Youth World Hockey Championship starts in Sweden

The youth (for players under 20 years of age) World Hockey Championship has started in Gothenburg, Sweden, which the Russian team, like the tournament a year ago, is missing due to international sanctions. At this championship, the Canadians will strive for a third victory in a row, but they still do not look like clear favorites.

Before the Swedish World Championship, which for Russia until recently – before it was assigned a regime of absolute “hockey isolation” – was undoubtedly the main sports entertainment during the New Year holidays, the center of attention, of course, was the Canadian team. Well, that is, due to her reputation and track record, she, of course, is never deprived of attention, but now there is even more of it than usual. Still, quite a remarkable achievement is at stake.

Competition at youth hockey championships has recently been at a tremendous level. It can be judged, for example, by this fact: throughout the last decade, not one of the teams that won championship gold managed to defend the title in the next one. But in the current decade, the Canadians broke the trend by winning both previous tournaments, which were their home tournaments. In both cases, these were narrow victories – in the final matches, the Canadian team with the same score of 3:2, scoring the decisive goal in overtime, defeated first the Finns and then the Czechs.

Three titles in a row is, of course, an even more beautiful number than two, already something like hegemony. But it’s actually quite difficult to assess the Canadians’ chances of extending the series.

However, they are now considered favorites not only, of course, out of inertia. This Canadian team has a lot of advantages that make it easy to attach such a label. First of all, the selection of forwards. There are a ton of players who have done amazingly well in junior or college hockey, like Matt Savoy, Conor Geekie, Frazier Minten, and two really notable characters. The hype around 17-year-old McLean Celebrini is much the same as it was a year ago around another prodigy, Connor Bedard, later selected first overall in the NHL Entry Draft and quickly carving out a leadership role for the Chicago Blackhawks. But even greater luck for the Canadian team, apparently, was the agreement of the Boston Bruins to let Matthew Poitras go to the World Cup. Immediately after his debut in the NHL, this center forward not only gained a foothold in the core of a powerful club, but turned into an important element of it, managing to score a damn dozen points in 27 matches. The trump card is certainly the most powerful.

But along with the advantages there are also factors that raise doubts. Let’s say, there is a point of view that success at the youth world championships is greatly facilitated by the cohesion and teamwork of the team, and only forward Owen Beck made it into the Canadian application from last year. And those who saw the test matches held by the Canadians on the eve of the championship, for example, lost to the Americans, could not help but be struck by the constant mistakes of the defenders and goalkeepers. Not everything is as good in this line as in the attacking line.

In the match with the Finns, for whom the championship was opened for the Canadians, these problems were also visible. True, they did not prevent them from defeating fairly highly ranked opponents with a decent difference – 5:2 (both Celebrini and Poitras scored).

At the same time, the main competitors may not look so flashy, but they are extremely dangerous. The Swedes, who found themselves in the same group with the Canadians, for example, had everything in order with cohesion: as many as nine people from last year’s application remained. Plus, there is the advantage of home ice – a very valuable factor in youth championships. And about the class of Americans playing in another group at the preliminary stage, in addition to their winnings in a face-to-face meeting with their neighbors before the tournament, the following indicator tells: ten US national team hockey players were selected by NHL clubs in the first round of the draft. And among these hockey players are those for whom experts without hesitation predict a glorious future in the league – Will Smith, Cutter Gauthier. And the Americans seem to have more balance than the Canadians.

Alexey Dospehov