World Juniors 2019 Vancouver-Victoria update

The World Juniors is underway in Vancouver and Victoria. Sweden again finished 1st in their group again. Sweden has an astonishing 48 game preliminary round winning streak.  That is about 12 years in a row they have not losing a preliminary round game. That in itself is something that we all should pontificate. The USA placed 2nd after beating 3rd placed finisher Finland 4-1. This was a great win for is the USA since they don’t have to face Canada or Russia in the opening round, which would have been a daunting test. Kazakhstan now has to play Denmark for regulation.

The Vancouver group, which had the host (Canada)and might Russia had a bit of a surprise with their final seeding. Russia Topped Canada to finish 1st. This means Canada will have a tough opening knockout game against Finland. Have no fear, the Canadian players play in the ultra competitive Canadian Junior leagues. These are the closest leagues that emulate the NHL. Canada has won the most World Junior Championships and they will have the home crowd at the Vancouver Rogers center backing them. Czech Rep squeeked an over time win against Switzerland. This game
resulted in Czech getting the 3rd seed and Switz placing 4th.

The knockout rounds

Russia and Sweden have not lost yet. They both get the #1 seeds. Russia opens against 4th seed Slovakia. Slovakia played the tops teams tight and them they separated themselves from Kazakhstan 11-2 in the final game. This former Bohemian territory has a rich hockey history and play will passion against Mighty Russia.

Sweden seems to have a bit of a sickness that is running through their locker room. They had a very short bench against Kazakhstan  but were determined to keep their winning streak alive and place in the fortuitous #1 seed. Unfortunately they still will draw a very difficult opponent in Switzerland. Switzerland plays a very physical game and the swiss skill level improver every year. The last hit infractions rules goes against the Swiss strength. Swiss have tried their best to nullify the skill of other teams with "completing" their checks and takeing their opponent out of the fast skill game. I do not see the international refs putting their whisels away in the knockout rounds. Swiss must be carefull agains the fleet footed Sweden.

Canada has to play one of the big 5 (Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland and USA) in the opening round since they did not win their group. Canada has scored the most goals with 23. They also have the best goal differential with a +18 and have given up the least amount of goals with only letting in 5 goals. Canada will be playing at the Vancouver Canucks rink in the Rogers Center. The Rogers center is already a sell out, so the Canadians will have the home crown behind them. Finland has the talent but played a little sloppy against the USA. They have to eliminate the mistakes when they face Canada. None of this boweds well against Finalnd but the Fins ahve beated Canada in warm up games. This should be a cracker of a game.

The USA are up against the old rival Czech Republic. The USA are starting to play a little better team defense and the USA is always trying to roll 4 lines. The USA matches up well against Czech Rep since the Czech only seems to have 1 top line. So if they can concentrate on stopping their top line and attack with the other 3 lines, they should be in good shape.

The coaching staff along with hockey USA believes in developing the whole team and this has been their MO in these Junior tournaments. As always players start to seperate themselves. Let’s start with the Captain Mickey Anderson. He is playing with passion and is very hard to beat on defense. He is everything a Captain should be, leading by example. He also has chipped in 2 goals and 1 assist. If the USA are to go deep they will have to rely on team defense and no mistakes from their defensemen. Next is tournament leading point getter in Ryan Pholeing. He list at an imposing 6’ 2” centerman is fast and crafty and very difficult to defend in front of the net with his size. Lets not forget about the consensus  #1 NHL prospect in Jack Hughes who has missed 2 games for precautionary injury reasons. BU’s Joel Farabee has chipped in 3 goals and 2 assist to place 3rd in points for teams USA. Robertson has the 2nd most points with 1 goal but has 5 assists. Robertson also stands at 6’ 2” and has the offensive skills. Lets not forget about the fleet footed Tlyer Madden from Northeastern who has scored 3 goals and added and assist. Others could emerge like Michigans Josh Norris but it will be solid goaltending, team defense that keeps shooters on the outside and bottling up the lanes and wave after wave of 4 relentless lines offense.

All four knockout games are tomorrow....buckle up