IIHF U-20 World Hockey Hockey Championship preview

2020 IIHF World U-20 Hockey Championship 

(Czech Republic) December 26th – January 5th 

            

The World Juniors or the IIHF U-20 hockey tournament always starts the year off with an exciting
bang. This tournament is played in Canada almost every other year, since it is a huge media event
and Canada hockey makes the most money. Canada also agreed to revenue share with money to the
IIHF.  So the old adage, “money talks” applies to hockey too. 

Years	Champion	Silver	Host
2010	USA	Canada	Canada
2011	Russia	Canada	USA
2012	Sweden	Russia	Canada
2013	USA	Sweden	Russia
2014	Finland	Sweden	Sweden
2015	Canada	Russia	Canada
2016	Finland	Russia	Finland
2017	USA	Canada	Canada
2018	Canada	Sweden	USA
2019	Finland	USA	Canada
2020	-	-	Czech

This year Czech Republic will host. The last time the Czech Republic hosted the Juniors was 2008
so it’s been 12 years.  The host cities will be Ostrava’s Ostrava Arena (10,004) and Trinec’s Werk Arena
(5,200). These ice surfaces are the Olympic size, so they are bigger than the NHL, AHL and college
where many of the U-20 are playing now. These arenas are home to HC Vitkovice Ridera and HC Ocelari
Trinec hockey teams of the Czech Extraliga. The Czech Extraliga is the top pro league in Czech
Republic. This tournament has become very exciting where any one nation (power 5) can win and
the new future stars of the NHL are on full display.  Though it has been usually one of the power 5 nations
of Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland or Russia. This has now become a very even tournament between
the Big 5. In the last 10 years Canada reached the final 5 times, Russia 4, Sweden 4, USA 4 and Finland 3.

The philosophy for the USA is to roll 4 equal line and skate! skate! skate!  USA hockey has developed very
good skaters that can now compete with the top nations in this sport. The USA is the least chippy team but
they get as many penalties.  Although the USA didn’t win the 2019 Championship- they did have an excellent
tournament. They placed 2nd in their group. They knocked out Czech Republic 3-1 in the quarter finals. Then
they beat Russia 2-1 in the Semifinals. They played Finland in the Final and lost a tight game 3-2. The USA
has medaled in the last 4 Jr Championships including this one. An American Earned MVP honors 2 years in a row. 
Ryan Poehling (2019) and Casey Mittelstadt was 2018’s MVP.  More importantly the Americans also beat Russia
3 years in a row 2017, 2018 and 2019 in the knockout rounds. This is a huge change since the USA use to lose
quite consistently to Russia in both the group stage and knockout rounds.  Russia knocked USA out the 3 previous
years in 2014, 2015 and 2016. 

I believe this is because of the USA training program has been refined over the years.
There is a much bigger concentration to skate and move the puck out of the zone on the transition game. This is
exactly the change in the NHL. 

To date, Team USA has earned 12 podium finishes, including four gold medals (2004, 2010, 2013, 2017),
two silver medals (1997, 2019) and six bronze medals (1986, 1992, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2018). The United
States has medaled in seven of the last 10 years and has earned a podium finish in four consecutive years. We are
currently in the best-ever stretch in this tournaments history. Let’s enjoy it while we can

USA 2020 U-20 Team:

 This year team USA gets a new head coach. It is none other than the biggest star in college hockey; Scott
Sandelin. Sandelin coaches the hottest team in college hockey Minn–Duluth. Minn Duluth has made it to
the last 3 national championship games winning the last 2 times.  He is arguably the top college coach in
the country. 

Team USA will be selected in December. Again the USA should e able to roll 4 lines that can score. 

IIHF U20 Championship 2019 -Review

2016      This tournament was played in Finland and Finland won for their 4th Championship. We got to Watch Austin Mathews and the USA. The USA won Bronze when they demolished Sweden 8-3.

2017   This tournament was held in Montreal and Toronto. The USA not only medaled but the won Gold. This was their 4th Championship. The Team was led by Boston College goal poaching Collin White and 3 BU players in the ultra fast Clayton Keller, the giant and durable Jordan Greenway and the fast skating Defenseman Charlie McAvoy.

2018     This tournamnet was held in Buffalo, USA. There was high hope the USA would win on home ice. The USA lost in the semi-finals then crushed Check Rep 9-3 for 3 medal in a row. The MVP was  Casey Mittelstadt.


Review
2019  This tournament was again held in Canada, this time in Vancouver. The USA has the potential #1 pick in Jack Huges and there was plenty of excitement. The USA had medaled in the last 2 tournamnets. They had the potential to win in 2018 but lost in the Sei-finals and walloped Check Rep in the consolation game. They all knew this year theywanted to stay at the top of their group to avoid a fisrt round game against one of the top 5 nations. They accomplished this by placing second behind Sweden, thus avoiding Both Mighty Russia and the host -Canada.

Knockout rounds
The USA had to face their nemesis, Russia in the semi-finals. Russia was undefeated but the Americans have gained confidence against their Eastern nemesis. You see after losing so many year to the Bears the USA has beaten Russsian in the 2017 and 2018 knockout rounds. Team USA finally has found the cure to beat the Bears from Russia. They beat Russia 2-1 in the semi-finals. Confidence was sky high with this victory. The USA has now beated Russia 3 years in a row in the knockout rounds and they would face Surprise Finland, a team they already beat in the group stage. They lost in the finals to a fast skating Finland team 3-2 in the closing seconds of the game.


 So the USA won silver and their 4th medal in a row. 2016,2017,2018 and 2019.

• MVP:  Ryan Poehling was awarded the MVP. After being very disappointed with the lost in the final as a fan, looking back i guess i am happy. First I am happy to see the Americans have just as good skaters as the European counterparts. The USA also plays a very disiplin defensive responsible game, which is hard to teach young kids. Second, we have beated Russia in the knock out rounds again. Third is that the MVP wasnt JAck Hughes but another American Ryan Poehling. 

This tournament has to be considered another success for USA hockey. I was down after they lost however, as you can see, the USA has one of the best junior programs and continue to produce quality players who can compete with the top nations of the World.

Next turnament:

2020- This tournament was awarded to Czech Republic. It has been 12 years since the last time Czech has hosted this populat tournament. Thats the good news. The bad news for the host is the group the host have to face. This is murders row with Canada, Russia and the States. Germany will be the new nation to join the top Junior tournament after they went undefeated in Division 1 tournament in Poland in 2019. Welcome Germany. 

All the European players and families are happy for the Junior tournament to return to Europe after 3 years straight in North America. Here is hoping for a great tournament and exciting tournament. 

IIHF U20 Championship 1/5/2019

This tournament will have to be remembered as the tournament of upsets. first Russia upset Canada
in group a to take the top spot.

Playoffs

The Knockout playoff rounds number 2 seed Canada was upset by the 3rd seeded Finland in OT.

If that wasn't enough Switzerland the 4th seed upset number 1 seed Sweden in the same bracket.

The other side of the bracket we saw the favorites advance. USA again beat Chech Republic 3-1 and
Russia disposed of Slovakia 8-3.

Seimi Finals

In the semi-finals #2 seed USA beat #1 and undefeated Russia 2-1. Russia is a fast skating, skilled
team that had a lot of possession. They like to curl back with the puck and creats an off balacned
defense and skate into the offensive zone. The USA plays one of the best team defensive games
compared to all the other nations. They are disceplin in their defensive assignments and this leads
to frustrations or turnovers to give the USA offensive opportunities. The USA held on to a gritty 2-1
win over Russia to advance to the finals.

Finland played #4 seed Switzerland and the Finns were just to good. They dominated the Swiss and
won with a convincing 6-1 win.

Finals

Both Finland and USA have 4 Championships apiece at this level. Canada has a whopping 17 while
Mighty Russia has 13. Sweden, surprisingly only has 2 Championships to their name.

This final will be a rematch of their group game in which the USA won the group game. However

there was a apparently a good goal scored by Finland to tie the game 1:1 but an early whiscle was
called. The goal was waved off. This changed the dynamic of the game and the USA went on to win

4-1. Finland will be looking to avenge their group game loss while the USA will look to further frustrate
the Finns and capitalize on opportunistic offense and continue to roll 4 equal lines.

Watch for Jack Hughes to show us why he will be the #1 pick in this years draft.

Upcoming Sporting Events for 2019 -

2019 (Soccer, Hockey, Rugby)		Host
Dec 26- Jan 5th	U-20 “World Juniors” Hockey	Vanc & Victoria
Jan 26-27th	World Rugby Seven Series	Hamilton, New Z
Feb 2nd-3rd	World Rugby Seven Series	Sydney, Australia
Feb - March	American Rugby Championship (Argentina XI, USA, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile)	Home /Away
March 1-3rd	World Rugby Seven Series	Las Vegas, USA
March 9-10th	World Rugby Seven Series	Vancouver, Can
March 21, 26th	Nations League Qualification-CONCACAF (no –USA)	Home/away
April 5th-7th	World Rugby Seven Series	Hong Kong, China
April 13th 14th	World Rugby Seven Series	Singapore
April 18th-28th	IIHF World U-18 Championship (10 nations)	Sweden
April 21st –May 7th	U-17 CONCACAF Championship	No picked yet
May 10th -26th	IIHF Hockey World Championship	Slovakia
May 25-27th	World Rugby Seven Series	London, England
May 23 – June 15th	U-20 FIFA World Cup	Poland
June 1 and 2nd	World Rugby Seven Series-Final	Paris, France
June	2019 World Rugby U-20 Trophy Qualification V Canada	Home/Away
July 9th -21st	2019 World Rugby U-20 Trophy (8 Tier 2 Nations)	Brazil
July 9th -30th	Gold Cup 2019 –CONCACAF 16 nations	USA
Sept 2 -10th	Nations League A Match 1 & 2	Home/ Away
Sept 20th – Nov 2nd	Rugby World Cup 2019	Japan
Oct 7th – 15th	Nations League A Match 3 & 4	Home Away
Nov 11th – 19th	Nations League Match 5 & 6	Home / Away
	Rugby End – of –year-test	away

The World Juniors or the IIHF U-20 hockey tournament always starts the year off with an exciting bang. This year Canada will host again.  The
USAU-20 is now considered equal to Canada and Russia in this tournament. However Sweden and Finland are both just as good. This
tournament is played in Canada every other year, since it is a huge event and Canada hockey makes the most mula and kicks back revenue to
the IIHF.  

The American Rugby Championship starts 2 weeks after the Super Bowl with 3 games in Feb and 2 in March. This year the Eagles will again
have 3 home games, First Austin TX then 2 in Seattle. They will have to play Argentina XV away this year, so this year it will be much more
difficult to repeat. Hoping we see lots of progress.

We then switch back to Hockey for the IIHF U-18 Championship, which will be held in Sweden this year. The USA has dominated, yes I said
dominated in this Championship. They have reached the final 9 out of the last 10 years and winning 7 of the 9 times. The USA has the best
junior program.

The CONCACAF U-17 Championship will be in April and the host is not picked. It was hosted in Mex (09), Jam(11), Panama (13), Honduras
(15) and in  Panama (17) again. I believe the new president will try to get this tournament to Canada or a Caribbean nation next. I am thinking
a nice island like Curacao, Martinique, Bermuda or Guadeloupe. Since the USA host the Gold Cup, the last 3 Olympic qualifications and the last
U-20 Men’s Championship I believe it has to move to another location.

IIHF Hockey World Championship is in Slovakia, This tournament starts in May right after the completion of the second round of NHL playoffs.
 So when your NHL team is knocked out you get to tune in and cheer for Team USA. Canada has 26 Championships, Russia 27, Czech 12, and
Sweden 11. Finland and USA only have a paltry 2.  The USA just do not take this tournament that serious or they are just out gunned by better
teams …EVERY YEAR!?

FIFA U-20 World Cup is in Poland in May which is a great summer start for soccer.  The USA U-20 performs much better than the senior side
in the World Cup at this level. USA has reached the quarter finals the last 2 years. They enter as CONCACAF Champions.

Then we have the high intensity (Rugby) USA Selects v Canada A for the qualification to the U-20 World Rugby Trophy. This is a yearly
tournament that will be in Brazil this year. Canada has beaten the USA Selects last 2 years. Canada then flopped at last year’s Tournament
. Let’s hope we can finally beat Canada and play in the international U-20 Trophy tournament in Brazil. The tournament is the same time
as the Gold Cup.

CONCACAF Gold Cup is the Granddaddy of all USA tournaments in 2019.  It will be hosted in the USA (also Costa Rica). There will be
15 venues in the USA. Alliance Field will be a brand new SSS due to open in March 2019. Also Banc of California Stadium just opened in
2018. These stadiums will be perfect for the expanded Gold Cup. The tournament finally expanded to 16 nations. I am hoping for more
scoring and we should get that in the group games. There should be some quality Caribbean nations who will bring a plethora of European
players to make for a really good competition.

Then we have the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan to start the Fall.  The USA Eagles will not be favorite in any match. Every nation in their group
out ranks them. I am personally hoping for massive improvement in this tournament.  I am hoping we can keep up with the thoroughbreds here.

Except for the Nations League and the 3 or 4 Rugby test matches that will wrap up 2019. The Nations League comes right after the Gold Cup.
The nations League is a much smaller tournament and will not get the glitz the Gold Cup had.  The test matches comes after the Rugby World Cup.
The Test matches will seem miniscule after the exciting Rugby World Cup 2019.

Order of excitement/importance for me

1. CONCACAF Gold Cup (July)
2. U-20 World Juniors (January)
3. Rugby World Cup (Fall)
4. FIFA U-20 World Cup
5. American Rugby Championship
6. U-20 World Rugby Trophy (if USA qualifies)