Okay, full confession before we get on with this post. I bailed on the Finland - USA game after the second period. In my world, there never was hope, and there never was a heartbreak. See how that works?

In the first semifinal yesterday, Canada, Canada-ed Russia to a tune of 5-0. It was one of those goalie shits the bed while his team is also bad, the other team is excellent and the internet blames the goalie deals. I had traumatic flashbacks.

Mikhail Abramov was really good, got a goal on the power play that was called back for a dumb offside challenge. Rodion Amirov was as good as most Russians managed, Askarov was very bad, and no, Artur Akhtyamov shouldn’t have been put in. He’s played three KHL games this year against carefully chosen weak candidates and was not up to that task.

Finland fell to the USA 4-3, and it was painful. Or so I hear.

First Kasper Simontaival scored in the third period to make it 3-2 USA and then Roni Hirvonen did this:

But then the USA did this:

Interesting choice there. My take after two periods was that Kokkonen had played his best game of the tournament, particularly defensively. Not sure I’d have had him on that list. Heinola was great, though. It will be weird when he turns back into a Jet and we hate him.

Of speaking of. I was supposed to title this post Calgary Flames Day at PPP. Today we hate on the Flames all day long, so get ready for that.

Things we wrote

Nick Robertson, the CHL Transfer Agreement and You - Pension Plan Puppets
It’s not the CBA this time, I swear.

Why We Hate The Vancouver Canucks - Pension Plan Puppets
Hey there, B.C.

Know your Enemy, Maple Leafs: The Vancouver Canucks - Pension Plan Puppets
The Leafs play the Canucks nine times this year, and we’re going to know them whether we want to or not.

Today’s Games at the WJC

Finland vs Russia for bronze at 5:30 pm (for real, not just how TSN lists the time)

Canada vs USA (go Canada, go, I suppose) at 9:30 pm (not whatever padded time TSN does list)

And that’s it. When the medals are handed out in the middle of the night eastern time, we’re done for another year and things go back to abnormal.

Twitter Things

There are three AHL teams that opted out of playing:

Maple Leafs

And that’s Tuesday’s FTB, hope it was everything you ever wanted. Now, try to hate the Flames today!

From The Branches