless defensive hockey? What else would you expect from the German?)

There's really no shame that Team USA lost to Germany on Tuesday. In international hockey, with the bigger international ice surface and the different standard in refereeing, any second-tier team can knock off a top team if it rides a hot goalie, checks smartly, puts a Secret Security detail around any forward who skates into the slot and waits for a chance to capitalize on power plays. It's the equivalent of the soccer team who stall for two hours in the hope of going to penalty kicks. Look at Martin Gerber and Switzerland against Canada or Kim Martin and the Swedish women's team against the Americans at the Olympics last winter. Remember those Czech Republic teams that Dominik Hasek led to a couple world championships and a 1998 Olympic gold medal? They had Jaromir Jagr and other high-end NHLers, but they did provide the template.

For 50 minutes, Germany and its backup goalie, 17-year-old Timo Pielmeier, stayed within one goal, until Canadian defenceman Kris Russell clinched it with his second of the game with 9:24 left. On the one hand, it was a close game for 2 1/2 periods, and on the other hand, Germany took just nine shots in the first 40 minutes and its only marker by Felix Schutz was a pinball goal, predictably on a 5-on-3 power play.

It was close, and it wasn't close. What was it?

It did go to show that the world juniors is now competitive enough to justify the 10-team format that drew a lot of carping when it was introduced at the 2002 event and Canada went out in its first game and flattened France 15-0. North American hockey chauvinists really shouldn't be surprised anymore when the Germans or Swiss upset a big hockey power, but at the same time, you wonder if the trade-off of having a more competitive world juniors is that it's leading to less exciting, almost NHL-like hockey.

By the way: The off-day story for Canada might be that Sam Gagner, who's been either first or second in the Ontario Hockey League scoring race all year, doesn't have a goal yet in Sweden. Jonathan Toews in particular was really trying to set him up for one on a late power play.

(UPDATE, 11:37 p.m., Dec, 29: After watching today's game Rogers Sportsnet's Peter Loubardias is calling for the World Juniors to no longer be played on the Olympic-sized ice, saying, "It allows weaker opponents to play a trapping style that is not good for the game." See, Peter Loubardias agrees with me, so I can't be crazy.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.