A guide to the world championships

Here's a look at hockey's latest world rankings as we head into international championship season.

Countries are colour coded as per which tournament they'll be playing in. Those in red are taking part in the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Quebec and Halifax beginning May 2 (full legend at bottom):

	Country	Points
1	Sweden	3740
2	Canada	3670
3	Finland	3640
4	Czech Republic	3595
5	Russia	3535
6	Slovakia	3390
7	USA	3375
8	Switzerland	3250
9	Belarus	3025
10	Latvia	2995
11	Germany	2925
12	Denmark	2855
13	Italy	2815
14	Norway	2780
15	Ukraine	2740
16	Kazakhstan	2740
17	Austria	2695
18	Slovenia	2640
19	France	2525
20	Poland	2395
21	Hungary	2320
22	Japan	2305
23	Estonia	2165
24	Netherlands	2155
25	Lithuania	2105
26	Romania	1970
27	China	1860
28	Croatia	1850
29	Great Britain	1605
30	Serbia	1555
31	Bulgaria	1500
32	Korea	1320
33	Australia	1260
34	Israel	1260
35	Belgium	1200
36	Spain	1090
37	Iceland	920
38	Mexico	915
39	New Zealand	900
40	Turkey	830
41	South Africa	770
42	Luxembourg	710
43	Ireland	710
44	North Korea	660
45	Armenia	390
46	Mongolia	260

Tournament - city, country - start date
Division IA - Innsbruck, Austria - April 13
Division IB - Sapporo, Japan - April 13
Division IIA - Miercurea Ciuc, Romania - April 7
Division IIB - Newcastle, Australia - April 7
Division III - Luxembourg - March 31
Division IIIQ - Sarajevo, Bosnia - ended Feb. 17

Who says hockey's not the world's game?

It'd certainly be interesting to see some of these tournaments, as outside of the Big Seven countries, the talent level really drops off. The Division I games would be comparable to a low level of pro hockey, but below that, these are teams that would be beaten up by rep teams of 14- and 15-year-olds in Canada.

Greece won the Division III qualification tournament, for those keeping track.
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