World rosters have Lightning connections

The World Championship tournament starts tonight and you certainly know by now that John Tortorella is coaching the U.S. team and Jeff Halpern is the captain. But the Lightning is well represented elsewhere in the tournament as well.
Finland boasts two Lightning players: winger Jussi Jokinen and goalie Karri Ramo. Marty St. Louis is playing for Canada and Filip Kuba for the Czech Republic.
The US opens against Latvia, while Canada plays Slovakia. The Czechs face Denmark and Finland plays Germany.
The 16-team tournament continues through May 18.

Comments

[Bill]

Turtle-

You can put down the Thesaurus when writing a blog.

Bill

[Voice of the Turtle]

Keith makes a key point in that many of the elite NHL players will be absent from the competition. I really cannot say that this so-called World Championship has much meaning except for empty nationalistic bragging rights.

I was puzzled by the selection of John Tortorella as coach of the American team both because of his recent failures and his relative lack of international experience. It should be noted that John's heretofore survival in Tampa is even more surprising.

Clearly, this assignment is Tortorella's opportunity to at least superficially resurrect the eclat he once enjoyed by dint of the Lightning's 2003-4 Cinderella season. In his favor is the fact that he has a number of new faces to deal with in contrast to the Tampa crew that had to put up with his tiresome eccentricities and his mercurial temperament for several seasons. He stands before his new charges with a relatively clean slate.

Finishing anywhere near the money this year would be an achievement for the U.S. entry in that the rosters for the teams representing the prominent hockey countries appear to be a good deal stronger than America's underdog squad. As usual, one presumes that Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, and the Czech teams should be considered favorites.

One can only hope that Tortorella and his assistant, Mike Sullivan, can enjoy more success in this competition than they did with what certainly appears to be their markedly disgraceful and outrageously inept performances in guiding the 2007-8 Lightning.

[Hockey Chic]

Go Boys Go. I wish you all great success and what great practice it is.
He shoots he scores.....

Go Bolts!!

[keith]

Many of the top players for all nations are still playing for their club teams in the Cup. The rosters are full of "also rans" and second choices.
Can you imagine Finland without Koivu, Sweden without Lidstrom (or even Canada without skipper Vinny) The Cup is far more exciting than World Championships