NHLPA Rejects Realignment / Sweden Wins The WJC / USA Avoids Relegation

A ton has been happening over the past few days from the Crazy Gold Medal game in the World Juniors to the Rejection of the Realignment plan.



NHL.com

To start I want to give huge props and congratulations to Sweden, for the impressive victory over Russia. In a game that was 40 minutes of domination for team Sweden, Russia somehow stayed in the game thanks to some unbelievable goaltending from Andrei Makarov. In this game alone he would face 58 shots only in overtime giving up the only goal. Not his fault though, off a defensive turnover Sweden forward Mika Zibanejad capitalized on a breakaway in overtime to give Sweden their first Gold Medal at the World Juniors since 1981. Sweden was easily the better team the entire game, but Russia didn't make it easy in the 3rd period. Next year the World Juniors will head to Russia and I'm sure they will be looking to regain their gold.

As for the Bronze Medal, Canada ended up defeating Finland 4-0. Canada ended up losing to Russia a couple nights before 6-5 in a game where Canada was down 6-1.

Gold: Sweden
Silver: Russia
Bronze: Canada

Team USA also avoided relegation with a blowout victory over Latvia and a win over Switzerland.


Now for the big news... the NHLPA has REJECTED the plan for league realignment.

NHL.com
TSN Canada

I talked about the NHL Realignment a few months back and you can view that post here... NHL Realignment

The NHLPA has yet to release a statement on why they declined. However, at this time the schedule for next season will see the same teams in the same divisions, which is really bad for the Winnipeg Jets. This season they have played in the Eastern Conference in the Atlantic division, where the Atlanta Thrashers were. They have a ridiculous schedule already with a ton of travel involved. The only good I really see from the decline is the fact the playoffs will stay the same, because you know those top 8 teams deserve and earned their way into the playoffs. I'll post more on this when the NHLPA explains why. This has be a bit worried though with the Collective Bargaining agreement coming up.