With all teams involved having played 2 of their 3 exhibition games so far, we have a little taste of what will come starting Saturday when the tournament kicks off for real.
To me, it looks like the B Pool of Russia, Sweden, Finland and North America is wide open. Any of those 4 teams could nab one of the semi-final spots and could just as easily miss out.
North America has looked solid, but the European team that they have played both of their games against hasn't looked good at all, so it is tough to get a firm gauge on where they really are. They will be exciting to watch regardless, but against teams that have better puck moving defensemen than the aged Team Europe throws out there, the all-out forecheck might come back to bite them.
Russia has a lot of firepower, but their defense might be lacking. The Russia - North America game will be a fun one to watch for that reason, and the fact that they will both have a lot of offensive creativity but also be prone to mistakes.
Sweden and Finland both bring what you would expect, and neither will be easy to beat in that pool, and both could easily come out of it into the semi-finals as well.
The US may have made a fatal mistake in their approach to the exhibition games against rival Canada. Including the 2 exhibition games that have already been played, you have to think they expect to play each other 6 times in a 4 week span. Pre-tournament statements that they have built their team to beat Canada and playing the first exhibition contest like it was game 7 of a Stanley Cup final is the exact opposite of what they should have done. It is one thing to have a game plan when the games matter, but don't poke the sleeping dog when nothing matters and don't lay all your cards on the table the first game. They are trying to out-Canada the Canadians, and although they didn't come in with that intent, Canada has an answer for anything the Americans try. For every Justin Abdelkader, there is a Brad Marchand, for every Ryan Kesler there is a Corey Perry. It is just that Canada's agitators are quite frankly, better at it in addition to being more skilled. If the Americans were trying to intimidate Canada by coming out that way, that was a mistake because it only served to wake up the favorites and get them involved earlier than they normally may have. Keeping their cards closer to the vest might have served John Tortorella and his staff a little better.
The Czechs are in the unfortunate situation where they will get in the middle of the Canada-US war and although they will be a tough out, they are in the wrong pool. Ditto Team Europe, who looked thoroughly overmatched against the young guns, and with most of their players in the tail end of their prime, or not quite yet in it, it is going to be a tough week for them.
So it still points to a Canada-US final series that will probably go 3 games and be an all-out war. Good to watch, but also worrisome for those NHL teams that will be watching their players fight tooth and nail before the NHL season even starts.