JAY PEAK, Vt. -- Canada kicks off the womens world hockey championship against defending champion U.S. on Saturday instead of waiting until the end of the tournament to face their archenemy. The International Ice Hockey Federation drastically altered the format of the womens championship this year to reduce embarrassing scores from the tournament. The IIHF intends to carry this format through to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The top four countries -- Canada, the U.S., Finland and Russia -- are in Pool A. The countries seeded fourth through eighth in Pool B are Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia and Germany. The top two teams in Pool A get byes to the semifinal. The bottom two in A meet the top two from Pool B in the quarter-finals, with those winners advancing to the semis. So the bottom two teams in B will play to avoid relegation. They wont play the best teams in the tournament at all. "The format was changed in order to create a stronger competition between the nations attending," said Tanya Foley, the IIHFs director of female hockey. "Having the teams ranked closest together playing in the round-robin pools battling for playoff spots gives every nation a much better ability to qualify for the playoff round but also to develop their program. "Closer competition will create an environment where every game could be decided in the final period and that experience is of great benefit to the growth of a young sport." Previously, the defending champion was in one pool, while the previous years runner-up and bronze medallist were seeded in the other. The significance for Canada under the new format is theyre virtually assured of playing the Americans twice -- in both the preliminary and playoff rounds. The two countries have met in the gold-medal game in all 13 previous world championships and are expected to do so again April 14. Canada may have beaten the U.S. for Olympic gold in 2010, but the Americans have won the last three world titles. Canada faces Finland, last years bronze medallist, on Sunday before concluding the round robin Tuesday against fourth-seeded Russia. "I like playing the U.S. twice," Canadian captain Hayley Wickenheiser said. "I think it showcases the best in womens hockey too. I do like the format. It makes the game more fun and keeps everybody engaged over the whole tournament I think. "Theres no building into the tournament." Canadas Dan Church thinks itll be easier to coach his team in the preliminary round now. Its easier to get the players attention when theyre not beating another country by a double-digit differential. "I think this format will help us get under pressure quicker and have to perform at a high level," he said. "I think last year we had some lulls in our schedule where you really have to stay on habits in games where youre up a lot. "I dont think well see that in the round robin portion. I think theyre going to be competitive games and when they devised this format I think that was the intent." Canada held their final practice at a mountain resort in northern Vermont before boarding the bus for Burlington, a university town on the east short of Lake Champlain. The Canadians play their round-robin games at Gutterson Fieldhouse at the University of Vermont. Wickenheiser will captain the womens team again with veterans Caroline Ouellette and Jayna Hefford serving as assistant captains. Church says hell announce his starting goaltender on game day. How well the new format works in producing more respectable scores depends a lot on fourth-seeded Russia. The U.S. thumped them 13-1 last year in Switzerland. The Russian federation is finally investing in the womens team ahead of Sochi. This years tournament will indicate if theyve taken another step forward from last year. The Swedes finished fifth last year and are thus in Pool B, but captain Erika Holst is generally in favour of the new schedule. "The idea is really good not to have Canada and the U.S. play the seventh and eighth team, but unfortunately for us were in the wrong pool this time," Holst said. "Weve got to make sure were up in the top four." Slovakias goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova has mixed feelings on the possibility she wont get to play Canada or the U.S. at all. "Me personally. I would love to," she said. "Theres a lot we can learn from them but at the same time theyre at another level. From the perspective of us getting better, at this point theres not much those games can give us because were just going to get rocked." What the Bemidji State University goalie objects to is teams in Pool A wont ever have to play to avoid relegation to the second-tier world championship. Pool A teams can finish no worse than sixth. "To have the top group not being able to get eliminated I dont think thats really fair," she said. "Out of our group, theres going to be two teams that are going to fight (to avoid) elimination. The top four seeds are safe. I dont think thats a good thing. "Russia cant get eliminated. They played great at the last world championship and deserve the fourth place, but at the same time ... they dont have a chance to get eliminated, so theyre safe for next year." Notes(at) -- Canadian defencemen Lauriane Rougeau, Laura Fortino and Courtney Birchard will make their world championship debut Saturday as will forwards Vicki Bendus, Brianne Jenner and Bailey Bram . . . Players from Ontario dominate Canadas roster with 13 of the 23 from that province . . . Canadas average age is 24.2 years, the average height is five feet, 6.5 inches and the average weight is 155.6 pounds. Graham Gano Panthers Jersey . -- DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson put the perfect capper on a celebratory opening to a new era of basketball in Sacramento. Greg Olsen Womens Jersey . -- Chris Pontius curled a shot off the left wing into the far right corner in the 82nd minute, his first goal of the season, as the D. http://www.panthersjerseysofficialshop.com/black-friday-cam-newton-jersey/ . Randy Cunneyworth liked the work ethi of his hockey clubc last night, and believes his team deserved a better fate. Today consisted of some extra work on the power play with the focus on getting pucks on net with bodies in front. Luke Kuechly Jersey . Most fans dont care who the players are; they just want to be entertained by a winning team. That mentality is understandable. After all, the goal of professional sports is to win, not produce national team players. Some respondents said they would prefer it if the team could win with Canadian players, while fewer still said they wanted to see their team field Canadian-born players at all costs. Bene Benwikere Jersey . Nabokov was hurt during Saturdays game against the Detroit Red Wings. A timetable for his return was not revealed, but Islanders coach Jack Capuano on Saturday indicated it could be a "couple of weeks. ORLANDO, Fla. -- If the Chicago Bulls are going to make a run at an NBA championship this season, they will need a healthy Derrick Rose to do it. For now, though, they continue to find a way to beat the top teams in the Eastern Conference without their most indispensable star. With the reigning MVP out nursing a sore groin for the fourth straight game, Roses teammates used a smothering defence and capitalized on a plethora of Orlando Magic turnovers in an 85-59 victory Monday night. Carlos Boozer picked up the scoring slack with 24 points and 13 rebounds -- his third 20-point scoring effort against the Magic this season -- and John Lucas added 20 points off the bench in just 21 minutes of action to lead the Bulls. "The real story honestly is our defence," said Boozer, whose team has beaten their next three chasers in the Eastern Conference in the past six days. "Our defence was ... that was probably one of the best performances weve had this season. "It was fitting because they kicked our butt in Chicago, (and) got a big win. For us to come back and do this ... its a big win for us." The Bulls defence was indeed the thing to marvel at Monday, with the 59 points they surrendered setting a new franchise record for fewest regular-season points allowed. It was also a milestone night for Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau, who became the fastest coach in NBA history to earn 100 career victories. Thibodeau did it in just 130 games, one game faster than Avery Johnson when he set the previous standard in 2006. "We had a lot a of guys step up," Thibodeau said. "We caught a break. They played last night in a tough game. Were fresh, so we had an advantage there and they missed some shots they normally make." The Bulls won for the fifth time in six games. They also improved to 3-1 over the past four games playing without Rose, who continued to nurse a sore groin. Thibodeau gave credit to his "great players" for his coaching record, and they gave it back to him. "He puts the work in and the time in and it shows," Lucas said. "Hes still a student of the game of basketball and hes always learning something. ... When you have a coach like that, youre going to be successful." Dwight Howard had 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Magic, who had 19 turnovers. Orlando had 11 in the first half, just two in the third quarter, but six more in the final 12 minutes. The Magic have lost three of their last four since posting a three-game win streak. Theyve also now gone six straight quarters without scooring at least 20 points.dddddddddddd Turnovers were a factor in the Magics loss to the Bulls in early January and they again played a huge role Monday as Orlandos miscues yielded 25 of Chicagos points. By comparison, the Bulls 16 turnovers only led to seven points for the Magic. Orlando trailed by double-digits for most of the second half, before cutting a 15-point Bulls first-half lead to 12 entering the fourth quarter as its early turnover issues began to subside. The Bulls offence was steady down the stretch, though, and Joakim Noahs three-point play on a two-handed dunk over Glen Davis with 6:54 to play in the game put them up 72-52 to end any comeback hope. "When you play the way we played tonight, this is a team-wide thing," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Ive got to take responsibility." Van Gundy said there isnt one singular issue ailing his team right now. "I mean, its everything," he said. "I really need to take a look at when were playing back-to-back games, and were just not creating any shots. Obviously, we played Chicago 11 days ago and we were able to create shots. We played Miami and we were able to create shots. This is clearly not satisfactory." As for where the Magic can go from here, Davis said there is still much gelling to do on the court. "If we want to win we all have to buy in -- me, the team, the most important guy all the way to the least important guy," Davis said. "Consistency (is whats lacking). Sometimes we get bored with the journey and just play to the level that we need to. "You saw a team out there playing without their biggest star and did what they needed to do to win. They beat us with no problem. I wish they would have had Derrick Rose, in a sense." Notes: Rose missed his 14th game of the season after sitting just six games in his first three NBA seasons combined. He appeared in 81 regular-season games in two of those seasons. His status continues to be day-to-day. ... Howard received his ninth technical of the season in the third quarter. ... Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said that the focus for the Magic over their final 19 games would be on reducing turnovers and building better defensive habits. "Were just not building solid habits and making good enough decisions," he said. "And at the end of the day, you are going to hit the playoffs and you are going to be left with your habits. Were running out of time. We have 5 1/2 weeks and its time." ... The Magic dropped to 7-8 in the second game of back-to-backs this season. cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '