THN at the World Championship: Canada still team to beat.

QUEBEC CITY – Canada may have lost the gold medal at the World Championship Sunday, but it wasn’t a total loss. By finishing second in the tournament, Canada earned enough points in the world rankings to be the No. 1 ranked country in the world, which means it will be the No. 1 seed for the Olympics in 2010 and will have the lowest-ranked opponents of any team in the round-robin portion of the tournament. With their gold medal win, the Russians are tied with Sweden for the No. 2 ranking. Finland is fourth, Czech Republic fifth, USA sixth, Switzerland seventh and Slovakia eighth. KOVIE NOT A NO-GOVIE The Canadian team could have attempted to keep Ilya Kovalchuk out of the gold medal game if it, or anyone else in the tournament, demanded a supplementary discipline hearing. But nobody did and Kovalchuk ended up receiving the... [read full story]