Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Parise in Russia: World Championships Update
I admittedly have not been following the IIHF World Championships because of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With the New Jersey Devils now eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, two players have been added to their respective rosters in the competition. Currently, the competition is in the knockout stages. You can view the quarterfinal match ups here at the IHWC website.
USA Hockey has announced that Zach Parise is now on the USA roster and ready to play for Thursday's quarterfinal against Finland. The article at TSN notes that this is Parise's second WC tourney, having netted 2 assists in 2005. I hope he and the American hockey team does well. Parise has broken out this past season so I'm sure he can contribute plenty to the team.
The IIHF has also announced the Victoria Cup - a three-team competition between two top European teams and a NHL team. The winner gets a million (Swiss francs) and the IIHF is hoping that the series will take off well enough such that the Stanley Cup winner will eventually be playing in this one. I can't see the NHL terribly interested in that. The Stanley Cup is regarded as the top trophy in hockey, having it essentially be second place to this Victoria Cup doesn't really help the NHL out. The benefits for the European clubs taking part is obvious: increased exposure, increased competition, etc. For the NHL side, I'm not seeing much. But this is a work in progress. As an aside, both articles from IHWC also note the goal of creating a European Champions League - a hockey version of the wildly popular Champions League by UEFA. At least the NHL team will face the best Europe has to offer when it begins in September 2008.
# posted by John Fischer @ 7:34 PM 0 comments 
