Not so-Super series

I don't know whose idea it was to mark the 35th anniversary of the legendary 72' hockey series by pitting our juniors against Russia's juniors. I don't care to know, and I would be willing to forgive this error in PR judgement...if it wasn't for the fact that we currently have one of the best generations of hockey juniors, ever, while the Russians are struggling with all kinds of issues in their program.

I have watched a little bit of the series. The hockey was allright but it's a sad reality (and a huge indictement against staging hocky tournaments in the summer) that I would be almost immediately changing the channel and looking for US Open tennis, picking up that good book, or actually doing something myself. I simply wasn't sold on the Not-so Super Series.

Think of the original 72' classic as the equivalent of the original Pink Panther movie. Now, advance to the 21st century and find a lame remake (even if Roberto Begnini was actually quite funny in the remake...) of that police comedy classic. Imitated but not even close to duplicated. This hockey tournament falls in the same category.

When you sweep your opponents, despite your guys being jet-lagged half the time - the Russian games were played in crazy places like Omsk in Siberia - it is not "super". Canada should have faced Sweden, Czech Republic or Finland. They would have given us a better run for our money than the current crop of up-and coming Russians.

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