the mad sports man

last game of night in the books as Russia shuts out Slovakia 2-0 and finishes third and Slovakia 4th. the quarter finals are set for Monday and has: 1. Russia vs Denmark at 11am, 2. Slovakia vs Sweden at 1:30pm, 3. Switzerland vs U.S. at 3:30p, and Canada vs Czech Republic at 6pm. game one of the relegation series between Finland and Latvia is Monday also at 9am. all times Edmonton time.

Finland wins their final round robin game 2-0 over Switzerland, outshooting them 51-17. Swiss goalie was outstanding. Finland wins a day after firing their coaching staff and replacing them with new one. Finland will still face Latvia in the relegation round, while Switzerland finishes 4th in the group and will face the United States on Monday in one Quarterfinal game, and Canada will play the Czech Republic in another Quarter final game. the Russia vs Slovakia game will decide the other two Quarterfinal games. stay tuned.

the U.S. just beat Canada 3-1 in their final game of the round robin. the U.S. will finish first and Canada second. U.S. was the better team today. earlier Sweden beat the Czech Republic 5-2. Sweden has first in their group and has won a remarkable 40 straight round robin games. the Czech Republic can do no worse than 4th and no better than third, which depends on the result between Switzerland and Finland. Russia vs Slovakia will decide third and fourth in Canada's group. that will set the quarter final matchups for Monday

on this night in 1981, Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal in his 39th game breaking the 50 goals in 50 games record. he scored 5 goals on this night against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 7-5 win in Edmonton, the 5th goal of the night was his 50th and it was an empty net goal with 3 seconds to go in the game. he ended up with 92 goals on the season.

Slovakia is into the quarter finals after beating Latvia 4-2 forcing Latvia to play in the relegation round. tomorrow's schedule has Canada vs the U.S. for first and second and Slovakia vs Russia for third and fourth in group B. Latvia will finish 5th with no points and will be playing Finland in the best of three relegation round. winner stays in top division for next years tournament and the loser will be relegated into division 1A.

this was a heck of a game. Switzerland was down 4-1, came back to tie it at four in the third period, gets the game into a shootout and wins it. got the only goal in the shootout. Switzerland wins 5-4 and is now in the quarter finals AND puts Finland into the relegation round. group A has Sweden with 9 pts, Denmark with 6, Czech Republic with 5, Switzerland with 4 and Finland with zero. tomorrow's group A sked has Czech Rep vs Sweden and Switzerland vs Finland in their half of the final day of round robin. Latvia vs Slovakia is on now. update later.

Taylor Raddych scores four goals as Canada blows out Latvia 10-2. Canada had a sluggish start, even had seven penalties in the first half of the game. they end up outshooting Latvia 35-25. Raddych tied a Canadian record, joining Brayden Schenn (2011) Simon Gagne (1999) and Mario Lemieux (1983) for scoring four goals in the game. also the last time Canada scored 10 goals in a game was five years ago tonight against Denmark. meanwhile earlier the U.S. beat Russia 3-2. the U.S. and Canada have 9 pts each. they face each other on New Years eve for top spot. Russia is third with 3pts. Slovakia and Latvia have none and play each other tomorrow. in group A Sweden beat Finland 3-1 and will finish first in group B with one game left. they have 9 pts. they also have one 36 straight round robin games (i think it's that many). Denmark andCzech Rep have five points each and will be in the quarter finals as well. Switzerland is 4th with 2 and defending champs Finland has zero and is

day three is done. the U.S. just beat Slovakia 5-2 wile Sweden beat Switzerland 4-2. it was a no doubter for the U.S. tonight. them and Canada are tied for first in Group B with 6 pts each (U.S. has the goals differential and more goals tiebreaks). Russia is third with three points, Slovakia and Latvia each have none. in Group A, Sweden leads with 6pts, Czech Republic with 4, Denmark with three, Switzerland with two and Finland with none. tomorow's games has Czech Republic vs Denmark, Sweden vs Finland, USA vs Russia and Canada vs Latvia to round out tomorrow. until then, later.

it was scoreless after one, but Canada opened up in the second as they kept firing shots and finally scoring 4 in the second and one in the third as they beat Slovakia 5-0. shots were 44-6 for Canada. Canada's next game is Thursday against Latvia at 6pm Edmonton time. earlier, Switzerland beat the Czech Republic 4-3 in OT and Denmark beat Finland 3-2 in Group A. Czech Rep leads Group A with 4 pts, Sweden and Denmark with three (Sweden has one less game played), Swizterland with 2 and Finland with 0. in the other Group B game, Russia blew out Latvia 9-1. Canada has 6pts to lead Group B, the U.S. with three along with Russia (U.S. has one less game), and Slovakia and Latvia has 0. tomorrow has Sweden vs Switzerland at 3pm Edmonton time and the U.S vs Slovakia at 6pm Edmonton time.

Canada opens up their tournament with a 5-3 win over Russian. three power play goals and two goals from Dylan Strome (one on the PP) helped the cause. Canada plays Slovakia tomorrow. meanwhile earlier the U.S. beat Latvia 6-1 and Czech Rep beat Finland 2-1. Sweden and Czech Rep each have 3 pts in group A and Canada and the U.S. have three pts in group B. until tomorrow, later.

the day Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees in a secret meeting between the Yankees and Red Sox. the infamous deal in which the Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees in which Ruth had a good 1919 season. he had 29 HR's 113 RBI's and threw 9 complete games (yes he pitched as well as played the outfield when not pitching). had a 2.97 ERA and a save in 17 pitching appearaces. the official announcement happened in early 1920. since that deal the Yankees became a dominant team winning 27 World Series, with Ruth helping win the first four. Ruth also has 54 homers in his first season in New York and led in homers in 9 of 12 seasons. the Red Sox, since that deal would not win a world series (losing in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986) until 2004 with a flurry of key David Ortiz homers, a key David Roberts steal in game 4 of the ALCS, and Curt Schilling's bloody sock helped bring a World Series to Boston after 86 years. here is a copy of the deal that brought Georg

Boxing Day means opening day of the World Junior Hockey Tournament. with co-hosts Toronto and Montreal hosting this time. in the Opening game Sweden beat Denmark 6-1. coming up has the U.S vs Latvia starting in a few minutes, then Finland vs Czech Republic and Canada vs Russia to round out Day 1. stay tuned here or at tsn.ca for updates.

merry Christmas to all. i hope you all had a great day, lots of food, lots of presents and time with loved ones and close friends. was a good one here. Turkey and all the fixings, snow on the ground. -20c here and clear. the sun is setting beautifully. perfect. cheers eh.

at 3:44 am Edmonton time, winter officially began. it's only +1. shortest day of the year in terms of daylight hours at 7h 27m. daylight hours start getting longer after today. was a nice day today, but will cool off for the Christmas weekend. white Christmas time

today in 1917, the first games of the newly formed National Hockey League were played (formed on Nov. 26). the Montreal Canadiens won their opening game over the Ottawa Senators (not to be confused with the current team) 7-4. meanwhile the Montreal Wanderers beat the Toronto Arenas (became the Maple Leafs in 1927) 10-9. it provided to be the Wanderers only bright spot. they lost their next three games, then their arena burned down on January 2, 1918. both the Wanderers and Canadiens used the Westmount Arena, but the Canadiens moved to the Jubilee Arena (housing 3250 fans) while the Wanderers folded. here are the replica scoresheets from these games.

it's 8 days to Christmas day, 4 days to the winter solstice, 15 days to 2017 and 9 days to the world juniors. world juniors is back in Montreal and Toronto (they also co-hosted two years ago) Canada opens on Boxing Day against Russia. winter solstice is on the 21st. shortest day of the year in terms of daylight hours. good. i am longing for more daylight hours (the cold also has me down lots). Christmas Day will be good. hopefully everyone will be safe with relatives. then New Years. 2017 better be better. at least i hope. just some randomness.

Adam Klein ended up winning the million bucks getting all 10 jury votes. i knew he had it after the third one. it was quite a season this season. loads of blindsides at tribal councils, hidden immunities played (even a fake one), advantages used - one of which included a legacy advantage to which it had to be used on day 36 by someone who had it in possesion. if they were voted out they had to give it to someone else. Jessica had it and was eliminated by drawing of rocks. she gave it to Ken. also there was a cyclone that hit Fiji that caused the first evacuation of the castaways. season 34 will begin March 8th with Survivor: Game Changers involving some of the previous castaways. gonna be good.

two more weeks to Christmas day. good grief. perfect chilly weather for it as well. it's -21 now. don't know what it will be like for the 25th. there is barely enough snow covering the ground now. my Christmas shopping is pretty much done. the world juniors start boxing day, so that will be fun as well. in the meantime, the slow count down continues/

as predicted, it got chilly quick. started happening yesterday, and it brought some snow. the snow stopped overnight. the teperature sits at -18c at the moment, but the wind really makes it feel colder (-26c now with the wind chill. the wind is supposed to die down. -17 to -23 for highs for the next week and lows as cold as -29. EEEP!! typical Canadian weather. hmmmmm trip to Mexico maybe?

December is here already. can't believe 2016 is nearly done. already have my Christmas decorations up. there is a bit of snow on the ground and it's a little chilly. will be pretty damn cold come Monday. -17c that day. and should be cold for the week. it was inevitable. won't be too surprised if and when (more when than if). Edmonton gets a good dump of snow. in the meantime i am listening to some Dave and Morley stories from Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe. some great funny stories. Sundays at Noon Edmonton time on CBC Radio or on www.cbc.ca/radio to tune in on the internet.