Well, I think I've finally recovered from "hockey hangover" after attending all 21 games of the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championships.

Overall, the tournament was absolutely spectacular, albeit slightly depressing that Canada only got Bronze this year.  But even that game was tremendous.  The only games that were "yawners" were the big blow-outs e.g. Russia beating Latvia 14-0.  But even then, the Latvian guys were happy and all-smiles because they were just so happy to be at the tourney!  Every one of them high-fived me coming off the ice, even after they got pummelled by the Russians, and on the very last game that they played, when I high-fived the last Latvian player coming off the ice and told him "You guys did a really good job, and played great!", he looked up at me and actually said "Thank you".  That is truly a classy hockey player.

I'm still sorting through all the photos, and editing all the video that I shot.  It'll be posted on FLICKR / Youtube soon I hope.

Well, the 2012 World Juniors Hockey Championships have officially begun!  Latvia, Sweden, Russia, Slovakia, and Switzerland (Group A) have their round-robin games here in Calgary.  Then after New Year's, Group B (Canada, USA, Czech Republic, Finland, and Denmark) joins us in Calgary for the relegation and medal round games.  21 games in 9 days!  Total hockey overdose!

I built a special jersey for the World Juniors....my "World Jersey".   Since January, I scoured the Internet for crests and patches from the various teams that were coming to the tournament.  I was able to find a few crests by themselves, but most had to be carefully lifted from existing jerseys.  Needless to say, this got  expensive...but luckily I had the whole year to spread out the cost.

At the end of the day, the jersey has 13 full-size team crests (Belarus, Slovakia, Norway, Russia, USA, Latvia, Denmark, Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Finland), and 30 other patches (including the old and new IIHF patches), shoulder patches, flags, or crests, for a total of 43 patches!  (and yes, there is a Team Canada patch on the back and the Canada Flag on one arm).

GO WORLD JUNIORS GO!!!

Once all the patches were collected, I picked up a white SP PRO practice jersey (complete with tie-down strap), laid everything out, photographed it, and then shipped it all to Winnipeg it to get sewn.  Special thanks to my buddy Andrew @ River City Sports for getting everything sewn up for me!  Their customizer did a FANTASTIC job.

Back view

Now, with this jersey, I can cheer for EVERYONE!

....but I'm a patriot...when Canada is playing, I WEAR CANADA RED ALL THE WAY!  :)