Swedes, Canada and US.
This team here is damn good.. biggest problem could be a fluke Canada draw. And I'd call that 50-50. The crossover sucks though for Swedes and US. Swiss have a beautiful team here. Canada is Canada. Finns are Finns. Prey for my Czechs (who are about to have Pastrnak available as it's 2-1 Florida with 30 seconds left)
But is it though overall? Yes, there is the whole Austria business, but on the whole? The top four trans in each group are the top four teams I expected to see. Some may have expected Latvia instead of Slovakia but I didn’t, always thought last year was a bit of a fluke. So basically the top 8 teams are exactly what one would have expected the top 8 teams to be.
That's been something I've loved.. not many blowouts and the quartters look to be 3 exceptionally tight matches. If Canada finishes first I'd expect them to beat Latvia or Germany relatively well. The other 3 quarters are marquee. A strong Swiss squad really helps with the parity!
Keep an eye on these guys with those additions. Pretty stingy D, wild home crowd behind them and now with some legitimate scoring threats. Dark horse IMO
I think to go all the way they still are but yes not quite as dark for sure. I would be pretty leery of them now.
hmm, valid view especially considering the Swiss troubles in the money games, you may be right.
I wonder if this tournament could be held when the top countries could have their best players available, and wanting to play? Make it a true World Championship. More like what soccer does. I guess money gets in the way though.
Doesn´t matter. By this logic, GB would be favourite, too (They won in the 20th century). If you have Fiala, Josi, Hischier, you´re pretty damn good.
I don't think it's possible. The IIHF blew any chance of that happening many decades ago. There is no way the best players (in North America anyway) would go year after year, and if the tournament didn't take place until after the NHL playoffs then a ton of players would refuse because it would be too disruptive to their summers. The current setup is probably as good as it possibly could be.
The is this really a “world” championship? Even the World Juniors is missing the top guys, because they’re in the NHL.
It’s nice to hear there are elite NHLers (pasta) who will play for their country even after a hard nhl playoff grind. Hard not to cheer for guys who do that.
