The 2012 IIHF World Championship begins tomorrow on May 4^th 2012. This year, the host countries will be Finland and Sweden. I will briefly go through Team Canada’s roster as well as the considerable favourites to win Gold this year.

There are 16 countries in total that will be facing off in hopes of Gold.

Team Canada has announced that Ryan Getzlaf would be team captain. The Assistant Captains are Patrick Sharp and Dion Phaneuf.

The team is slightly different from last year’s roster, most notably, the absence of power forward Rick Nash, and playmaker Jason Spezza. Both were huge contributors to the team. In hopes to fill that gap, Team Canada has added forwards Corey Perry, young superstar Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Vancouver Canucks’ own Alex Burrows. This will be Burrows first time competing in the IIHF World Championship for Team Canada.

There is no doubt that Team Canada has scoring ability and depth, the one big question will be surrounding Ryan Getzlaf. Will he be able to fill Rick Nash’s skates? This year was his lowest point total since his debut in Anaheim. Also, PK Subban was to be selected to play for Team Canada, but will be missing due to a knee injury.

Team Canada will always be a competitor for Gold, but there are two teams in talks to be the favourites in this year’s IIHF World Championship. Team Sweden and Team Finland, oddly enough, both the host countries.

Team Finland won Gold last year with Team Sweden grabbing the silver medal. Their roster compared to last year has changed quite a bit. Most recognizable will be the absence of Tuomo Ruutu and Sami Vatanen. Two stars who are not on the roster due to arguments between the coaching staff. Mikko Koivu will once again be wearing the captaincy with the addition of Valtteri Filppula and Kari Lehtonen.

Team Sweden has seemed to have gotten significantly stronger. 4 Detroit Red Wing superstars have been selected to represent Team Sweden, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall, and Jonathan Ericsson. Not only that, young superstars with breakout years, Gabriel Landeskog and Norris Trophy finalist, Erik Karlsson have been added.

 There is no doubt that this year’s IIHF World Championships will be as exciting as any other year.

-Michael @ The Fan Zoo

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I'd like to start off by saying how great the Playoffs have been so far. There has been so much to talk about, and we haven't even made it out of the first round yet. But now, on to the top 3 over achievers and under performers.

Overachievers

3  Joffrey Lupul

 

 

Lupul had a terrific season and really turned some heads this season, posting a career high in assists (42) and points (67) while only appearing in 66 games. He also had 25 goals, second best in his career by only 3 goals, and was a +1 rating. His last game was March 6th against the Boston Bruins, and after his departure, the Leafs posted a 5-7-3 record in the final 15 games, including 2 blow-out losses to the Bruins and Flyers. Lupul meshed well with Phil Kessel and the two of them became one of the best duos in the early part of the season. Added to this, Lupul has heard praise from Leaf fans and management, and has been named as one of the 3 finalists for the Bill Masterton Trophy.

2  Erik Karlsson

1  Brian Elliott

Under Performers

3  Nino Niederreiter

2  Drew Doughty

1  Ryan Getzlaf

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Apologies for skipping last week’s blog, I know my 5 readers were heart-broken. With the playoffs starting today, I figured I would break-down the first round and give some predictions on who has what it takes to advance into Round 2. This means pushing my top 3 overachievers and under-performers to next week. Nothing’s guaranteed, as you 5 know from my predictions with the 2 Conference seedings.

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Vancouver has won the President’s Trophy for the second year in a row and look to be the favourite to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals again. The Canucks goaltending tandem of Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider are arguably the best duo in the league. Add in the scoring abilities of the top two lines (provided Kesler finds his scoring touch) and the grit of the bottom two, the Canucks will be able to throw an arsenal of tricks at the Kings. Don’t underestimate the Kings though. Jonathan Quick and Jonathan Bernier are another great goaltending tandem, but don’t have the playoff experience that the Canucks have. Quick has been fantastic for the Kings this season and is the reason that they managed to get into the playoffs. The Kings are a much more physical presence, with a line-up boasting heavy hitting scorers like Mike Richards and Dustin Brown, so expect them to play a lot of minutes against the Sedins to try and get them off their game. With all that being said, I give the Canucks the nod in 6 games.

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The Blues and Sharks have both surprised many people this season. Many had the Blues out of playoff contention and the Sharks vying for the President’s Trophy. San Jose has much more playoff experience than the Blues, making it to the Conference Finals the last 2 years, but have also been known for their inability to play when it counts. St. Louis, though in the higher seeding, might be considered the underdog in this matchup. I expect that they’ll come out strong, but the Sharks experience will win out in the end. I have the Sharks in 7.

                        vs.                        

As I stated in my first blog, I always undervalue Phoenix. I had them out of the playoffs, not taking the Pacific Division crown (though they only finished 2 points ahead of 8^thplace Los Angeles). Phoenix has some scoring abilities, and Mike Smith has been amazing during the season. Coyotes fans will be hoping that continues in the post-season, but the playoffs are another season, and fans can’t expect too much from a goaltender with only 3 NHL Playoff games under his belt. The Blackhawks, however, have been to this party many times and have a young group that knows what it takes to win. If former Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Toews is healthy, Chicago will be a force to be reckoned with. Cory Crawford has lacked consistency this year and looked shaky at times. Even when he’s not on his game, the Blackhawks are so gifted offensively that they can stay in almost every game. Blackhawks in 5.

                        vs.                      

Another team that I underestimated down the stretch was the Nashville Predators. I thought that the addition of Alex Radulov would throw off the chemistry of the team, but he’s fit in really well and had 7 points in his 9 games played. The Detroit Red Wings can’t be overlooked though. They have so much experience and never seem to age. With a healthy roster who can play a very skilled style of game, Pekka Rinne will have to be on his game for the entire series. Detroit can get by with Jimmy Howard not on his game, but I don’t think Nashville can say the same. I’m giving the edge to the Red Wings, winning the series in 7 games.

                          vs.                        

My Senators have made it back to the playoffs, and though they are the 8^thseed, upsets can still happen. No one is thinking that Ottawa will do anything, but they also thought that for the regular season. This team has the ability to win, especially with young Erik Karlsson on the point and Jason Spezza up front. Throw in Daniel Alfredsson and a few other key players that were with the team in the 2007 Finals and they might be able to settle the younger players down for a run similar to the Montreal Canadiens a few years ago. Their first test will be the Rangers though, who are backed by arguably the best goalie in the league, Henrik Lundqvist. The Rangers haven’t made the playoffs the past 2 seasons, and the 4 years before that, have only won 3 games in the second round. That doesn’t mean that they won’t go far this year, they just haven’t had the best record since their ’94 Cup win. Marian Gaborik has been playing well this year, but New York will need Brad Richards to play like he did on Dallas if they want a long post-season. Unfortunately for the Senators, I think the Rangers will win in 6 games.

                                 vs.                      

The Boston Bruins are looking to repeat on last year’s victory, and their first test will be the Washington Capitals. The Bruins can ice a very good four lines that all know their role and, with a goaltender like Tim Thomas, can take a few chances and make some mistakes. The same can’t be said about the Capitals. They’ll have to play very smart defensively while still managing offense, something that they’ve struggled to do. Alex Ovechkin hasn’t been the factor in games that people have come to expect in past years, but people still compare him to Crosby and point out his inability to win when it matters. That might be a fuel for Ovechkin, but I doubt it will carry the Capitals past game 7. The Bruins will be playing very physical and making sure that Washington’s stars don’t want to hold onto to puck for long. The Bruins will win in 6 games.

                              vs.                         

The Florida Panthers are in the playoffs after a long absence that dated back to before the NHL lockout, and go up against Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils. Florida’s goaltending will be put the the test, especially with elite players like Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise against them. The Panthers are unlikely to go very far, though they do have some players with Cup rings. The Devils have much more recent playoff experience, though they’ve also had their struggles in the post-season lately, but Brodeur might treat this as his final run, and if he does, expect him to show everyone why he’s the all-time leader in wins and shutouts. I have the Devils in 5.

                                 vs.                        

This is quite possibly going to be the most exciting series in the first round, especially with the bad blood that happened during the final few games, and the toughest to predict. The last time these two met in the first round was a hard hitting series, and you should expect this one to be very similar. The Penguins have more scoring ability, but the Flyers have more grit and will make sure that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will be hit. If the Flyers can get Crosby and Malkin off their game and upset, they should be able to win this series. For the Flyers, the biggest question mark is, as it has been for many years, the goaltending. Ilya Bryzgalov has been really good and really bad this season. They’ll need him to be the $5.6 million goaltender that they thought they signed, especially when they look across the ice and see Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury has proven that he deserved to be picked first overall in the 2003 NHL Draft, and has kept the Penguins in tight games and even helped win them a few this season. With all that being said, I predict the Penguins will move on in a tough 7 game series.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for next Friday’s post about my top 3 picks for the 2011-2012 NHL regular season overachievers and under-performers.

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As a sports memorabilia company, we get to meet and work with a lot of awesome athletes. Here is a video of Maxim Lapierre who is a great guy to work with. It's also his birthday today - Happy Birthday Maxim!

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