• First time hosts

    From IIHF News@1:266/404 to All on Tue May 8 15:30:35 2018
    This is an especially great year for international hockey because Denmark is hosting the World Championship for the first time. And, any time you can get new blood into the WM circuit, good things happen.

    Just not always for the hosts.

    Let's start at the beginning. The 1930 Worlds were held in Chamonix, Vienna, and Berlin, so 1931 was the first time a city hosted the event on its own. That
    city was Krynica, Poland, and the hosts finished fourth.

    Prague hosted the 1933 Worlds, and the Czechoslovaks came through with a 2-0 win over Austria to win bronze.

    Italy has hosted the World Championship only twice, the first time in 1934 when
    the nation finished a distant tenth. But in 1935 and 1937, the hosts won silver
    medals, first Switzerland (in Davos) and then Great Britain (in London).

    The Swedes made their debut as hosts in 1949 when Stockholm welcomed ten nations, but Tre Kronor finished fourth. Paris was co-host last year, but the first time the Worlds came to the City of

    Lights was back in 1951. Canada won gold during a rare situation when the hosts
    didn't compete.

    The tournament went to Germany in 1955, an emotional gold medal win for Canada after losing to the Soviets the year before in their first ever IIHF tournament. The West Germans finished sixth in

    '55, and two years later the event went to Moscow. That year, Canada didn't compete, but it was Sweden that pulled off a dramatic victory for gold, leaving
    CCCP in second place. Another hosting silver.

    Norway hosted in 1958, but it won only one game of seven and finished seventh. The only time the United States hosted came in 1962, and again it was Sweden that provided the drama, beating all comers to win gold. The Americans finished third.

    It wasn't until 1965 that Finland hosted the World Championship, Tampere doing the honours. But the fledgling hockey program in Suomi could take the nation no
    further than seventh of eight teams.

    Yugoslavia welcomed the world in 1966, but as in 1951 the hosts didn't participate and played in the B-Pool at the same time. Although Vienna was a co-host in 1930, it didn't host the event on its own until 1967, but again it did so out of competition.

    And then there was a gap of 40 years when the aforementioned countries hosted the WM, often several times. In 2006, Latvia hosted for the first time as an independent nation, finishing a disappointing tenth.

    Two years later, to honour the IIHF's 100th anniversary, the Worlds came to Canada for the first and still only time, Quebec City and Halifax co-hosting a special tournament?. The hosts came close, but Russia beat them in overtime for gold, leaving Canada with silver. And in 2011, the independent Slovakia hosted for the first time (as it will again next year), also finishing 10th.

    Slovakia hosted first time as an independent country in 2011 (Bratislava was co-host with Prague earlier during the Czechoslovak era) but didn't have its best tournament. The team missed the

    quarter-finals and was 10th one year before winning silver.

    In 2014, it was Belarus's turn to make history, and it finished seventh after a
    thrilling 3-2 loss to Sweden in the quarter-finals while neighbouring country Russia took gold. And so now it falls

    to Copenhagen and Herning to make history in Denmark. No country has won gold in its first hosting, but a medal has historically been a possibility.

    For now, the Danes will be happy to see fans from around the hockey world jam the two venues, watch great hockey, and hope for the best.

    ANDREW PODNIEKS

    http://https://www.new-iihf.com/en/events/2018/wm/news/2273/first-time-hosts --- SBBSecho 3.04-Win32
    * Origin: TequilaMockingbird Online - Toms River, NJ (1:266/404)