Women's World Hockey Championship

[Rough Mix]

The US won the Women's World Hockey Championship, defeating Canada 4-3. I see a few girls youth and high school games every year, and the talent pool is growing every year. Exciting hockey and fun to watch. Congrats!

www.cbc.ca/cp/sports/080412/s041247A.html

 

[Rosie]

USA! USA! USA!

For me, a great season in the women's hockey world -- the UMD Bulldogs take the NCAA title and Team USA wins the world title.

I'm happy.

 

[Flash]

Meh ... we'll let you have one every once in a while.

 

[JR]

The problem with women's hockey is that there really only two countries that can field competitive teams; USA and Canada.

 

[huntsie]

Finns and Swiss played for bronze. Sweden was upset along the way. Talent pool is getting a little deeper all the time. It takes time for the game to develop and grow. I know I've watched it take off in our area over the last eight or nine years and the calibre of hockey and number of girls playing has improved dramatically in that time

 

[Rough Mix]

Huntsie, Do you know if Kim Martin was in goal for Sweden? Like you said, it takes time to grow, but it is getting better and better.

JR, there's no problem as far as I can tell. It's growing and more hockey is always a good thing, right?

 

[Flash]

It's growing and more hockey is always a good thing, right?

Gary Bettman will love you for saying that.

 

[Rough Mix]

But would Clarence Campbell?

 

[Flash]

Danny Gallivan may even shed a tear of thanks.

 

[Rough Mix]

Flash, you started playing a few years ago you said at some point here. Have you seen the growth where you are?

 

[Flash]

Girls, it seems, have always played hockey out west, especially in the big cities.

Growth at the minor levels? At times ... the population levels are still low enough, though, that midget has to incorporate 13- to 18-year-olds in some areas.

And thus, if a girl truly wants to be better at her game, she plays rep-level with the boys.

What impresses the hell out of me is the growth back home. Teams in my home town have had provincial champions at all age levels in the last 10 years. Back in my day, we weren't allowed to play ... we were only allowed to date hockey players.

 

[Flash]

U.S. girls have great role models (not that Canadian girls don't but it just seems to be a more important factor south of the 49th). Angela Ruggerio is terrific and Cammi Granato was always a good rep, too.

 

[Rosie]

As the old lady hockey player, I am beyond astounded to see the growth of the women's game over the past 25 years.

Never, ever in my wildest dreams way back when would I have imagined NCAA or Olympic championships for women hockey players.

 

[Rough Mix]

Growth at the youth level here has been tremendous over the last 10 years. Some girls will play youth with the boys.

Back to Bettman, I had dealings with a couple of people in the NHL when he came over from the NBA. Looking back, things didn't turned out the way they hoped at the time..."David Stern's right-hand man!"

 

[Flash]

He can go back to the NBA any time now.

 

[Rough Mix]

U19 teams have really taken off here, too.

 

[Rosie]

Agreed.

Maybe we should get the girls together. Get the team back together. [/lame Blues Brothers reference]

Then we could kick his butt out of there.

 

[Flash]

Rosie ... I'll clear your crease any day.

 

[Beef03]

Girls hockey is growing by leaps and bounds out west. Problem I see is depth, even at their rep levels. Always one or two real solid players, then there is a large drop off to everyone else. Also, the goalies are generally far advanced of the rest of the players, especially if they played boys hockey before switching over to girls hockey.

It's great that they are playing more and more, but as someone who covers it as well as boys hockey I find it one of the most frustrating sports to watch because of the no hitting. It seems every second pass is a sui, and I keep telling myself someone is going to get plastered, yet nothing happens. At most there is a feined attempt at a poke check. Far too often the defenceman just backs off. it's terrible fundamental hockey in this regard. Incredibly anti-climatic.


Oh and Congrats to Team USA. It's better for the rivalry if we lose every once in a while just to keep things interesting.

 

[Rosie]

Thanks, Flash. 8)

Beef, I will agree with you that the no-check rule is a bad thing. That's something a majority of women players have complained about for years and years.