It’s almost Christmas, and that means one of the biggest Christmas traditions in Canada is just days away. Of course I’m talking about the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships, which will be in Buffalo this year. Once again TSN and TSN2 will provide live, HD coverage of all of Canada’s games, as well as the playoff round and select other round robin games. The official tournament doesn’t start until Boxing Day, but Canada has pre-tournament warm-up games all of next week. James Duthie will host coverage live from Buffalo alongside analyst/insider Bob McKenzie. Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire will call coverage of all of Canada’s games, plus all the playoff round; Ryan Rishaug will report rinkside for these games. Dave Randorf and Mike Johnson will call the games that don’t involve Canada during the round robin. John Lu and Katherine Dolan will also be in Buffalo to file reports for SportsCentre and That’s Hockey.
What excites me the most is that TSN will introduce their new graphics package for this tournament. There will also be a new system that Pierre McGuire will use to breakdown plays. TSN’s current graphics are great, in fact they are probably my favourite of any US or Canadian network for sports, but they have used the same package for a while now, so it will be interesting to see what the re-vamp looks like.
A special tournament preview show will air on Christmas Day at 7pm ET on TSN and will be repeated throughout the next day on TSN and TSN2. It will include a Gord Miller interview with Canadian head coach Dave Cameron. There will also be a half hour pregame show before every Canada game and the final.
Now here is the complete 2011 World Junior Hockey Championships on TSN & TSN2 schedule:
Pre-competition
Monday 12/20, 7:00pm – Canada vs. Switzlerand – TSN2
Tuesday 12/21, 7:30pm – Canada vs. Sweden – TSN
Thursday 12/23, 7:30pm – Canada vs. Finland – TSN2
Tournament
Sunday 12/26, 4:00pm – Russia vs. Canada – TSN
Sunday 12/26, 8:00pm – Finland vs. United States – TSN2
Tuesday 12/28, 4:00pm – Canada vs. Czech Republic – TSN
Tuesday 12/28, 7:00pm – Sweden vs. Russia – TSN
Wednesday 12/29, 7:30pm – Canada vs. Norway – TSN
Thursday 12/30, 3:00pm – Sweden vs. Czech Republic – TSN
Thursday 12/30, 7:00pm – Germany vs. United States – TSN
Friday 12/31, 4:00pm – Canada vs. Sweden – TSN
Friday 12/31, 8:00pm – United States vs. Switzerland – TSN2
Sunday 1/2, 3:30pm – Quarter Final #1 – TSN
Sunday 1/2, 7:30pm – Quarter Final #2 – TSN
Monday 1/3, 3:30pm – Semi Final #1 – TSN
Monday 1/3, 7:30pm – Semi Final #2 – TSN
Wednesday 1/5, 3:30pm – 3rd Place Game – TSN
Wednesday 1/5, 7:30pm – Championship Game – TSN
Also, for those wondering, yes a World Juniors quarter final will bump week #17 Sunday Night Football to TSN2. The reason for this is because a world junior semi final on TSN2 between the US and Switzerland beat Sunday Night Football on TSN head to head last year.
Spengler Cup
The Spengler Cup is also coming to TSN this year. This annual Christymastime tournament from Davos, Switzerland is one of the most prestigious hockey tournaments in the World. TSN takes over coverage from Sportsnet; however, coverage won’t be that much different as Paul Romanuk and Doug Honneger are back to call the action again this year from Davos. Vic Rauter will host TSN’s coverage from Toronto.
The teams competing in this year’s tournament are the Canadian National team (who will be coached by Mark Messier), the host HC Davos and Geneva-Servette HC of the Swiss National League, HC Spartak Moscow and SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, and HC Sparta Prague of the Czech Extraliga.
Here is the 2010 Spengler Cup on TSN & TSN2 Schedule:
Monday 12/27, 2:00pm – Canada vs. TBA – TSN
Tuesday 12/28, 5:00pm – Canada vs. TBA – TSN2 (tape delay)
Wednesday 12/29, 8:55am – Quarter Final #1 – TSN2
Wednesday 12/29, 2:00pm – Quarter Final #2 – TSN2
Thursday 12/30, 8:55am – Semi Final #1 – TSN2
Thursday 12/30, 2:00pm – Semi Final #2 – TSN2
Friday 12/31, 5:55am – Championship Game – TSN
A Rouge Point 