Disagree, Latvian Top 6 is def worse than Canadian bottom 6. Swedish roster is not interchangeable with Belarus, it is also far from truth. Aside from Sharangovich and imports they are not good
Canada has several players on this roster who are AHL players, or who's only had a taste of the NHL so far in their career. Daugavins and even Kenins have more NHL experience then some of them. Abols AHL/SHL numbers match some of those on the Canadian roster, and he could just as well have seen NHL time with the Panthers. The fact that he didn't has more to do with coincidence/oppourtunity than actual ability.
Indrasis would surely have signed a NHL contract years ago had it not been for the KHL giving him more money/security. Bukarts could also play on a 4th line in the NHL and would not look out of place. Okay, maybe they are not an upgrade, but they are completely interchangable with the likes of Danforth, Anderson-Dolan, Foudy and Pirri. Canada has some talented kids, sure, but they have yet to establish themselves in the NHL. They have a bright future, but are not there yet. Even guys who had good rookie showings in the NHL, such as Bunting and Hagel, are not yet established.
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As for Belarus, several of their defenseman are interchangable with several on team Sweden. But yeah, overall, I made an exeggeration.
All in all though, I stand by my opinion. The differance between the traditionally strong nations bottom portion of rosters, and the upper portion of weaker nations rosters, is so small this year that it's basically non-existent in any singular game. When we sit here on HFboards, and discuss which NHL player is better than the other, we usually do it while looking at their impact on a 82 game season + playoffs. But in just one game game? As a Ducks fan, I can say that the likes of Grant and Rowney often outperforms Henrique or Rakell.
Similarly, a good European league based player, is gonna outperform a bottom six NHL'er quite often in just one game. And a medium Euro league player is gonna outperform a good Euro league player. Add in other facts, such as the smaller nations having more line chemistry, and that hockey is a sport of bounces and where goaltending and special teams plays a huge role in any singular game, it's no surprise the tournament has gone like this.
The only nations in this tournament, on paper, who should be completely run over by the big nations, are Italy and Great Britain. But so far, even they handle themselves quite well.
Yeah, I didn't expect THIS many "upsets", but I sure expected a lot of close games. It's not a coincidence that Germany almost won gold in 2018. The prerequisites are similar now.
