Get Your Spengler On

This is really all the reason I'd need to travel to Switzerland.

Today in Davos, the Spengler Cup opens in what might be the most high profile level of hockey you'll see this side of the World Championships. Team Canada starts the round robin portion against DEL power Adler Mannheim at about right now (but you have time to read this... trust me). Team Canada brings along a ton of familiar names this year thanks in part to the lockout. From the Q alone, Jonathan Bernier, former Wildcat Jason Demers, Maxime Noreau, Derrick Walser, Pascal Pelletier, Patrice Bergeron and Marc-Antoine Pouliot make up part of the roster. Along for the ride as well are Matt Duchesne, Jason Spezza, Tyler Seguin and John Tavares. Oh, and Ryan Smyth gets to make his token annual international appearance five months early this year! Bonus! Familiar names on Mannheim from the Q, NHL or both include Dennis Seidenberg, former Lewiston dman Dennis Reul, Yannick Lehoux, Marcel Goc and Jason Pominville. The best of 90's hockey broadcasting meets the best of curling broadcasting as Vic Rauter and Paul Romanuk will bring all the action your way. If anything, just tune in for the jerseys... you may see a product advertised that you never knew you could live without.

By the way, if you aren't watching you should seriously tune into this Spengler Cup game... the crowd is amazing! For a neutral country the Swiss sure can make a hell of a ruckus.

Earlier today, Canada opened the World Juniors with a 9-3 win over Germany. Five things you should know about this game:

- This tournament should have 8 teams instead of 10

- Good work by Team Canada in shaking off what bad habits they started to develop late in the second.

- Malcolm Subban looked alot better in this game than in any pre-tournament outing.

- Jonathan Drouin's leg seems to be just fine, thank you.

- This tournament should have 6 teams

Of course, if this was a 6 team tournament, we may not have the Slovaks to watch... and if you didn't watch them against Russia this morning, you missed an excellent matchup, a 3-2 OT victory for the host team. Slovakia simply played as positionally strong as possible, careful but without giving up too much time and space. Goaltender Adam Nagy was there when called upon. Their work against Nail Yakupov was particularly effective. Only a powerplay goal by Albert Yarullin with 10 seconds remaining in the extra frame allowed the Russians to save face after blowing a 2-0 lead... and in this amateur's humble opinion, if Slovakia's (and Gatineau's) Martin Reway was willing and able to use his teammates more effectively, this game may not have even seen extra time.

Speaking of Slovakia, Canada faces them in their next matchup, Friday at really friggin early in the morning. Wonder if Steve Spott and his crew will be taking a few more notes before that one?