What’s the Deal with the IIHF Medal Round?

How’s it goin’ Eh? Hope everyone had a fantastic Holiday Season, enjoyed family time, relaxed and had a drink or 20. I know the Killer clan had a doozy, so let’s start the new year off right.

The World Juniors is one of my favorite hockey tournaments to watch. While away in the “can” these past few years, that provided some challenges to watch live as most cons aren’t into pucks. Fortunately, I was able to build out an infrastructure to watch most games live or on demand. Must be my entrepreneurial spirit that drove me, but I hope you can appreciate the depths I went to for my hockey “fix” while inside.

Let’s Talk About Bedard
Connor Bedard is all that and a bag of chips. What he did this year over the 10 days was simply magical -scoring 23 points and leading Canada to back-to-back Gold Medals. Every time he touched the puck you could tell something special was about to happen. Can’t wait to see where he ends up next year in the NHL. He is a generational talent, so sit back and enjoy watching him play whenever you can.

Team USA was able to earn the Bronze medal with a wild OT winner against Sweden 8-7. USA was led by Head Coach Rand Pecknold who has been the HC at Quinnipiac since 1994. One of my best buddies growing up was the keeper for them the first year they went D1. That kid saw more rubber than the inside of Jenna Jameson’s orifices. Congrats to Rand and the players!

Anyone catch the World Cup of Soccer last month? Snooze, I know, but stay with me as this will all tie together shortly. I can’t stand soccer / football or whatever you want to call it. Mostly because there is no hitting and when there is accidental contact, the players flop around like Mike Ribiero. Congrats to Argentina and Messi, who is pretty skilled with his feet, on winning the Cup. How in the world can that championship be decided on via penalty kicks alone? And herein lies another problem with “The Beautiful Game”.

That’s Not How You Do Overtime
Now, back to the World Juniors: how in the world can the IIHF have OT medal round games decided with 3×3? Come on! This is for a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal and you are deciding the winner like that? Makes absolutely zero sense. 5×5 for 20 minutes, then lather rinse repeat until a goal is scored. Am I talking to myself?

My beef with this stupid rule isn’t because Canada won the Gold… cause hell, USA won Bronze and I think it’s still dumb. I can only gather that the buffoons running the IIHF are exhausted by the Medal round after being in a foreign Country during the Holidays and just want to get the hell home.

One of my roommates in college was from a small town outside Toronto and he still calls that home today. Last time I saw him in person was October of 2002 when he made the trip down from the North to the States with his bride to attend my wedding. Thanks to technology, we keep in touch frequently during the hockey season, but I can’t wait to see him again in person one of these days. I haven’t checked with my probation officer lately regarding International travel… so that could impact my ability to go North of the border.

He loves hockey and can talk about it 24×7. His balls must still be cold as he loves hanging them when Canada wins any hockey related tournament. The second Dylan Guenther scored, my phone was blowing up with Canada flag emoji’s. I didn’t even bother getting into a back-and-forth that night as it wasn’t worth it. I congratulated him on the victory and went to bed. Let’s hope next year and going forward that the IIHF changes the medal round OT format.