WJC: 2024 Groups

[Statsy]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Canada with a soft game on New Year’s Eve. Yet this may be the year if we’re in a group with Sweden and Finland. They may choose to play each other that night because of their long standing rivalry, but I also think that Sweden probably views Canada as the tougher test and therefore the match you want to build toward. You can rule out a NYE game featuring Canada and Finland, leaving Sweden with no marquee match-up.

I also think people are exaggerating TSN’s sway when it comes to scheduling. If this is in Sweden, then Sweden makes the schedule and does whatever helps them win.

 

[Fjorden]

Who Would you say is? Norway wasn’t dominant to get promoted but they played well and most of their best players are returning.

Swiss are difficult to gauge in my opinion - they looked good this year.

Germany is difficult too - I think there is potential for relegation.

the swiss only have 5 players from this team eligible for next years tournament. I dont know how the next years swiss team looks, do they have a lot of talent?

Norway have 16 players from this years team eligible. Many of them will likely gain senior hockey experience aswell in Sweden to bring in more physicallity. Norway. can also add potential early round drafts like Michael Brandsegg nygård(F) and Stian Solberg(D). So to me the norwegian team will be stronger next year than this years norwegian team.

 

[JackSlater]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Canada with a soft game on New Year’s Eve. Yet this may be the year if we’re in a group with Sweden and Finland. They may choose to play each other that night because of their long standing rivalry, but I also think that Sweden probably views Canada as the tougher test and therefore the match you want to build toward. You can rule out a NYE game featuring Canada and Finland, leaving Sweden with no marquee match-up.

I also think people are exaggerating TSN’s sway when it comes to scheduling. If this is in Sweden, then Sweden makes the schedule and does whatever helps them win.

Yeah Sweden sets the matchups, I don't see TSN having any say. There's also the reality that the games are going to be on during the day so Canada's New Years Eve game will at latest be played in the afternoon on the East coast.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

the swiss only have 5 players from this team eligible for next years tournament. I dont know how the next years swiss team looks, do they have a lot of talent?

Norway have 16 players from this years team eligible. Many of them will likely gain senior hockey experience aswell in Sweden to bring in more physicallity. Norway. can also add potential early round drafts like Michael Brandsegg nygård(F) and Stian Solberg(D). So to me the norwegian team will be stronger next year than this years norwegian team.

I thought this years Swiss team was rather weak - but they came out swinging. It’s always difficult to say with them. @Hinterland or @Speyer might be able to give us a more accurate account of how next years team looks from the onset of things.

Norway is the clear underdog of their group in my opinion. However there is upside if the Swiss, as we’ve mentioned or the Slovaks have a down year. Norway would need a lot to go right to not play for relegation in that group, even with the strong team their sending next year. Vesterheim, Solberg and Brandsegg Nygard are a good base to build off of for an underdog team however.

 

[Hinterland]

I thought this years Swiss team was rather weak - but they came out swinging. It’s always difficult to say with them. @Hinterland or @Speyer might be able to give us a more accurate account of how next years team looks from the onset of things.

Norway is the clear underdog of their group in my opinion. However there is upside if the Swiss, as we’ve mentioned or the Slovaks have a down year. Norway would need a lot to go right to not play for relegation in that group, even with the strong team their sending next year. Vesterheim, Solberg and Brandsegg Nygard are a good base to build off of for an underdog team however.

Well, I expect the team to be very similar than the last one. Probably a deep team with few superstars and questionable goaltending. Of course the team is gonna be built around Lian Bichsel and Jonas Taibel. Bichsel is gonna be very hard to stop for any team in his senior WJC. Besides those two we also have Meile, Dionicio and Muller returning which is a good start. Then there's players with pro experience who easily could or even should have been on the last team like Matteo Reinhart, Simone Terraneo, Janick Liechti, Louis Füllemann or Noah Greuter. I'd expect those 3+5 guys to build the extended core around Bichsel and Taibel. All of them are gonna have lots of pro or CHL experience by next year. Besides those 10 guys our 04 group probably won't be too deep so I'd expect more underagers on the next team than on the last one. CHL players Leo Braillard, Valdemar Hull and Kimo Gruber are probably early frontrunners of the 05 group to make the team and the same goes for Eric Schneller.

The Swiss played a good tournament because they were able to make up for poor goaltending and a questionable forward group with a very deep defense. They played solid team defense in most games. If they want to repeat this they probably need either better goaltending or a few more emerging defenders to build around Bichsel, Terraneo, Meile, Dionicio and Füllemann. I'm relatively optimistic in that regard but it's too early to tell. There are a few interesting goalie prospects to watch over the next months but the question is if they're gonna get ice time in the pro leagues. I just hope we don't have to rely on Beglieri again. Unfortunately he's not much better than Pasche and I'm not sure if he'll improve enough to provide solid goaltending at the next WJC. For years we always had great goaltending at those WJC20 tournaments but we might need defense to bail out goaltending for another year.

 

[Boonk]

Yeah there’s no way they let Canada play some lower quality team on NYE. The USA matchup is preferred but not possible so it will be one of Sweden or Finland. Sweden vs Finland may be on Boxing Day to start the tourney off with a bang.

There’s now a whole generation of kids who don’t know the tradition of CAN vs USA on New Year’s Eve. It’s like Christmas but without snow, it’s good but something is missing.

Haven't had a CAN/ US NYE game since 2018 ffs!

 

[Vikz]

I’d rather Latvia over any other team in the tournament - Germany got a good draw.

There are bad teams in the tournament, then there are good teams - Germany is a bad team, and they got the second worse team in the tournament in my opinion to play against in the group play - giving Germany the best possible chance at avoiding relegation next year.

Ironically, Latvia feel the same. The stakes will also be higher this time for Latvians. This year, despite getting a harder group, we at least felt that beating Austria in eliminations will be easy. Next year, both Germany or Latvia might face a tougher opponent during the survival games than during actual fight for the QF.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Frankly, the more I look at this Norwegian team, the more I don't see it getting relegated. That one group stage game is going to be massive.

I would go as far as saying it wouldn't be crazy at all for Norway to have ambitions to reach QF as well. Roster-wise, Swiss have nothing on them.

 

[novisor]

Haven't had a CAN/ US NYE game since 2018 ffs!

2017 tournament actually (NYE 2016) was the last

 

[kudla]

Frankly, the more I look at this Norwegian team, the more I don't see it getting relegated. That one group stage game is going to be massive.

I would go as far as saying it wouldn't be crazy at all for Norway to have ambitions to reach QF as well. Roster-wise, Swiss have nothing on them.

Agree, this is a very strong norwegian generation, however, I am afraid they will lack top division quality experience

 

[Hinterland]

Frankly, the more I look at this Norwegian team, the more I don't see it getting relegated. That one group stage game is going to be massive.

I would go as far as saying it wouldn't be crazy at all for Norway to have ambitions to reach QF as well. Roster-wise, Swiss have nothing on them.

Well, the advantage we almost always have vs nations outside of the top5 is depth. We may have few superstars but we can pick from a large pool of very similar players with pro or top junior league experience. Other countries outside of the top5 rarely ever have that luxury despite having more star players. There's mostly no weak links on our roster except when dumb coaches decide to pick any. Next year we might be crackable should we get questionable goaltending for another year. Having said that we also get another year of Lian Bichsel and vs the weaker teams he can just take all of their star players out of the game. That doesn't work vs good teams with depth as we saw vs Czechia when there's just too many threats but he silenced all of the Finnish or Slovakian superstars pretty much on his own. Coaches can just play him for 30mins and send him out everytime the opponent ices any dangerous players. Coaching is never easier than when you can use Lian Bichsel vs kids.