Welcome back!
The World Juniors this year was, in a lot of ways, kind of like the NHL season so far; we know exactly one team is good. The rest? Shown flashes but ultimately extremely flawed.
Which has made naturally, for an extremely fun tournament. Very few games have felt noncompetitive and that’s only because one team in specific has been playing in them.
Speaking of which!
Relegation Round: Germany vs. Denmark
I know what to expect from Denmark. Denmark is an edge case team at the moment until a prospect or two decides it’s Denmark time and they Dane all over the tournament. That’s just how it is for them. They appear, they get pummelled, they go back down to 1A, then they win that tournament and come back up. Until the Danish manage to put out another Oliver Bjorkstrand, that’s realistically the best they can hope for.
Germany though? I’m kind of disappointed in Germany.
Yes, they don’t have nearly the kind of prospect talent as Latvia or Switzerland right now, but they’re still pretty good at creating offense most of the time, or at least, they would’ve been…right up until the tournament started. It seems all their talent just didn’t gel in time to avoid this fate.
Given how both teams have played with similar levels of talent, I think it’s fair to say this will actually be a close game.
Quarterfinal Matchup 1: Sweden vs. Latvia
Nobody works harder than Latvia. They’ve made that their brand. Even in losses that’s how they play their hockey, and given the disadvantages they usually have against other teams, that’s made up a lot of ground. Traditionally however, this is where the ride stops. Latvia’s talent gap gets too wide and the tournament ends and we all wish them a merry New Year and hope to see them again at Worlds and this year the Olympics.
This is what I
would be saying, if the Swedes haven’t been slightly shortcircuiting here and there coming into their least favorite part of the tournament; namely the part that actually counts.
Granted, Sweden is absolutely talented and way, way, way,
way better than Latvia on paper. They just put the screws to the United States and made it look easy. There’s realistically no way that they lose this game unless everyone got bad food the night before. Problem is…Sweden’s given up more goals than they do usually, and have let much lesser talents into games using nothing but effort and system. Latvia is nothing
but effort and system, so if they can survive the course correction period like they generally try to, then Sweden could be in a lot of trouble.
That is, if they don’t just blow the doors off Latvia from minute one. One thing Latvia absolutely doesn’t have the ability to do right now is come back from a multi-goal defecit unless they’re playing a team in their middle power status.
Quarterfinal Game 2: Czechia meets Switzerland in a clash of excitement vs. structure
Czechia has been cruising right along in this tournament with hopes of medaling again, and given how confidently they’ve played the other traditional powers at this tournament, especially Finland, I see no reason why they can’t just waltz right past this game and get ready for the Semi-Finals.
Well, if there’s one thing the Swiss are good at, it’s taking the kind of game that Czechia likes to play and absolutely murdering it. Switzerland
loves a low event game. Can’t go without it. That’s made most of Switzerland’s games much closer than anyone would probably expect from them. Czechia have enjoyed the free wheeling nature of the tourney and the high octane contests of their compatriots and while they have come out of low scoring games, a low event game might be a bit different for them.
Quarterfinal Game 3: Team USA needs to save face against deeply Frustrated Finland
Team USA you come out here and you look this audience in the eye and apologize for what you did.
Team USA should’ve enjoyed a walk in the park of a tournament. Instead they’ve let a lot of their worst tendencies dictate their decisionmaking and puck security, and as such have to do a lot of course correction in order to win games. Their final game against Sweden saw what happens when they can’t course correct, and it wasn’t pretty.
Meanwhile, Finland keeps running into the crushing reality that they are good right now, maybe even really good…but not great. They got stunted on by Canada by way of sheer volume, and then Czechia by way of sheer style. That has to be sticking in the craw of this proud power, and seeing the current gold medalists limping into this one has to be motivation to turn them into a fine paste. They will need to just hammer America’s netminder and take ample advantage of the USA’s issues with starting on time.
As for motivation for the US…listen, if you saw the olympic roster, you should be pretty aware this is going to be the last time a men’s hockey team wearing this jersey has a meaningful chance of competing for a medal, so let’s try to get back into the conversation and
not do that hero hockey thing, okay? Just try to win the whole game? Thanks.
Bruins in this Game: both James Hagens and Will Zellers will be expected to be part of this squad.
Quarterfinal Game 4: Slovakia meets the Canadian Torment nexus
Canada’s decision to buckle down and not make any foolish moves with their roster bore fruit this tournament; they’ve got Slovakia and aside from Latvia seemingly having their number, they have basically been untouchable this last week. Their talent is connecting, their effort level is consistent, their goalies keeping things sane and level. Gavin Mckenna has been as advertised, Michael Hage and Martin Brady are incredible force multipliers, and Zayne Parekh is going to be a surefire superstar the minute he’s traded to a team that can actually support him. All is right in the world for the Red and White (and this time no black)
Meanwhile, Slovakia has got some talent…they just keep running into teams that can out-talent them, and boy does Canada out-talent them. If they want to have a prayer, because it’s not coming from their goaltender this tournament, they need to lay siege to Canada’s offensive zone. They almost got the US through that, and through the blistering shots of Tomas Chrenko. As much as I rankle against the idea of triple shifting your most offensively gifted player due to the gap in talent and creativity around him being too much to meaningfully counter (something any Bruins fan right now should appreciate), I think their best shot is making sure Chrenko is out there for just about every minute of man advantage time they have.
