World Junior Championship update

Denmark

            This tournament is all about surprises. Let’s start with Denmark. Denmark will make the knock out rounds with one game left in the preliminary rounds. Denmark had never beaten Finland nor Czech before in this tournament. Denmark beat them both. Denmark has made the final 8 for 3 years in a row. They were beating Swiss 3-0 and 4-1 but eventually lost. Denmark has shown they are a legitimate player now in the Juniors. The Big 5 will take note.

Finland

It is the first time that a defending World Junior Champion has to play in the relegation round. Since the first World Junior Championship in 1977 Finland has never been ranked worse than 7th. The only times Finland didn’t have a top-8 ranking in an IIHF event was with the men’s national team in the World Championships in 1939 and 1955. Finland also changes its coach…yikes.!

The Big 5

            Well 3 of the big 5 are undefeated at this point. Sweden won Group A and will play Czech in their final game. Canada and the USA are also undefeated and will play each other today at 3:30pm. (15:30 GMT). Russia was unfortunately placed in with USA and Canada and don’t forget the tournament is in North America. Finland had a miserable tournament and will have to play in the regulation game.     

The USA

            The USA play like an NHL team with the ability to cycle the puck down low. They also look sharp and fast out of the break out with good mobile defense. The USA also rolls out 4 lines so they can play a fast pace game the whole tournament. There is not one line the other team can concentrate on to shut down. The biggest problem is the forwards bringing the puck back to the blue line and freezing their own defensemen. This allows a defender to take on 2 usa players and still be in position. This was extremely dangerous against the better teams and they better correct this mistake
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Canada

            They were the favorites going into the tournament and remain the favorites. They have steam rolled their opponents scoring 20 goals while only giving up 5 against. They are led by Dylan Strome, Tylor Raddysh and Mathew Barzal. This team is not folding under pressure but rather thriving off it. This might change in the knockout rounds but all indications is Canada is rolling.