Do You Believe in цуды? ды!

It's been a mixed bag for anyone connected with the Rus in Prague.

A thousand years or so ago, that was the Slavic word -- loosely pronounced roos -- for what are now known as Vikings.

Swedish Vikings were masters of the river systems in that part of the world, so much so that the region was named after them: Russia.

In a way, not much has changed in the last millenia. Win some, lose some.

Still in the IIHF World Championship's first stage -- seeding and status -- the original Rus built up a 3-0 lead against Canada and then got Calgarized:

Amazingly, no Swedish Canucks were on hand to help Tre Kronorna wonder what hit them. That's what they get for their forebears calling the original Canadians Skrælings.

Even more amazingly, there was Team USA, fresh off an impressive victory over a Malkin/Tarasenko/Kovalchuk/Anisimov-led contingent of Rus inheritors, most of whose families were Reds back in the day, albeit not from Cincinnati.

However, the baseball bat has made an appearence in Mother Country, where it's a key element in a local version of the hit-&-run:

Little did the Americans expect resistance from White Russia -- loosely translated, that would be Bela Rus -- forgetting that somewhere between back in the day and 'way back in the day, the color white was a symbol for royalty in those parts. And yesterday, the Belarussians played like the Los Angeles Kings:

But again, these are the preliminaries. The rubber meets the road -- or more accurately, ice -- next week. Odds are, this time the Americans will be ready.

As for the various collections of Rus, just like a thousand years before, it's still gonna be sink or swim.