This is a tournament between 20-and-under national teams. It's a really big deal to Canada. It's not really a big deal to us, but it's a good showcase for draft picks and a chance to see the talented Russians who don't play pro in North America anymore. Rocky Wirtz wants to bring it here, but it sounds like it's between us, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo.
I'm not really that into the World Juniors. Apparently, this used to be a sleepy little get-together between a bunch of kids that went off largely without consequence, but then TSN, having lost the NHL in the late '90s and needing to fill programming hours, trumped the whole thing up as some battle for the pure heart and soul of hockey, which naturally needed to be won by Canada. If I'm not mistaken, this was the event that made a star out of Pierre McGuire before we got stuck with him.
I don't think Chicago will win the bid, not against border cities with sparkling new facilities in Buffalo and Detroit. But hey, at least they're trying.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.