Jack and USA done, Bernier ready for Ovechkin tomorrow

Johnson and Jagr at IIHF quarterfinals
Photo by Matthew Manor / HHOF-IIHF

Out of the sixteen countries to play in the main pool at last year's IIHF World Championships the United States finished 13th - ahead of only France, Italy and Kazakhstan.

They'll finish five slots higher this year, but there isn't much to celebrate. After advancing to the elite-8, they were bounced in their first game by the defending champions from the Czech Republic.

In today's opening game of the quarterfinals Team USA lost 4-0. Al Montoya (New York Islanders) was announced as injured, so Ty Conklin (St. Louis Blues) was given the start in goal. Jack Johnson played over 20 minutes again, but the offense just couldn't get anything going.

The Kings defenseman also laid out Patrik Elias (New Jersey Devils) behind the net in the third period. Probably should have been a penalty, but there was no call.

Johnson finished the tournament with 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in seven games, picked up eight penalty minutes and was a minus-4. He also led all U.S. defenseman with 20 shots on goal.

Jaromir Jagr looked every bit the part of a player ready to return to the NHL, posting three goals on his first four shots in today's game. He's now tied for the lead on his team with five goals and eight points (matching the totals of Montreal's Tomas Plekanec).

The Czech's beat Russia for the gold last May and this year's brackets have things lining up for a possible rematch.  Russia has also played in the finals for three straight years, having won the gold medal in 2008 and 2009.

Germany and Sweden will play later today. The winner of that game will play the Czech Republic in one of Friday's semi-final games.

On the other side, the winner of tomorrow's two games - Canada/Russia and Finland/Norway - will meet up in the other semi-final game.

Both the gold and bronze medal games will be played on Sunday, airing live on VERSUS in the U.S.

But, back to that Canada-Russia game. Coach Ken Hitchcock has already announced he's sticking with Jonathan Bernier in goal, who is 2-0 in the tournament. One of the many story lines to watch in that game is if Bernier and the Canadian defense can shut down Alexander Ovechkin. In two games played, he's yet to register a point.



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Forget Quick... It's the return of Bernier vs Ersberg!

You read that right.

It's just not for a spot on the Kings. Instead, they'll square off at the IIHF World Championships in Slovakia.

With Canada looking to lock down the top spot in their pool on Monday, coach Ken Hitchcock has announced he'll start Jonathan Bernier in goal for their final game of the qualification round.

Bernier picked up a 3-2 win yesterday vs. Norway, stopping 25 of 27 shots. It was his first game played in the tournament.

At the other end of the ice for his second game will be Erik Ersberg of Team Sweden. The former Kings goalie was in net when the Swedes lost their opening game of the tournament to Norway, 5-4 (via a shootout).

Sweden hasn't lost a game since and Ersberg hasn't seen any game action since. However, having already won their pool play, he's being given another shot before the quarterfinals start mid-week.

In other news...

* Slovenia lost in the relegation round to Belarus by a final score of 7-1. They've now been dropped out of the main pool for 2012. Just like Kings fans wonder how the team would have done vs. San Jose had Anze Kopitar been in the line-up, hockey fans in his home country now wonder the same thing about the national team. (read more about Gasper Kopitar's dreams for Slovenia here)

* Even though the U.S. had Sunday off, they still qualified for the quarterfinals due to Switzerland's loss to Sweden. Team USA plays their final 'qualification round' game tomorrow vs. the Swiss - that game airs live on VERSUS at 7am PST. Jack Johnson continues to lead the team in ice time in most games...and is an even-player through five games (he was minus-21 for the Kings this season). He also leads the team with 18 shots on goal..

* Alexander Ovechkin made it to Europe in time for the game, but Russia lost to the Czech Republic 3-2 on Sunday. Jaromir Jagr had the second goal of the game for his country. Ovi was held pointless.

* Michal Handzus and Team Slovakia haven't played well at all. Let's just leave it at that. They'll play Denmark Monday.  It will likely be the final game of Pavol Demitra's international career.

Quarterfinal match-ups will be announced tomorrow night and played Wednesday/Thursday. Regardless of the outcome of Monday's games, seven of the eight slots have already been secured by Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Sweden and the USA. Norway is the most likely eighth team. However, Switzerland has a slim chance at it.

[Monday morning update: Norway beat France earlier today to secure the 8th seed.  Switzerland will not advance to the quarterfinals, regardless of the outcome vs. Team USA.]



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Bernier and Canada nearly give it all away vs. Norway

Photo by Jukka Rautio/HHOF-IIHF

If results are the only thing that matters, Team Canada is doing just fine.

However, coach Ken Hitchcock has to at least be a little concerned with the overall play of his team right now at the IIHF World Championship.

Yesterday they trailed 2-1 after two periods to the U.S. Sure, they came back and won 4-3. Yet, that was in a shootout. And Ty Conklin was in goal for the U.S.

Should that really have been a problem for an offense being led by Rick Nash, James Neal, Jason Spezza, Jordan Eberle, Matt Duchene, John Tavares, Jeff Skinner, etc.?

Maybe the group says 'Hey, we put 50+ shots on goal. What more do you want from us?'

Could be.  Moving on...

After riding goalie James Reimer (Toronto Maple Leafs) for the first four games in the tournament, Hitchcock went to Kings' goalie Jonathan Bernier today versus Norway.

Things looked good when Canada was up 3-0 with 10 minutes left to play in the third. Then, Bernier gave up two (somewhat) soft goals in a less-than-two-minute span and we had a game.

When the clock got down to 90 seconds left Norway pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. However, they couldn't put another one past Bernier - so Canada won and secured their spot in the quarterfinals.

Bernier finished with 25 of 27 saves and he may not be done in the tournament. Prior to the game Hitchcock said he was giving Bernier a chance because he was told Bernier would be good on the big ice surface. Then, after the win, he was noncommittal about his starter for Canada's next game on Monday vs. Sweden - saying he'll sleep on it.

He also said "I was impressed with Bernier. I was impressed with the composure."

Finally, a few other notes...

After yesterday's game vs. Canada, Jack Johnson wasn't looking at things any differently just because of who they were playing - saying "A loss is a loss no matter who you lose to." He played a team-high 28 minutes and scored on a breakaway (coming out of the penalty box) in the second period that put Team USA up 2-1 lead. He was also the first shooter in the shootout, but missed.

Team USA is playing France this morning, in a game that will air on tape delay later tonight on VERSUS.

In case you haven't heard, Alexander Ovechkin is now in Slovakia for the tournament. He is practicing today with Team Russia and will play his first game tomorrow vs. the Czech Republic.

That should be interesting. One of my lasting memories from last year's Olympics in Vancouver was Ovi laying out Jaromir Jagr at center ice during a game between the two countries.



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USA vs. Canada - Here We Go Again

USA versus Canada.

It's become one of hockey's greatest rivalries.

And while it won't have the same meaning of last year's Winter Olympics, the two countries will square off once again today in the Qualification Round at the IIHF World Championships.

Jack Johnson is part of the defensive group for the U.S., who went 2-1 in the preliminary round, beating Austria and Norway - and losing to Sweden. In those three games, he had two assists and tied for second-best on the team with 11 shots on goal.

Meanwhile, Canada went 2-0-1, with wins over Belarus and France. They needed overtime to beat Switzerland in their last contest. Kings goalie' Jonathan Bernier is on the Canadian roster. However, he has yet to see any game action.

After today's game, Canada will finish out the Qualification Round with games against Norway tomorrow and Sweden on Monday. Team USA will play France tomorrow and Switzerland on Monday.

In other news from the tournament, Slovakia - featuring the Kings Michal Handzus - also advanced to the Qualification Round and their next game will be against Jaromir Jagr and the Czech Republic.

For a look back at some USA-Canada hockey news, check out these articles:

WJC 2011: Team Canada Report with Drew Doughty

WJC 2011: Team USA Report with Jack Johnson

WJC Memories with Captain Canada Ryan Smyth

Jeremy Roenick previews Canada-USA

Looking Back with Jonathan Bernier



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Kings forward Michal Handzus to join Team Slovakia

Fresh on the heels of announcements that Team Canada will include goaltender Jonathan Bernier and Team USA will feature Jack Johnson on defense, now comes word that Kings forward Michal Handzus will play for Slovakia, the host country for this year's IIHF World Championships.

Although the tournament is set to begin today, reports from Europe say Handzus and Blackhawks' forward Marian Hossa are on their way right now to join former King Pavol Demitra (who had a strong Olympic tournament last February in Vancouver) and current Rangers winger Marian Gaborik.

The team also features Jaroslav Halak of the St. Louis Blues in goal.

Handzus is an unrestricted free agent, having just completed a four-year contract with the Kings. Earlier this week, coach Terry Murray said he'd like to have him back (full interview here).



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Bernier to play for Team Canada, no word on Doughty

Team Canada added four more players to their roster for for the World Championships, including goaltender Jonathan Bernier.

The tournament begins today in Slovakia.

He'll join fellow goalies Devan Dubnyk of the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto's James Reimer (who was already named the starter for game one). None of the trio have been promised the number one role and all are expected to at least see some playing time.

No word yet on defenseman Drew Doughty. However, given that he wasn't part of today's announcement, it's looking like he won't be joining the team. Hockey Canada has stated they don't intend to invite any other players unless there is an injury.

If Bernier does play, it will be his first live action since coming on in relief of Jonathan Quick in a game versus San Jose back on April 4.  For the season, he was 11-8-3 (including three shutouts) with a 2.48 goals-against-average for the Kings.

Of course, Bernier has previous experience playing for Team Canada at the World Junior level (under-20) - something he briefly talked about during his 'looking back' interview here.



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RELATED ARTICLES:

Evaluating the Kings' rookies with Jonathan Bernier

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Clearing the Crease... with Jonathan Bernier

Coach Murray on Jonathan - Bernier vs. Quick

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Ryan Smyth on the almost-King, Ray Whitney

For the first time in...well, a really long time...the Kings were buyers at the NHL Trading Deadline last season - instead of the sellers the team had become the last five plus years.

Rather than trading away players for future assets, they acquired two rentals for a playoff push, Freddy Modin and Jeff Halpern. Neither were bad players, just not the player they coveted most. Ray Whitney, playing in Carolina at the time, was a key guy targeted by GM Dean Lombardi.

Fans in Los Angeles know him well, as he's spent much of his career in the Western Conference - having played in San Jose, Edmonton, Columbus and Detroit.

Tonight, the Kings will see Whitney's familiar face in Phoenix - where he signed a two year free-agent contract during the off-season. 

However, a few months before becoming a Coyote, there were many rumors floating around that a deal for Whitney was real close.

How close? Well, Kings forward Ryan Smyth played with him this summer on Team Canada's squad at the World Championships in Germany. Let's see what he heard...

MM: When you were with Whitney over in Europe, did the trade deadline rumors come up at all?

10 Tidbits for a Tuesday

There isn't a lot of hockey news right now in Los Angeles...however, from various points around the globe there are several stories brewing with connections to the Kings:

* Ryan Smyth was injured at the Hockey World Championships taking place over in Germany.  He was thought to have rolled his ankle at practice on Sunday.  Then, an MRI reveled the situation was much worse - a fractured left ankle.  He's headed back to LA tomorrow and is expected to be fully healed before camp opens in September.  TSN has the full story here.

* Team USA - captained by the Kings Jack Johnson - is in deep trouble in the same tournament.  They lost in front of 77,000 fans in the opening game on Friday.  They followed that up with a second overtime loss yesterday, this time to Denmark (by the same score of 2-1).  On the loss to Denmark - a team that didn't even qualify to play in the recent Olympics - Johnson summed it up best "It's inexcusable.”  The American squad will now face Finland on Wednesday.  With a win they can avoid being pushed into the regulation round.  Not exactly the fate you would have forecasted for the team prior to the tournament.

Kings + Michigan + IIHF + USA...and the Spirit of 76(k)

In just a few hours...in a time-zone far, far away...Captain Jack (Johnson) and his Kings teammate, Matt Greene, will lead Team USA onto the ice at the 2010 Hockey World Championships.

Surrounding them will be slightly over 76,000 fans...enough to set a new world record for hockey attendance.  And enough people to make a hell of a lot of noise.

In fact, yesterday on NHL radio an executive from USA Hockey (Jim Johannson) said that he expects most of the crowd to be standing and singing much of the game...if not the whole game.  According to Johannson, it's just par for the course when you pack a football stadium (that's soccer stadium to you Yank') full of hockey fans and get them all liquored up.  That's how they roll, Euro style.

Captain Jack and Greener aren't the only players with a connection to both the Kings and the attendance record.  Former Kings forward Mike Cammalleri was at the University of Michigan back in 2001 when the Wolverines faced off against Michigan State in the Cold War game...played outdoors at the Spartan's football stadium, filled with 74,000 students, fans and alumni.  That fun filled event set the current record, which will be broken later this afternoon.

Although the 76,000 and change that will witness today's tournament opening game between Germany and the U.S. will just barely beat the current hockey attendance record set by Michigan-MSU, it's going to obliterate the record for the World Championships.  It was way back in 1957 when 55,000 fans filled (then) Lenin Stadium in Moscow to watch the Soviets and Swedes battle it out for gold at the final game of the Worlds.  After today, that achievement will be no more.

Captain Jack steers Team USA onto TV

Captain Jack Sparrow once said 'The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can’t do.'

And according to Team USA...well, Jack Johnson CAN indeed play hockey - pretty well, in fact.  Earlier today he was named Captain of the USA squad getting ready to play in the Hockey World Championships over in Germany.

More on that in a minute though.  The other big news is...and hockey fans probably haven't uttered these words since the dispute with Versus was resolved about six weeks ago...DAMN YOU DIRECTV!  It looks like NBC's Universal Sports will be televising the Championships.  However, if you have DirecTV, you won't be seeing anything - they don't carry the channel.  Cable subscribers can click here for more info.

Now back to Captain Jack (Johnson, that is)...