Both Vancouver Canucks representatives got off to a good start at the 2015 IIHF World Championships on Friday.
Paired with Brent Burns, Dan Hamhuis surpassed his output for the entire 2015 NHL playoffs (1 assist). In his first World Championship game in Prague, he posted two assists as Canada beat Latvia 6-1. Canada has a stacked team this year—all NHLers including Sidney Crosby, who scored on a penalty shot to cap off Game 1. You never know what's going to happen in a knockout tournament but they should put up a good showing.
Over in the other bracket in Ostrava, Nick Bonino had a goal as Team USA beat Pekka Rinne and the Finns by a score of 5-1.
The next USA game is at 11 a.m. this morning against Norway, while Team Canada will start Martin Jones against France tomorrow morning at 3 a.m. Pacific Time.
With no NHL hockey to keep them busy, TSN is doing an amazing job with wall-to-wall coverage of the tournament. Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro are calling the games from Prague, and I think nearly every game is being televised on one or more of their five channels.
Today, we have early-morning NHL hockey as well. The New York Rangers are looking to avenge their last-second loss to Washington in Game 1 as they meet up at 9:30 a.m. at Madison Square Garden. Hockey's starting off a huge sports day that also includes the Kentucky Derby and the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight.
Sudden-Death Time for Comets
I hadn't realized that the first round of the AHL playoffs is a best-of-five affair. All subsequent series are best-of-seven but the Utica Comets now have their backs against the wall if they hope to advance.
The Comets dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Chicago Wolves on Friday night at home, which tied their series at 2-2. Joel Edmundson had the winning goal for Chicago, 2:19 into the overtime period. Cory Conacher, Adam Clendening and Bobby Sanguinetti scored for Utica, while Sven Baertschi posted three assists.
Three of the four games in the series have gone to overtime, and every game has been decided by one goal. Utica does have home-ice advantage in the pivotal Game 5, which goes tonight at 4 p.m. PT.
How Old?
Over the past couple of days, there has been some buzz on the internet about a new program called "How Old?" which uses facial recognition technology to try to guess peoples' ages based on photos.
Here's the link to the app.
After being quite pleased with my own result, it was pretty interesting to see that 34-year-old Henrik Sedin was assessed as 43 years old, while 20-year-old Bo Horvat was judged to be 29. That seems about right for him—mature beyond his years and all that.
Good news for 34-year-old Alex Burrows—he was pegged for 33! I didn't try everyone, but Kevin Bieksa looks like he takes the prize, knocking four years off his real age down to 28.
Maybe he'll come back and play like a 28-year-old after a summer of rest and rehab??
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