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WJC: 2021 World Juniors

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Rob

Rob

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
9,305
1,652
New Brunswick
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Canada in an much easier group for 2021. The only competitive game should be the game against Finland which I am guessing will be on NYE.

Sweden might finally have that round robin winning streak come to an end.
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Good thing there's a few games in Red Deer.

I don't want to give my money to Daryl Katz and what he's done to the Oilers (and to an extent, the Battle of Alberta for the past decade) even as a Flames fan.
 
Pretty similar groups to this year. Canada and Sweden switch sides, while the promoted team gets an impossible task, the team who stayed up the prior year gets the easier side. Germany being rewarded for staying up going from the tough side to the easier group. Depending on who they get next year they could finish as high as 3rd, maybe even 2nd in their group though Finland should be strong next year. That's the interesting group for me. I'm thinking Slovakia is 5th there but who knows. Austria has Marco Rossi assuming he's not NHL bound but that'll be a tough ask for them to do anything in their group. I think this is the year Sweden's streak ends. The Americans 2001's are really talented. I know I'm going to offend some Slovak posters with this prediction but I like upsets, this age group was relegated in the U18s too, sue me.

Early predictions:

USA
Sweden
Russia
Czech Republic
Austria

Canada
Finland
Germany
Switzerland
Slovakia

AUT def SVK

USA def SUI
GER def SWE
FIN def RUS
CAN def CZE

FIN def CAN
USA def GER

USA def FIN
CAN def GER

1. USA
2. FIN
3. CAN
4. GER
5. SWE
6. RUS
7. SUI
8. CZE
9. AUT
10. SVK
 
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Canada4Gold said:
I know I'm going to offend some Slovak posters with this prediction but I like upsets, this age group was relegated in the U18s too, sue me.
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I'm not offended, and I'm hoping Austrian posters don't get offended either, but I think Austria will be the weakest team at Juniors in years. It's possible they upset, but even against us, I'd have them as underdogs. If our coaches are smart, they are going to omit some of those kids that experienced the U18 relegation and go with some of the younger kids that were competitive at the last Hlinka cup with the Top5, where we lost games only by a single goal. Slovak posters are overall expecting a slightly better junior team next tournament and a further improvement over the following 2 years. In any case, player development doesn't always align with our expectations.
 
tobu said:
I'm not offended, and I'm hoping Austrian posters don't get offended either, but I think Austria will be the weakest team at Juniors in years. It's possible they upset, but even against us, I'd have them as underdogs. If our coaches are smart, they are going to omit some of those kids that experienced the U18 relegation and go with some of the younger kids that were competitive at the last Hlinka cup with the Top5, where we lost games only by a single goal. Slovak posters are overall expecting a slightly better junior team next tournament and a further improvement over the following 2 years. In any case, player development doesn't always align with our expectations.
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Austria could ice a pretty good top 6 (Rossi, Hochegger, Peeters, Thaler, Harnisch, Waller). Not a walkover team
 
Russia and Sweden need to pick up theyre game... its becoming 3 country race for gold now with Canada, Usa and Finland dominating
 
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Erikfromfin said:
Russia and Sweden need to pick up theyre game... its becoming 3 country race for gold now with Canada, Usa and Finland dominating
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Russia was just in the final and it basically took divine intervention to keep them from winning.

As for Sweden, it’s anyone’s guess as to what exactly the problem is. I don’t know how you can win 52 consecutive games in the preliminary round and then go two games below .500 when it matters. People will say they have no pressure in the group stage, but everyone faces the same pressure to earn that higher seed. Sweden now faces additional pressure to keep that streak going and they have for a few years now, always passing that test. Then they often go on to lose to teams that they have already beaten earlier in the tournament. It is perhaps the most perplexing conundrum in the hockey world right now.
 
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Russia has been better and now more recently as well. I’m sure they are well aware they haven’t won gold in a while.
 
Russia could have won this year very easily.

The US had a strong roster but faltered.

Sweden dominates in the group stage but can't win the Gold.

It's kind of a statistical quirk that it has only been Canada and Finland as Gold medalists of late - I think there's never been more parity at this level.

Silver medalists over that span:

2014: Sweden
2015: Russia
2016: Russia
2017: Canada
2018: Sweden
2019: United States
2020: Russia
 
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Statsy said:
Russia has been better and now more recently as well. I’m sure they are well aware they haven’t won gold in a while.
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I remember plenty of Canadians here were facing what seemed like an existential crisis when we didn’t win for 5 tournaments from 2010 to 2014. I could only imagine the doom and gloom if we were at 8 tournaments without gold like Sweden or 9 without gold like Russia.
 
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Home ice advantage cerai
XeroKaos said:
I remember plenty of Canadians here were facing what seemed like an existential crisis when we didn’t win for 5 tournaments from 2010 to 2014. I could only imagine the doom and gloom if we were at 8 tournaments without gold like Sweden or 9 without gold like Russia.
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Mind you, with having home ice advantage regularly I expect gold at least every 2 years from our boys. It has to help us - and TSNs bottom line
 
wacko2 said:
Home ice advantage cerai


Mind you, with having home ice advantage regularly I expect gold at least every 2 years from our boys. It has to help us - and TSNs bottom line
Click to expand...

Meh I don’t think home ice is a big advantage these days with the parity, Canada hosted in 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2019 this decade and we only won the 2015 tournament, that’s 1/5.
 
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