Thursday, May 15, 2008
Devils out of WCs
Well, scratch three Devils and one assistant coach out of the 2008 IIHF World Championships. While the United States beat Norway to the tune of 9-1, they could not beat Finland in the quarterfinals as they lost 3-2 in overtime. In the Norway beatdown, Zach Parise picked up a goal and an assist and Paul Martin picked up a goal as well. Both Devils were held pointless in the Finland game, just playing quite a few minutes instead. In the case of the Czech Republic, two straight losses - 5-3 in the qualification round and 3-2 in the subsequent playoff - to Sweden did them in. Elias scored a goal and earned an assist in the qualification loss, but got nothing in the playoff loss.
So, here is your summary of the WCs by the numbers for Devils:
Zach Parise - 7 games, 5 goals, 3 assists, 2 PIM, +1, 28 shots on net, 19:31 avg. ice time/game.
Paul Martin - 7 games, 1 goal, 7 assists, 0 PIM, +2, 8 shots on net, 21:50 avg. ice time/game.
Patrik Elias - 7 games, 6 goals, 3 assists, 6 PIM, -3, 29 shots on net, 18:14 avg. ice time/game.
Not a bad effort from all three players. They were important players on their team and they were quite productive. Good job, too bad none of them will compete for a medal this year. The relegated teams are Slovenia and Italy, they will be replaced by Division I winners Austria and Hungary for the 2009 World Championships in Switzerland. The semi-final matchups are Russia versus Finland and Sweden versus Canada. Best of luck to all four teams. I guess I have to pull for Canada if only for Pat Burns. Given that they have the home ice advantage and their team is more than quite talented, they should be favored to compete for the gold.
Labels: 2008 Offseason, Hockey - General
# posted by John Fischer @ 7:00 PM 0 comments 
