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The 2017 Asian Games are this week, which features both Men's and Women's ice hockey from many non-traditional hockey markets. It may not be the most prestigious tournament, however it's tough to beat an excuse to crack a beer and watch competitive hockey at 3am. You can stream the Men's and Women's top division games on their site: https://livestreaming.sapporo2017.org/schedule/english.html Some story lines to follow are: - How far have the South Korean men's team improved? They face the best in the world 1 year from now at the Olympics in South Korea, and have spent a lot of money and time on drastically improving their team. It was a big risk in electing to ice a team for next year's Olympics as the host nation, and they could easily be a national embarrassment. They played in a European tournament last fall with good results, and look to keep it going. However the dropped their first game to Kazakhstan last night 4-0. - Will the Japanese women continue their dominance over the rest of Asia? They've had the best program in the women's division, and arguably the best women's goalie in the world on their team. They already beat South Korea in group play, and face China next. Unless those 2 countries can pull off an upset, it looks to be another gold for Japan. Also worth noting they destroyed Hong Kong 46-0 yesterday. - My favorite thing to watch, the Philippines have iced a team in the Men's Division II. This is the first tournament competition they're playing, and they appear to be put together from the men's league that plays in Manila. The games in the lower division aren't streamed, but one of the coaches had the game on Facebook Live. They lost their first game yesterday to Kyrgyzstan 10-5 in a penalty ridden game. It was practically a parade to the penalty box the entire game for them. I think if they settle down for their next 2 group play games against Qatar and Kuwait they'll have a shot at making some noise in the knock out rounds.
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Feb 23, 2017 08:13
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Asian Winter Games update. There was a line brawl in the Philippines vs Kuwait game. The Philippines scored 4 goals in the second period to take the lead, 6-2. Early in the 3rd a hit caused a Kuwait player to lay bloodied on the ice. Once play resumed 3 Kuwaiti players went after the Philippines captain, and then a line brawl broke out. Took forever for the game to resume. After the dust settled there were 4 players ejected (2 from Kuwait, 2 from the Philippines), and 6 people in the box (3 from Kuwait, 3 from the Philippines). Some chippy penalties after that, otherwise it ended uneventful. With this win the Philippines now plays for Bronze on Sunday against Macau. As for the other divisions, Japan faces China in the women's tournament for the gold tomorrow. Japan is the big favorite in this one. The Men’s Top division is still wide open. If Kazakhstan gets at least to OT in their game vs Japan on Sunday, they’ll guarantee themselves gold. However if Japan defeats Kazakhstan they’ll almost guarantee a gold, that is unless South Korea can run the score up against China in their game, and then win the gold on goal differential.
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Feb 24, 2017 17:35
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I do enjoy all the outraged replies to that tweet essentially saying it's a privilege to play a game at all, let alone being compensated. Although like many people point out, if they do get minimum wage they'll probably pay for it in the short term with less benefits elsewhere. However in the long run I see it helping players, similar to how free agency did in the NHL.
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Feb 28, 2017 18:35
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