I’ve always been a fan of the World Juniors (who hasn’t) but this year was my first really focusing in on it. I watched most games on TV but had the luxury of attending two pre-tournament games in Peterborough and one preliminary game in Toronto.
When the tournament concluded on Monday I looked at my pre-tournament piece to see how my expectations matched up with reality. Frankly they weren’t close. So I thought I would take the time to see where I went wrong and reveal seven things I learned watching this year’s World Juniors.
- A good goalie can take a team a long way.
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Slovakia and Denmark showed how much a great goalie can make a team. Not much was expected from these teams, but the play of Denis Godla and Georg Sorensen elevated their respective teams to the best finishes in each country’s history. Sorenson’s overall numbers don’t look that great (.890 SV%) but he was critical in the OT losses to Russia and the Czech Republic stopping 37 and 44 shots respectively. He was also remarkable in the win against Switzerland stopping 42 of 45 shots.
Godla, pun intended, was Godly. He not only won best goaltender of the tournament but was also given the Most Valuable Player award. He played in all 7 games for Slovakia and faced a total of 242 shots (average of 35 a game), 50 more than the next closest goalie Linus Soderstrom. He was the reason they won the bronze medal.
- Predicting who those goalies will be however remains difficult.
This is just the nature of goaltending. It fluctuates so much making it very hard to predict especially in short tournaments like this. I expected Finnish goalie Juuse Saros to be great after he dominated the tournament last season on route to the gold. He’s also been very good in the Liiga this season posting a .924 SV%. But alas it wasn’t meant to be as Ville Husso took the starters position and ran with it.
I also expected Zac Fucale to be weakness of Team Canada. I did not have high hopes after his struggles in the QMJHL this season. Team Canada did an excellent job of limiting shots, allowing only 99 in the 5 games Fucale played. While some saves were adventurous he did his job of stopping the puck, leading the tournament in SV% with .939.
- Having a couple snipers doesn’t hurt either.
Goaltending is only one part of the equation; you still need players to put the puck in the net. In this tournament a couple chances is all it takes sometimes to win. Martin Reway singlehandedly carried the entire offense of Slovakia. He had nine points to lead the team; no one else had more than three. Similar situation with Denmark, who were great when Nik Ehlers and Oliver Bjorkstrand were on the ice, and an absolute tire fire when they weren’t. When you get a team of these guys like Canada had in Max Domi, Sam Reinhart, Anthony Duclair, Connor McDavid etc you end up with a gold medal.
- Having 19 year old players is key.
I really thought the Czech Republic was going to have a good tournament. I put a lot of faith in recent draftees such as David Pastrnak, Jakub Vrana and Dominik Masin. Taking a look at the teams who failed to meet expectations Czech Republic, Sweden, and the USA, they all were built around 18 year olds. Each team can return double digit players next season. They combined to roster 34 underage players. Compare that to the three medal teams who rostered just 13 underage players total. People always say this is a 19 year old tournament and this year did nothing to disprove that.
- Focus on what is there not what got left behind.
In my pre-tournament piece I felt I put a lot of focus into what teams didn’t bring rather than what they did. Looking at Canada I focused on Michael Dal Colle, Dylan Strome, Mitch Marner, Josh Ho-Sang etc. rather than who actually made the team. Same thing with Russia I focused on guys like Nikita Scherbak, Vladimir Tkachev and Nikita Korostelev rather than the talent they had. I really dropped the ball on Russia. I thought they were going to be a disappointing team. They had a veteran team that I overlooked.
- Winnipeg is going to be really good really soon.
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The Jets had the most prospects in the tournament with six and just about everyone was a big part of their respective teams. Nic Petan was dynamite for Canada finishing tied for the tournament lead in scoring with 11 points. Josh Morrissey was one of the best defencemen on Canada. He finished in a tie for second in defencemen scoring on route to being named an All-Star. Jan Kostalek was very good for the Czechs finishing with three points. Nik Ehlers who we touched on above was dynamic for Denmark.
Chase De Leo didn’t have the best tournament, but he predominately was the 13th forward for Team USA so ice time was a bit of an issue. Finally Eric Comrie only got two starts for Canada in net but was quite good in both of them. He shutout Germany in the first game and then allowed three goals on 28 shots in the win over Team USA. I think it’s safe to say Kevin Cheveldayoff and his staff have done a remarkable job at drafting in recent years.
- Don’t put too much stock into what is a very short tournament.
This one is more of a reminder than something learned. This tournament should change nothing about how your teams prospects, or how draft prospects are viewed. Yes we can get a bit more information and maybe learn a few things about guys but nothing drastic should come of this. Just because Jack Eichel struggled compared to Connor McDavid doesn’t make him any less of a prospect. They are still neck and neck. Don’t discredit a top prospect for struggling or boost a poor prospect for succeeding. Any player at any time can have a hot/cold stretch. Columbus fans have to look no further than Oscar Dansk to nail this point home. Dansk was great at last year’s tournament for Sweden, he now finds himself in the ECHL.
This tournament is an absolute blast to watch each and every season. Already excited for next year’s tournament taking place in Helsinki Finland. Belarus jumps into the tournament next year playing in Group B alongside Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Finland. Group A has Canada, USA, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland.
We’re only 350 days away! The countdown is on!
Roster information and stats from the IIHF website.
You can follow me on twitter @PaulBerthelot
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