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Junk punch
drunks from Russia
JANUARY 12, 2011 -- BUFFALO -- Time really does change everything. One minute they were the kings of the world. Less than eight hours later they were getting kicked off a Delta flight because they were a bunch of drunk, obnoxious teenagers and coaches. Something amazing happened last week. Russia won the gold medal at the 2011 World Junior Championships (WJC) in Buffalo, NY. The fact they were playing in the championship game was a miracle. The way they won was something straight out of Miracle. I was there all week and never saw it coming. I’m serious. I didn’t think it could happen. No way in hell was Russia going to win the World Juniors. The U.S. was too good. Canada was too good. Russia was average. Then they stepped it up a notch. The only way I can describe it is to say that Russia straight up bitch slapped Canada. This was the ultimate junk punch and I’m proud to say I was there when it happened. In case you missed it, Russia beat Canada 5-3 last week to win the WJC. They won a game by a couple of goals. No big deal, right? Wrong. It was a huge deal. Picture this. The two teams take the ice for the third period. Canada leads 3-0 and the 18,600 mainly Canadian fans are preparing to celebrate a championship. Russia’s Artemi Panarin took a pass from Denis Golubev, 2:33 into the third period, shot the puck and it was 3-1. Thirteen seconds later, Maxim Kitsyn found the back of the net and it was 3-2. Captain Vladimir Tarasenko tied it at three with 12:31 remaining in regulation. At 15:22, Panarin scored the game winner off an assist from Tarasenko and Nikita Dvurechenski added an insurance goal with 1:16 remaining. To say Canada was stunned would be an understatement. Russia failed to score on any of their 17 shots in the first and second period, but were good on five of their 10 third period shots. They didn’t need overtime to win this game, but their celebration went into some serious overtime. At 9:30 PM Wednesday night they were the darlings of the hockey world—a team no one though could seriously win, but did. By 6 AM Thursday morning it was a whole different story. The Russians were scheduled to depart on a Delta flight to Atlanta at 6:10 AM and the flight departed without the hockey team. The flight crew removed them from the plane for being “unruly”. Unruly is a nice term for drunk. The players (all under 20) celebrated with champagne in the locker room after the game and nothing more, according to Russian Media Officer Mikhail Zislis. That’s not the actual story. Video taken by the Canadian press shows players getting drunk in a hotel bar. The team boarded a bus for the airport at 3 AM and driver Curtis Hall told the Buffalo News the players were “definitely intoxicated” and that a couple players had to be carried onto and off of the bus. Players were even coming up and honking the horn as the bus cruised through the streets of Buffalo. Classy. Yeah, it was the biggest comeback in WJC history and I get that these kids were excited and wanted to have a good time. But this is New York, where the drinking age is 21. If you have an under-20 tournament in a place where the drinking age is 21, that means the players can’t drink. Period. Who the hell was the bartender serving these kids? How did the hotel manager not notice 20 underage kids drinking in his bar? Is anyone holding these people accountable for what happened? I doubt it. One would expect the coaches to control the team, but considering the fact that the coaches and trainers were on the ice 90 minutes after the game and that they were drinking Crown Royal from paper cups, I guess we’re supposed to excuse their lack of chaperoning. Nice job, Team Russia. I’m sure you made your country v-e-r-y proud. Imagine what kind of damage they can do next year in Alberta, where the drinking age is 19!
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No-holds-barred takes on the game from JR
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