The playoffs in the NHL are going now, and the World Championships are about to get going in Stockholm/Herning!
Just the Facts
- What is it?: The premiere annual international tournament of ice hockey featuring 16 of the highest ranked nations at the sport!
- When is it?: Tomorrow!
- Where is it?: Sweden and Denmark this year; Group A will primarily be playing in Stockholm, while Group B will primarily play in Herning. Group B will be literally be playing in a giant box.
- Place to Watch: ESPN+, NHL Network, IIHF TV
Group Previews
Group A – True North vs. Everybody
- Canada, as you’d expect, is looking to medal this tournament. This should be considered a bare minimum for the nation that popularized the sport, and their roster, even at this young stage before the tournament gets started, definitely looks like it could make some noise; players like Zayne Parekh get to play with Adam Fantilli, Macklin Celebrini gets to work with Travis Konecny, and even Mackenzie Weegar can come to terms with working with a pair of Kraken defensemen for the goal of getting Canada it’s first gold medal in a couple of years; headlined by Nathan Mackinnon, Sidney Crosby, and Marc-Andre Fleury all showing up at the same time. Of course, all of this talent requires them to not go on the bizarre runs of allowing teams much, much worse than they are scare the living daylights out of them like they did last year; a 7-6 OT winner over Austria, getting beaten in the shootout by Switzerland, and then being dumped unceremoniously out of the tournament by Sweden does not foment good feelings about how the Red and White (and sometimes Black) have been handling the slow, incremental improvements certain countries have made. Even worse, Canada is now in a much tougher group than last year; if only because they’re buttressed on all sides by rising eastern european powers like Slovakia, and the traditional nordic powers like Sweden and Finland. Canada made a big statement at the 4 Nations Tournament, they need to make one here as well.
- Looking to take the canucks down a peg will be Sweden; the home team of Group A and likely to be one of the most complete teams as per usual. Elias Lindholm will be joining a mix of youth and experience on the side of Tre Kronor; taking Rasmus Andersson, Filip Forsberg, Marcus Pettersson, Mika Zibanejad, Leo Carlsson, Alex Wennberg, and William Eklund. They’ve also got a mix of experience and youth in net! Who would I start of the three? Kind of depends on who’s lateral movement looked better in practice that day. But either way, the Swiss and these tournaments have a bit of a love-hate relationship: in the late 2010s, they were next to unstoppable; racking up three gold medals in 5 years. This decade? It’s considered impressive for them that they’ve even made it to Bronze. With a squad as talented as they have, they’re built to succeed; what they need now is to kill the demons that the 2020s have inflicted on the program.
- Finland has gotta be kicking the Colorado Avalanche for not eliminating the Dallas Stars, as a good portion of their stars that would’ve almost certainly are still going to be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Finland however still sports a strong team that plays a hard-nosed style; guys like Eeli Tolvanen, Joona Koppanen, and Juuso Pärssinen will feature, but it’s clear they’re keeping open some invites in case of playoff elimination over the next month. It’ll need to come soon, as the Finns get to start this tournament with France and then their old buddies in Sweden. Working hard’s gonna be a big feature of this tourney for them.
- Alright, sit down for this: Slovakia was going to have a pretty decent team together, but they’re about to be a major victim to almost their entire group that would’ve gone actively choosing to ignore the federation or quietly boycotting them as 26 potential players for this squad either opted out or straight up left them on read, or the organization actively dislikes them and has chosen not to bring them for any number of reasons. Their Minister of Sport apparently wouldn’t be out of place in this current administration and I mean that in the worst possible way, and Miroslav Satan, the supposed savior of the program who took over in 2019, has turned out to be a little more buddy-buddy with Russia than anyone would care for, an ESPECIALLY big over there, and much of the corruption that had been in the organization has, according to players like Juraj Slafkovksy, has not been addressed. As a result, they have almost nothing but local league players and a few prospects; Martin Chromiak, Dalibor Dvorsky, Sam Honzek, and Adam Sykora star alongside Sam Hlavaj; a veteran of that squad who’s VERY used to getting shelled. If they do well, it will be because of these youthful talents playing above their heads, and in spite of their organization; nothing else.
- Latvia travels well. If there’s any atmosphere in the sport that rivals Latvia’s, it’s probably Czechia after a world championship or the stands of larger Swedish clubs. They also have played the part of your favorite underdog team for just about every year they’ve been in this tourney with the explicit exception of last year, where being in Group B was the best thing that could’ve happened to them as they ended up medaling for the first time in their history. This is how they celebrated it. As for this year? Well, the problem with being the cool big story coming out of one tournament is that you usually end up being upgraded in the next tournament to the big boy’s table, and I’m gonna be real; as much as I love the Latvian team’s ferocious work ethic, and have been very excited for Dans Locmelis’ continued improvement as a prospect, it’s going to be a helluva fight. If you’ve gotta play Finland and Sweden in consecutive games, you’d better be on their level, and that’s never quite been Latvia’s bag. If there is reason for hope, it’s that they do have games they could win pretty reasonably in between their visits to the ass-kicking factories, so maybe they’ll get the chance to shock people again. I hope they do so, genuinely.
- Austria will have Marco Kasper, a couple of Utah prospects, and a prayer. Granted, that kept them from getting eliminated last year and they did get to be Finland’s prerequisite Really Bad Loss In Prelims For many of the middle tier teams in the World Championships, that’s what most can only hope for, and while their Canada game will probably be a lot less fun for them than it was last year, they’ll get plenty of opportunities to flex their might against Slovakia and Latvia. Maybe not a knockout round favorite, but definitely going to make themselves an interesting watch.
- Bonjour, France! Bienvenue the world championships! I hope Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Alex Texier have a good tournament on your behalf! Anyway, enjoy your games against Austria and Slovenia because those are probably your best shot at a win. Might even be a convincing one!
- Slovenia depends nearly entirely on whether or not they get to bring Anze Kopitar to the tourney; and if the answer to that is no, it will be rough sailing. Their neighbors have supercharged their program in a way the Slovenes just haven’t found a way to do, having only recently rejoined the World Championship level of competition last year after earning promotion in Division 1A. I wish that things were better for them, but I don’t think that there’s going to be much hope. It’ll be nice to see their jerseys again, though! I always liked Slovenia’s look.
Group B – Yearning to win in Herning
- So hey, the USA is the official heel of this tournament and every tournament from here on out; for reasons I’m sure you can figure out, please don’t be discouraged by that! The Americans are still going to be a wildly dangerous squad with players old and new pouring in; Cole Hutson, Zeev Buium, Logan Cooley, and Isaac Howard now stand tall with Matty Beniers, Michael Eyssimont, Tage Thompson, and Clayton Keller, and they are looking to redeem their nation (on a sheet of ice, anyway) for their lack of success last year; starting awkwardly against Sweden, and then the indignity of yet another Slovakia sudden death win, and then finally getting bounced from contention by Czechia. It’s clear that Dylan Larkin’s message at the end of the 4 Nations Tournament about joining up at Worlds to make the best case for yourself for the Olympics has rung true for a number of players, and if there’s a clear favorite to win Group B that isn’t the world champs, it’s them.
- Czechia is your current world champion, and they’re bringing a lot of the same guys who helped them win it last year; most notably David Pastrnak, who has plenty of recent experience bringing sub-NHL talent to halfway decent results, so he should be good and ready for the tournament! In seriousness, Czechia’s the free-wheeling goalscoring phenom who either drop 4+ goals on their opponent and dare them to score, or goes back and forth against the superpowers. These days, Czechia’s done their back-and-forth routine and come out the victor more than once, and they’ll look to do much the same against a group that realistically only has the United States and maybe Switzerland as their biggest dangers. That said, with Switzerland once again making moves at the World Championship level, they’re going to need to keep their wheeling, dealing ways focused.
- Switzerland may come away from this year with one of the best results they’ve ever had at this tournament as a result of Group B being unusually top heavy. The Swiss have been a real sickos team for many years; good fundamentals, strong defense, usually pretty good at goaltending, and for whatever reason decided that last year they were going to be untouchable. It ran out of gas over time unfortunately, but it was fun, and they may want to go ahead and re-do that. They are also a who’s who of “hey, I know that guy!”; Sven Andrighetto, Denis Malgin, Simon Knak, and maybe Andres Ambuhl if you’re a big enough hockey pervert, are all showing up again! I’m just glad they all get to do this gig. Maybe when they get tired of playing it, they’ll end up coaching it!
- Germany didn’t get JJ Peterka or Leon Draisaitl (yet), but this is still a reasonably talented squad; featuring guys like Moritz Sieder, Former Sabre/Penguin Dominik Kahun, CURRENT Blackhawk Lukas Reichel, Marcel Noebels who’s been on the german national team for almost 20 years, Mammoth prospect (something I can say now) Maksymilian Szuber, and a host of Adler Mannheim and Eisbären Berlin players ready to scare the living daylights out of any of these middle tier clubs. As for medal aspirations? Well, they probably will make the KO round, but after that? eeeeh…maybe next time when any of the NHL players get scared by not going to Milan.
- Norway is sort of the odd one out in Scandinavia in that they ended up the one who’s ice hockey programs don’t quite produce the same level of stars as Finland and Sweden. As such, while they’ve got some interesting talents, it’s considered rare if you’re NHL good. As for this year, I’m cautiously optimistic about their chances; this is a weak group outside of Czechia and the US, they’ve previously beaten Denmark before, they’re bringing noted violent maniac Stian Solberg, and they get to avoid Austria this year, so I’m imagining they walk away with at least two wins this tourney. Good for you guys!
- Denmark, I promise you that this isn’t personal. I don’t like the idea of the home team just barely scraping into the bottom half of the knockout round if at all, but that’s probably what’s going to happen; they’ve got exactly one NHL prospect coming, Ollie Bjorkstrand appears to have opted to stay at home, and there’s no team UK or Austria in group that’ll save you here. You’re gonna have to wait until you play Hungary to come away with a W.
- Kazakhstan is here! They’re probably gonna win one game. Oh well. It’ll be fun to watch them!
- Hungary! Lovely of you to make the tournament! You’ll have fun in the relegation round with Slovenia. Good luck out there!
Bruins at the World Championships
- David Pastrnak and Jakub Lauko will be representing Czechia
- For the USA: Mason Lohrei, Jeremy Swayman, and Andrew Peeke will represent the Red, White, and Blue
- Latvia will be represented by prospect Dans Locmelis
- Sweden will have Elias Lindholm representing them.
World Championships Rough Schedule
- Preliminary Schedule: May 9th to May 20th; each day has at least 4 games.
- Knockout Round: May 22nd to May 24th
- Medal Round: May 25th
A more comprehensive schedule of the World Championships can be found here