Posted by Mike Fisher on May 12, 2009

(Editor's note: Senators centre Mike Fisher represented Canada at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He has been sharing his thoughts on his experiences at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts).

The world championship didn't end the way we wanted, with a 2-1 loss to Russia in the gold-medal game. It was definitely a disappointing finish to a great trip. I thought we played very well against the Russians, especially in the last two periods. That's hockey, though. Sometimes you play well and lose. It's tough because in a tournament like this, it's a one-game series that decides it.

It's always an honour to represent your country. Not many people get to do it, so I felt very blessed to be part of Team Canada at this world championship. You never know when you'll get another chance, so you have to enjoy every minute of it. Representing Canada at the Olympics next year in Vancouver would be a dream come true. It's been a goal of mine for a few years now to be on that team, but I know it's going to be a very hard to team to make so we'll see what happens.

I arrived back in Ottawa last night. A bunch of the other guys were doing some travelling in Europe this week, but it's been a long three weeks in Switzerland and I just wanted to get home and settled in to the cottage in Peterborough for the summer. It's my favourite spot to relax and I'm really looking forward to relaxing a bit this summer. It's been a long year and I'll take a few weeks off, then start training in June again.

I'll be running my Mike Fisher Hockey Camp in Orleans again this July and everything looks good to go. We are sold out, which is awesome. It's going to be so much fun and we are all looking forward to it again this year.

Posted by Nick Foligno on May 12, 2009

(Editor's note: Senators forward Nick Foligno represented the United States at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He has been sharing his thoughts on his experiences at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts).

The world championship wrapped up for us on Sunday with a 4-2 loss to Sweden in the bronze-medal game. While it was a disappointing finish for us as far as not winning a medal, I feel we as a group of pretty young players have made USA Hockey very proud. We worked hard and I think the future is bright for us as a country on the world hockey stage.

I really enjoyed my first world hockey championship and I met a lot of great people. Not only the U.S. staff and team, but also the people living over there and the ones who ran the tournament. It was first class. As a player, I learned a lot about the international stage. I hadn't played in a tournament like this since I was 16, so it was nice to experience it once again. The big rink was something to get used to and you had a lot more time out there than in the NHL.

Looking forward, it would obviously be great to be asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic team for 2010 at the end of the summer, but hopefully I played well enough in their eyes that it will all take care of itself. If not, I know I played hard and definitely enjoyed my time over in Switzerland.

Now my plans are to go back to Ottawa for a few weeks. I didn't have any family meet me in Bern, so it worked out that I could just come home. So now I'm going to go home and enjoy my summer back in Sudbury!

Posted by Mike Fisher on May 6, 2009

(Editor's note: Senators centre Mike Fisher is representing Canada at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He'll share his thoughts on his experiences at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts throughout the event).

Finland gave us our biggest test yet on Monday. They've got a great team and they came out flying against us. They were by far the best team that we've faced at the world championship and I think it was good for us, even though we ended up losing a close one 4-3. We know that the competition is getting much better and we have to continue getting better ourselves. Finland plays a North American-style game and plays tight defensively so we know we have to be better, especially 5-on-5.

It was fun playing against Jarkko Ruutu, one of my teammates with the Senators. He played pretty good, especially in the shootout with a couple of nice goals. Other than that, it's just business as usual playing against friends and teammates at a tournament like this.

I don't mind the shootout format they're using at the world championship. It's different than in the NHL, in that players can be used more than once. We got to see Marty St. Louis go three times and he scored some unbelievable goals for us. Ruutu had a few nice ones, too. I think it's a good format because you get to see the skilled guys go more often if the shootout goes for awhile.

We went into Zurich quite a few times during our stay there, checking out the sights and shopping and going for dinners and such. Zurich is one of the nicest cities I've been to. On Tuesday, we moved to a town called Spiez, which is half an hour outside Bern, where we'll play the rest of our games. It's a beautiful town on a lake in the mountains. Today, the team and all the families and friends are going up into the mountains for lunch. That should be pretty cool. There's so much to see and do here. It's awesome, but now it's time to focus on the games and get ready!

Because Tuesday was moving day for us, we had the day off, too. Spiez is a great place and a little quieter and the scenery here is hard to beat. But now we're really looking forward to tomorrow's quarter-final game against Latvia. Having the two days off has been nice and it's given us a chance to rest, but we just want to get back to playing again

Posted by Nick Foligno on May 5, 2009

(Editor's note: Senators forward Nick Foligno is representing the United States at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He'll share his thoughts on his first experience at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts throughout the event).

It's been quite a busy week here in Switzerland. A lot has been going on and now we are now into the elimination rounds after making it through the first and second rounds. We played against France, Russia, and Switzerland in the second round and did okay. All were great games: we beat France pretty easily, but we had different luck against Russia and a tough OT loss against the Swiss.

We played well and as a young team learned a lot from those games and I think it will help us going into the elimination round against Finland. I am especially looking forward to the game because we are playing Ruuts! (Finland winger and Senators teammate Jarkko Ruutu). I am sure he will be up to his old tricks, but it will be a lot of fun and hopefully we can get the win.

Besides hockey, I have just been enjoying the town of Bern. We have eaten at a lot of places and believe it or not, pizza is very good in Switzerland. The brauts (sausages) are also very good! I am really enjoying my time here. It's been a great atmosphere. I think everyone is looking forward to playing for REAL now, meaning it's lose and you go home, it's like every game is a Game 7 from here on in and that's exciting. Our team is excited and ready.

You may have noticed I haven't been wearing my usual number 71 over here. I didn't really have a choice about it. I just wore whatever they gave me and it happened to be 17, so I was happy. Hopefully, this number is good luck and I start scoring a few goals here.

On another note, my Senators teammate Ryan Shannon has been playing great for us. He is really good on the big rink because of his speed and skill. It's been fun to continue playing with him. Hopefully, we can help our team get some wins and maybe play against Canada and the other guys pretty soon here. That would be a lot of fun.