Canada defeated Russia 4-2 in the gold-medal final to win for the first time in Europe since 1997 and continue a golden trend that started in North America in 2005. The Canadian juniors have reeled off 18 consecutive victories and three world titles in a row.
Traffic was uncommonly heavy around noon yesterday, as folks (including The Prime Minister) booked off work early to catch the final of the annual world junior championship, held every year beginning the day after Christmas. The tournament brings together the world’s eight best hockey nations, but only in Canada is it a national passion and only when Canada is the host are games sold out long in advance. These are the best of our young players on the eve of their professional careers and the tournament offers us the sweet spectacle of seeing them play their hearts out solely for love of country before they go off to earn millions playing in half-empty arenas in places like Phoenix, Nashville and Tampa Bay.
Russia used to own this tournament, but for fifteen years Canada has dominated and now leads in gold medals. The USA came within one shootout goal of knocking us off in the semi-final, which would have been a glorious upset few Americans would have heard about. For the umpteenth time we squared off in the final against the fearsome Russians–-skilled, fast, disciplined and mean–-and once again out-skated, out-hit and out-scored them. It does seem to be true even in the pros that, while Europeans often dazzle during the regular season, the Canadian players dig down deep and find something extra in the playoffs. We like to call it Canadian grit.
Anyway, there was much joy at Casa Burnet yesterday and my son and I both felt it called for a celebration, so we went out together to the local arena to watch his friend play hockey.
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