Olympic Ice Hockey?

BBC have been showing the women so far (well, I switched on during Canada-Switzerland yesteray), so I'd assume they'll show the men.
This website usually does the trick though http://www.myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=olympicwintergames

Quick question. Which is more prestigious in International hockey, the Olympics or the World Championships?

EDIT: just wanted to note my jealousy of you, red ice, for playing . I'm planning on buying a pair of roller blades to learn to skate, the pessimism/mockery when ever you say "I''d like to play ice hockey" is annoying!

StevoTG wrote: »

Quick question. Which is more prestigious in International hockey, the Olympics or the World Championships?

The Olympics would be considered the 'most prestigious'. This is the one time every four years that the NHL players are aloowed to compete as a whole.

The World Championships are held during the middle of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs (which run from April - June) each year. Most of the top countries are missing their top players during this run.

There is a hockey 'World Cup' that has only taken place twice in the past 14 years. This is played on the smaller NHL ice surface and is geared more towards the North American game.

Supposedly, this will be the last Olympics in which the NHL players will be allowed to compete. Although, several prominent Russian players (Ovechkin, Malkin, Semin) have come forward saying that they will compete for their homeside in the 2014 games in Russia.

Cheers for the advice and info lads.

I'd hope the players have the final say in whether or not they get to play, having the likes of Ovechkin speaking up is a plus. A big name like that should hold some weight.

Highlights of pretty much everything can be found here:
http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/olympics/

Canada were immense! Best performance of the tournament so far. Could be a cracking final -v- USA if they both come through their semi's.
I was delighted to see Luongo in goal, he deserves it.

Maybe I was a bit hasty in saying it was the best performance of the tournament so far. I've only seen clips, but by all acounts it seems as though Slovakia's 4-3 win over Sweden was a fantastic perfomance in a great game.

red_ice wrote: »

Surely thats impossible. Those guys have as much right as anyone else to be playing for their country

The problem is that the NHL might not release their players (or at least not schedule the season with an Olympic break). This means any players who want to go will either give up their money for that time, or be in breach of contract. I'm not all that familiar with how the NHL/IIHF agreement works, but it could even be that any players who aren't cleared to play, wouldn't be eligible.

With players like Ovechkin, they at least would have some leeway if the league didn't release players because he's good and influential enough to work out a deal with the Capitals (but even this is a gray area regarding insurance and the player's association etc.)

It would be a huge mistake not to go, especially when so many of the players would want to take part. If the NHL really wants to grow the game, there are few better stages than the Olympics. They can schedule European games all they want, but I can tell you that the amount of attention hockey is getting in Slovakia and Finland right now because of games in Vancouver outweighs any NHL game that is played in Bratislava or Helsinki.

Rented Mule wrote: »

USA v Canada on Canadian home ice for the Gold Medal on Sunday.

is the bronze match on bbc and what time.

also what time is the final on

Only Eurosport will be showing it I think. Though there should be no problems finding a stream of the action on myp2p. I'm pretty sure I'm going to fall asleep after the first period.. but I'll be sure to get some caffeine in to me for the final tomorrow

dceire wrote: »

Where can you do these learn to skate courses?

Smithfield in Dublin run the learn to skate programs from November to January, I think. Dundalk is the only year-round rink that I know of. Dublin could really do with a permanent facility, as could Cork. If there were a permanent rink in Dublin with hockey programmes, the pool of players to choose from for the Irish national team would probably double within 15 years!

cena wrote: »

ya this country could do with more permanent rinks. thers loads of demand a christmas time. would love to play ice hockey

Ice time is very expensive, not to mention the costs for equipment. There would need to be a much bigger interest in order for these rinks to break even.

04072511 wrote: »

Feel sorry for Ryan Miller, he put in an incredible performance to keep the USA in it!!

Two best players in the tournament:


1) Ryan Miller for the USA
2) Jonathon Toews for Canada