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It’s hockey’s favorite post-Christmas (in Canada I believe they call this Boxing Day or somesuch thing) tradition: the IIHF World Junior Championships. A bunch of teenagers, many recent top draft picks, compete for bragging rights and future draft positioning.
Canada is hosting this year, which makes the expectations on their squad this year higher than usual. The expectations to defend “Canada’s Game” are high every year, but it seems they get ratcheted up to 11 whenever the WJC is hosted in the Great White North. This year’s venues are the Centre Bell and Air Canada Centre.
The former hosts Sweden vs. Denmark at noon Central and Finland vs. Czech Republic at 4 PM Central. The Air Canada Centre is home to the two marquee matchups of the day: Latvia vs. the United States at 2:30 and Russia at Canada at 7:00 Central.
It looks like three of those games will be lopsided and one of them will be a potential barnburner. I’m pretty sure you guys can figure out which is which.
The USA and Canada games will air in full on the NHL Network. Finland/Czech Republic will be joined in progress, and the Sweden/Denmark game you’ll just have to get creative for.