FTB: Hockey is on TV this weekend

Team Canada opened the Women’s World Championship in Calgary yesterday with a 6-2 win over Finland. It was a slow start for Canada with Finland scoring their two goals first, taking a 2-0 lead wasn’t broken until the second period when Canada scored twice in 20 seconds to tie up the game. Marie-Philip Poulin was, of course, the one who tied up the game.

Then it was finally full steam ahead in the third period. Here’s the highlight reel from TSN.

Canada’s next game is Sunday against Russia (actually it’s the “Ice Hockey Federation of Russia,” as they have to call themselves right now) at 6:00 p.m. ET. on TSN1 and TSN4.

If you want to watch hockey today, there’s three games with the first starting at 2:00 p.m., but the coverage on TSN3 doesn’t begin until the second game at 6:00 with Russia vs. Switzerland. I’m more interested in the 9:00 p.m. game which is Denmark vs. Japan. Japan has been an emerging market for women’s hockey for some years now, in part a result of seeds planted at the Nagano Olympics in 1998.

Maple Leafs Top 25 Under 25

We kicked off our annual Top 25 series this week. In case you missed one, here are the players we ranked from 25-21.

We’ll be back with #20 on Monday.

Other News

The King has retired. Henrik Lundqvist officially announced he will retire from hockey after some cardiac issues were discovered when he signed as a free agent with the Washington Capitals one year ago. Because of that he never suited up for any NHL team other than the New York Rangers.

His final totals have him recorded as the goalie for 887 regular season Rangers games and 130 playoff games over 15 years; winning the Vezina trophy in 2013. He also was in three Olympic Games and many IIHF World Championships, the most notable being Sweden’s gold medal win over Canada in 2017, which is remembered by Leafs fans for William Nylander dive bombing him in the net as the team celebrated their win at the end of the game.

ANDRE RINGUETTE/AFP via Getty Images

Of course, this brings up the inevitable notation on his storied career: no Stanley Cup.

The Rangers made it to the playoffs regularly, and all the way to the finals, but never won it in those fifteen years. That in turn brings up the inevitable question, how long does it take before he goes into the Hall of Fame? While he did get an Olympic gold medal in Turin in 2006 (that crazy Olympics where Canada bombed out with no medal after losing in the quarterfinals,) and a silver medal in Sochi in 2014, is that enough to eventually get in with no Stanley Cup? We know a Cup isn’t required for the Hall of Fame—see Sundin, Mats—but there is a queue of players waiting to be inducted right now that are in that same situation, the most recognisable and similar to Lundqvist being Roberto Luongo, who becomes eligible in 2022 (the Sedin twins are also eligible then). It feels like both of them should be in there eventually, but maybe that’s a recency bias effect from them being such a continuous high profile presence for so many years.