'Twas the night before Boxing Day, and all through the rink, Not a creature was stirring, not even the mascot; The jerseys were hung in their stalls with care, In hopes that the fans would soon be there; The players were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of gold medals danced in their heads…
'Tis the season for awesome hockey amongst some of the best players under-20 as the 2014 World Junior Championship is upon us…are you ready?
Canada plays Germany at 7:30a ET with USA facing off with Czech Republic at 11:30a ET. Watch both games live on TSN or NHL Network then come here and talk about it in our live game blog.
My blog will be WJC central with live game blogs for every game involving USA and Canada plus post game coverage and special features - videos, podcasts, etc. If there's someone you'd like to hear from or about, just let me know and I'll do my best.
You can also follow me on twitter for links, up to the minute info, pictures and anything else I find noteworthy in Malmo. I'm also on Instagram (JulieRobenhymer), but I honestly don't know how to tell you to follow me on there so you're on your own on that front.
I've had a lot of questions rolling in about the goaltending in this tournament because we all know how important it is to have a solid presence between the pipes. My eyes will be on USA's Jon Gillies, Sweden's Oskar Dansk and Russia's Andrei Vasilevski because all three are fully capable of stealing this tournament for their respective teams and everyone knows it, especially them. They will face a lot of pressure and carry a lot of expectations on their shoulders, just a matter of who handles it best. Given their recent struggle in goal, I will also be interested to see how Jake Paterson handles his role as starter between the pipes for Canada.
Team USA made their final cut, sending Tyler Motte home. He was one of my bubble guys so I'm not surprised by this, but the situation was drawn out a bit longer because both he and Adam Erne battled the flu this week.
Lots of attention on USA, Russia, Sweden and Canada for obvious reasons, but Finland has one of their strongest teams in years and could make waves in the quarterfinals, so don't count them out. As far as a favorite, some say USA because they're defending gold, some say Canada because they're pissed off for greatness, some say Russia because they've got some studs, but I'm going with Sweden. Andre Burakowsky was right, on paper, they are the team to beat. They have 11 players who earned silver last year, two who are NHL caliber, a quality goaltender and they're playing on home ice. How can you not pick them as the favorite going into this? That said, games aren't played on paper and I think these will be the four playing for a medal on January 5th with all of them capable of winning the whole thing, which is great news for us.
May the best team win and may we all enjoy outstanding hockey in the process!
Julie
JulieLovesHockey@gmail.com
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