news unrolled

Post: Distribution of abilities. Why follow the World Junior Championships without Russia?

Categories

Among the youth teams, the World Ice Hockey Championships in Halifax and Moncton, Canada kick off on Monday.

In May 2018, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) decided to host the 2023 World Junior Championships in Russia. In February 2021, the organization signed a contract with the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, confirming that the tournament will be held in Novosibirsk and Omsk.

Cities had to build new arenas by the World Cup. The construction of a 12,000-seat arena planned in 2022 in Omsk has been completed, now Avangard, who has returned to his hometown from the Moscow region, plays there. The arena in Novosibirsk is not yet operational, the local Sibir will play there.

In February, due to the situation in Ukraine, the IIHF stripped Russia of its right to host the World Junior Championships – “primarily due to concerns about the health and well-being of all players, officials and fans attending.” Canada will host the World Junior Championships for the third consecutive year (2021 and 2022 tournaments held in Edmonton) and for the 16th time in history. The 2003 tournament, in which the Russians won, was held in Halifax and Sydney, and Moncton will host these competitions for the first time.

Summer Ice Hockey World Championship

The tournament will be the second junior world championship held in a year. This happened due to the fact that the 2022 world championship, which traditionally started a few days before the New Year, could not be completed due to the spread of the coronavirus among the participants. Then the Russian national team was still playing at the tournament, among the patients were strikers Matvey Michkov and Danila Yurov. The IIHF decided to hold the tournament in the summer and the competition continued in August.

At that time, the Russian team was suspended from participation due to the situation in Ukraine. Instead of the Russians, Latvia’s youth national team took action. The last Latvians before the summer tournament played in the top league in 2017 (forward Kirill Kaprizov, who currently plays for Minnesota Wild, was the top goal scorer, and goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov, who currently plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, entered the symbolic team) and any did not score.

The winner of the first junior world championship without the Russians was the Canadian team, which defeated the Finnish team in the final (3:2 Overtime). Meanwhile, the Latvians were eliminated in the quarterfinals after losing to the Swedes (1:2).

Tournament Format

As six months ago, the same teams will play in the upcoming tournament. Teams from Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany and Austria advanced to group A, while teams from the USA, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Latvia advanced to group B. Four teams from each five will advance to the quarterfinals. The two worst teams will face off in matches to secure their place in the elite – the loser will play in the first division, replaced by the Norwegians who will play at the highest level for the first time in 2024. 2013/14 season.

Most of the matches will be hosted by the Scoushabank Center in Halifax and will host 18 games (19 if required): all Group A matches, knockouts between the teams that finished last in the groups, the two quarter-finals as well as the semi-finals and both games for medals. for. Located in Moncton, the Avenir Center will host 12 games: Group B meetings and two quarter-finals.

Who to follow when Michkov is gone

The main favorites of the tournament are the Canadians, who will have to defend their title. Team Canada has reached the finals at the last three World Championships and has won two gold medals (2020, 2022). Three players from the National Hockey League (NHL) will be on the ice as part of the Canadian team – forwards Dylan Gunther (Arizona Coyotes, 21 NHL games) and Shane Wright (Seattle Craken, 8 games) and defender Brandt Clarke (Los Angeles Kings, 9 games) – but the main stars of the team are strikers Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli, who, according to most experts, will be selected by first and second numbers in the upcoming NHL tryouts.

Another contender for the top 3 draft picks for the Swedish national team is forward Leo Karlsson (Örebro, 25 games this season), who played in his second season at adult level in his home championship. For some it may be funny that Elias Petersson will play for the Swedes. But he’s already the future defender of the Orcas, not the one rocking Andrei Kuzmenko and the Vancouver Canucks. In the final draft in Vancouver, they failed to beat their main star’s namesake, leading him to the third round with his 80th overall score.

Among those who claim to be in the top 10 of the future NHL tryouts, 17-year-old Czech forward Eduard Chalet can be distinguished. Technical Czech hasn’t been doing well at the top level so far (just six points in 26 games for Comet in the Czech Republic), but he’s confident enough to catch the attention of both experts and experts in matches against his peers. fans. In addition to Chalet, Columbus Blue Jackets candidates include defenders David Jiříček and Stanisław Svozil, and forward Jiri Kulich, who was drafted by the Buffalo Sabers. They performed well in the summer tournament. And let’s not forget Marcel Marcel, who in a sense will replace the legendary Ivan Ivan in the last youth world championship.

But the Slovaks will bring an experienced defender Shimon Nemec, who at the age of 18 is already a bronze medalist of the Olympic Games. For the second consecutive World Junior Championships, a contender for the top 10 picks, Dalibor Dvorsky, will arrive. Luke Hughes, the youngest of the Hughes brothers, will perform at the tournament. His two older brothers played in the youth world championship and now represent NHL clubs. Luke Hughes will captain the team, which consists mostly of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) players. This, of course, does not mean that the Americans have no chance of winning.

The Latvian and Austrian teams seem to be foreigners. All other teams, including the Germans and Swiss, can compete for the medal regardless of the number of players applying for the top 10 of the upcoming NHL tryouts.

The New Year’s tournament will end on January 6th. Given the absence of the Russian team, the chances of the Canadians to consolidate their leadership in the historic conflict increase. Thanks to 19 victories in the junior world championship, the teams of Russia / USSR / CIS – 13. Five times the Americans and Finns won the tournament, two of them Swedes and Czechs.

Source: Ria

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *