Kings In The 2008 World Championships Part IV

Lubo Workin' It

On Wednesday, May 7th, Slovakia faced Finland where the Fins won out 3-2. Lubomir Visnovsky end the night with a respectable 1 shot on net and at a +1 in this loss. One cool thing for Lubo was that he logged more ice time than any of his teammates at 25:16. The next closest was a fellow Dman at 22:12.

As a side note, there definitely looks to be more NHLers on the Finnish team than for the Slovakian team.

Brownie & Sully Are Too Cool For School

On Thursday, May 8th, the US team went up against zee Germans and won out 6-4. In the first period Patrick O'Sullivan netted one with assists going to Phil Kessel and David Backes. In the third period, with about a minute and a half left, Dustin Brown scores his empty netter from a pass from Zach Parise. Brownie finishes the game with 1 goal, 7 shots on, even in the plus/minus column, and had 19 minutes of ice time. The only other forward with more ice time was Parise. Sully ends the night with 1 goal, 2 shots on, at a +1, and had 14:12 of time on the ice.

Something to note, since I couldn't watch the game, but apparently the US team scored its first 3 goals in the first 3 minutes of the game!

Bummer For Ivanans

On Friday, May 9th, Latvia faced off against Finland where the Fins won 2-1. I was actually surprised that this game was so low scoring seeing as how Finland boasts a number of NHL players while Latvia is a little lacking in that department. There appeared to have been a number of penalties in this game and Raitis Ivanans only recorded 2 penalty minutes for interference. He actually ended the game with a -1 and only had 5:44 of time on the ice. I really think the Latvians could use Ivanans on the ice more. I mean, I know I'm not watching the game (which I wish I could...for free), but seeing how Raitis is one of the few NHLers on their roster, you'd think they'd use him more, right? I dunno, maybe they...wait a second... a lot of the penalties were actually against the Latvians, and Ivanans is not penalty killer. Maybe that's it?

Kopi Versus Lubo!

On Friday, May 9th, Slovakia played Slovenia (Lubo vs. Anze Kopitar). Slovakia won soundly 5-1. The Slovakians blasted 50 total shots (on 2 goaltenders) while the Slovak goalie only faced 11 shots. Kopi did NOT get the lone Slovenian goal, which was a first in this tournament, but he did get the first assist from it. He ends up with a -1, which I think is his first time not even or in the positive for this tournament, got 4 shots on net, and racked up 24:41 of ice time. Interestingly enough, Kopi's average length for each of his shifts was 10 seconds LONGER than anyone else on his team, including the defensemen. Talk about carrying the team on your back! Kinda makes me feel (really) bad for him. He went from a crappy season with the Kings to going to a weaker team internationally. This kid needs a break. Maybe he should change his nationality and become a US or Canadian citizen so he can be on a winning team. Just a thought...

Things were looking a little better on the other side of the rink as Lubo got 2 assists in the 1st 2 frames with 4 total shots on net. He got a respectable 18:12 of time on the ice and was a +3.

(iihf.com) Kopi! You still rock!