Word Championships wind down exhibtion round

The twelve teams competing at this years World Hockey Championships are taking a few notes as they wrap up the last few games of the exhibition round of play at rinks across Quebec and the Maritimes.

The preliminary round gets underway Friday evening, when host Canada takes on Slovakia, all of Canada's games will be televised on TSN.

Canada had split results over the last few nights with a 3-2 victory over Finland on Saturday, while they dropped a 4-1 decision to the Russians on Monday night in Quebec City.

IIHF World Championships home page

National Post--Ward must earn back goalie job with Canada

Canadian Press-- Canada gets "wakeup call" in 4-1 World Championship exhibition loss to Russia

Winnipeg Sun-- Russians cruise in exhibition

Toronto Star-- Worlds still in search of identity

Edmonton Sun-- Call him Captain Class

Ottawa Citizen-- Doan to lead Canada at worlds

Vancouver Sun-- Quebec tourney's family time for Toews

CBC Sports-- Doan earns captain's C for Team Canada

The World arrives in April

The arrangements for the 100th Anniversary of the World Hockey Championships is coming together nicely for Halifax and Quebec City, as sixteen teams make their early plans for the competition, the first time that it has been held in Canada.

The Canadian squad opens up its training camp on April 23rd in Quebec City, with a number of exhibition games lined up through the end of April all designed to tune all 16 teams up for the May 2-18 tournament.

Pre season games will travel to a variety of towns and cities in Quebec and Atlantic Canada as the visiting squads try to get their skating legs back in shape and their overall game plan back on track. One of the more interesting of pre tournament matches will feature France and Italy squaring off in St. Leonard, a Montreal suburb known for its large Italian population. Nobody mention soccer and past grievances from recent World Cups, or it may be a game that even Don Cherry might want to take in.

Canada will play its round robin matches in Halifax; leading up to what they hope will be the Gold Medal game back at Le Colisee on May 18th.

The Canadian team is traditionally topped up with players from teams that don’t make the playoffs or exit after one short round; however, with the tournament being held in Canada this year, the potential for late additions from the second round of the playoffs is a possibility, making team chemistry and allocation an important aspect for Hockey Canada.

For Canada, the defending champion, a berth as top seed for the 2010 Olympics is on the agenda, as well the top nine finishers in this springs event will all qualify for the Olympics, giving the competition a little extra importance this time around.

Organizers roll out the red carpet on May 2nd, with the host country hoping that it’s the home side standing on it on May 18 collecting another Gold Medal and helping to put a stamp on edition 100 of the World Championships.

Canada.com--World hockey event should do well

Canada.com--Quebec City to host Canadian camp

CBC News--Hockey Canada announces details for Worlds

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Hockey Canada--2008 IIHF Website

Canada begins defence of World Championship May 2nd

It will mark the first time that the World Hockey Championships are played in Canada, and on May 2nd in Halifax, Team Canada will step onto home ice to defend their title.

The International Ice Hockey Federation released its Championship schedule on Monday and the tournament will feature games played in both Halifax and Quebec City.

Halifax will be home base for Canada for seven games in the tournament including a quarter final if all goes well. Should disaster not strike Canada's hopes, they will then move on to Quebec City for the semi finals and if the Hockey Gods are cooperating, the gold medal game on May 18th.

Canada has been placed in Group B, sharing space with the USA, Latvia and Slovenia.

Canada's schedule looks like this, with all games played at the Metro Centre in Halifax.

May 2nd vs Slovenia

May 4th vs Latvia

May 6th vs USA

Three Qualification/Relegation games between May 8 and 13

And a Quarter final on May 14

The Semi finals move on to Quebec City on May 16

With the Gold Medal Game on May 18th

The Full IIHF 2008 World Championship schedule can be found here.

Quebec City put on notice over 2008 World tournament

With the clock ticking on Hockey Canada's requirement of a strong organizing committee, the Quebec City portion of the 2008 World Hockey Championship tournament could be at risk.

Hockey Canada is expressing a bit of frustration with local authorities in the Quebec capital, and has given them seven days to have a proper committee and some semblance of a business plan in place, or they very well may lose the rights to the games.

The original plan was for Quebec and Halifax to split the tournament, which is venturing out of its normal European base as part of the centennial celebrations of the World Championship. It was also to be used to help celebrate the 400th anniversary of Quebec City's founding, a year long celebration that Hockey Canada felt would fit in nicely with the IIHF's hopes for the tournament.

Hockey Canada has said that their first preference is still to hold the tournament in Halifax and Quebec City, but that if the city can't get it's act together in the next seven days they'll look at alternative sites, already Winnipeg and Hamilton have been mentioned as possible relocation sites for the recalcitrant Quebecois.

The move is seen by many as a way to make Quebec City's business community step up and rise to the occasion, lest they suffer a black eye over the transfer of hosting duties. Needless to say the threats by Hockey Canada aren't sitting to well with the locals, especially those in the hotel and hospitality industry who stand to gain quite a winfall with the tournament in town.

However, they may have no one but themselves to blame, the mayor had even gone so far as to suggest that she was thinking of reneging on the hosting duties and then turned around and stated that Hockey Canada can't just pull the plug like that, they have a contractual obligation. We believe this is the have our cake and eat it too approach to negotiating eh!

Hockey Canada however is more concerned about expectations, the IIHF by moving their showpiece tournament to Canada for the centennial is hoping for a pretty impressive show. Having questions about organization and funding is not something that they will want to hear about.

While it seems rather tense at the moment, we suspect that as the seven day deadline draws to a close we will find that the tournament will remain in Quebec City, sometimes you need a little incentive to get the wheels moving.

Hockey Canada decided to provide the push, it's up to Quebec City now to decide if they wish to remain on the hockey radar or drop off, perhaps for a good long time.