- Do you like junior hockey ?
Absolutely. Much more consistent enthusiam in play typically in a more intimate venue. Kind of like taking NHL playoff hockey and putting it into a community rink.
- Outside of this event do you follow junior hockey ?
Absolutely. Only a handful of OHL arenas left to visit in person.
- Do you watch, look forward to this event every year ?
Yes but the hype is a bit overbearing but this is one of the only things that TSN has created on its own. It's not something they borrow from ESPN or repackage from some other programming source. It is something they created, nutured and turned into what it is today ... For good or bad.
- Do you think Canada will win their sixth in a row?
Yes. I think they are definitely one of the favourites but it won't be easy again.
Keebler Elf said:
Canada might be the heavy favourite but they rarely run away with the tournament.
I every now and then get jaded by the success as well and wonder about the tournament but then, when you look back at the past five wins, you have shoot outs, a golden goal and a game tying goal with less about 5 sec left so it's not been easy except for the lockout superteam of 2005.
I just wish the Maguirre's and McKenzie's of the world would remember the little piece they've run on Slaney and stop equating a great junior player into guaranteed success. Slaney and many, many more players remind us that this tournament may be the pinnacle of many of these young men's playing careers. Certainly representing your country is nothing to sneeze at but NHL success is not in most of these guys cards and on air TSN personalities should stop hyping it as such becaue they should know better!
Isn't it interesting that at the 20th year of coverage, you are starting to hear more and more Canadian players state that they grew up watching the tournament? If anything, this tournament and being on this team means a lot to these guys.
It is also interesting to go back to that first tournament and think about why TSN really chose to broadcast this tournament. Of course creating programming that draws tons of advertising revenue is an obvious reason but why did they think people would watch this tournament? Patriotism? Likely. Love for hockey? Possibly. But if you recall the time frame and the hockey landscape, one of the biggest reasons they chose that tournament was the hype around one of the greatest portrayed villains in hockey ... Eric Lindros. This was an opportunity to pimp a player that was labelled the next hockey god and not have to put themselves in the situation of broadcasting OHL games on a regular basis.