Russia

First off, why am I saying Holiday Tree and not Christmas tree. Simple, I’m Jewish and from Ukraine. In Russia, the Christmas tree was banned shortly after the October Revolution but then reinstated as a New-year fir-treein 1935. It became a fully secular icon of the New year holiday, e.g. the crowning star was regarded not as a symbol of Bethlehem Star, but as the Red Star. Decorations, such as figurines of airplanes, bicycles, space rockets, cosmonauts, and characters of Russian fairy tales, were produced. This tradition persists after the fall of the USSR, with the New Year holiday outweighing [...]

As of this writing, half of the teams have played 2 games. And right now, there are two pervading themes to this tournament: the favorites have not pulled away from the pack, and goaltending rules.  Case in point: Canada needed a shootout to beat Switzerland, and Russia lost in a shootout to Slovakia.  Meanwhile, the US has taken advantage of Canada’s stumble and sits atop their group. I haven’t been able to watch every game, so here’s a quick review of what I have seen: Jonas Hiller is incredible. I don’t see many Ducks games, so the Giguere trade shocked [...]