World Junior Championship rich in history as it returns to Buffalo
by Jeff Baker
Posted 12/18/17
The IIHF World Junior Championship returns to Buffalo, N.Y. as the top men’s ice hockey players under the age of 20, representing 10 nations across the globe, go for gold with the 2018 World Juniors set for Dec. 26, 2017 to Jan. 5, 2018.
Forty years after a 16-year-old phenom named Wayne Gretzky stole the show for Canada at the WJC in 1978, the tournament remains an annual showcase for fans to catch a first glimpse of future NHL stars.
The Great One was just the first in a long line of young talents competing for their countries in the World Juniors, a list that includes current pros such as Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Erik Karlsson, P.K. Subban, and Carey Price.
Add that in with more golden-era alumni like Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Dominik Hasek, Peter Forsberg, Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov, Phil Housley, Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, and Mike Modano, and it’s easy to see why the World Junior Championship is one of the most highly-anticipated hockey events of the year.
As for the players who will be skating in the 2018 tournament, the international teams are holding final tryouts in the preceding weeks to get down to the required 23-man roster.
The United States has invited 28 players, seven of which are returning from last year’s gold-medal team, to its final evaluation camp taking place in Columbus, Ohio from Dec. 15-19.
A total of 10 first-round NHL Draft picks are trying out for the American squad, including Casey Mittlestadt (8th overall, 2017), Logan Brown (11th overall, 2016), Kieffer Bellows (19th overall, 2016), Joshua Norris (19th overall, 2017) and Kailer Yamamoto (22nd overall, 2017). Two projected 2018 first-round prospects in Brady Tkachuk (Boston University) and Quintin Hughes (University of Michigan) are also trying to make the team.
Meanwhile, Canada will have 33 players, including seven returnees from its silver-medal squad in 2017, in attendance at its selection camp in St. Catharines, Ont. that runs through Dec. 15.
Last month, TSN’s Bob McKenzie analyzed hopefuls for Team Canada’s final roster, with a list of invitees featuring 12 first-round NHL Draft picks that includes Cale Makar (4th overall, ‘17), Cody Glass (4th overall, ‘16), Michael McLeod (12th overall, ‘16), Jake Bean (13th overall, ‘16), Nick Suzuki (13th overall, ‘17) and Cal Foote (14th overall, ‘17).
Once the rosters are set, the teams will converge on Buffalo, a border city with a rich hockey history that successfully hosted the event in 2011, for the 42nd edition of the WJC tournament.
With 31 contests across 11 days, all games will take place at KeyBank Center (home of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres) and neighboring HarborCenter facility, in addition to the first-ever outdoor matchup in the tournament’s history when the U.S. and Canada face off at New Era Field (home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills) at 3 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 29.
Comprised into two groups for the preliminary round, teams will set their sights on advancing to the playoff round for a chance at the ultimate prize, a gold medal.
Group A consists of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia and the United States while Belarus, Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland make up Group B.
Long celebrated in the hockey hotbed of Canada, the World Juniors have enjoyed a rise in relevancy in the U.S. over the years, coinciding with Team USA’s recent success on the ice.
The Americans have won gold in three of the last eight WJC tournaments (2010, 2013 and 2017) including last year’s thrilling 5-4 comeback victory over the Canadian hosts, decided in an overtime shootout at Bell Centre in Montreal.
Despite just one gold-medal win (2015) in that same eight-year span, Canada always enters as one of the favorites to win it all. The Canadians have won 16 golds, highlighted by five-straight first-place finishes from 1993-1997 and again from 2005-2009, and have medaled 30 times in 39 tries since the WJC officially began in 1977.
For Russia, this year’s event marks a return to the site of its last gold-medal win, where they shockingly erased a 3-0 deficit with five-unanswered goals in the third period to defeat Canada in Buffalo in 2011. With medals in seven-straight tournaments, and a record 35 medals all-time, Russia remains as a hockey powerhouse as they try to build off a bronze-medal finish in 2017.
After becoming the first defending champion forced to compete in the relegation round last year, Finland looks to recapture the glory of gold-medal wins in 2014 and 2016, where they beat Sweden and Russia respectively, the second coming on home ice in Helsinki.
A two-time gold medalist (1981 and 2012), Sweden is coming off three-consecutive fourth-place finishes that followed two silver-medal performances in 2013 and 2014.
The Czech Republic, which won back-to-back golds in 2000 and 2001, aims for its first medal since taking home bronze in 2005 after finishing 5th or 6th in the last six tournaments.
Slovakia, which earned its second-ever bronze medal in 2015 after placing third in 1999, looks to improve upon last year’s eighth-place finish.
Coming off a best-ever fifth-place finish in 2017, which followed up eighth-place finishes in 2015 and 2016, Denmark continues to build momentum after earning a spot in the top division by winning the second-tier division in 2014.
After avoiding relegation via ninth-place finishes in 2015 and 2016, Switzerland ranked seventh at last year’s event. The 1998 bronze medalists are eyeing its first top-five finish since 2011.
As the 10th-ranked team, Belarus returns from relegation to the top division, replacing Latvia. The team, which made its first-ever top division appearance in 2016 after first winning the lower-tier in 2015, again returns to the top 10 after finishing 11th overall in 2017.
Like any world competition, one of the most compelling storylines of the tournament are the international rivalries.
The U.S. and Canada rivalry has reached a fever pitch headed into this year while Canada against Russia remains a storied matchup between two hockey superpowers. And though Finland vs. Sweden might be the most intense rivalry of any two teams outside North America, Czech Republic vs. Russia and Czech vs. Slovakia can also make for instant classics.
Which teams will shine brightest on one of the sport’s biggest stages? Let the games begin.
