WC: Predictions for the 2025 WC

[Czechboy]

You three are the biggest favorites for sure.
The US have skill and speed but you can't insist on them being favorites over you guys at home soil. Sometimes they just don't show up with the team effort like you have to. Sweden for sure will when playing in Stockholm.
First of all, Markström played great for the Devils in the playoffs. He's hot and he's big. He can win games. Swedens D's are good as always, almost great. Edvinsson can be that joker and has the potential to have "His tournament" and take that next step. Like younger players with high potential sometimes do.
Leo Carlsson is nothing but a star in this tournament and he's a team player, young and hungry. Motivation is key. He wants to show who he is for the big crowd. But he's not a cocky character, humble with confidence and I'm quite sure he will perform.
Raymond is a star and makes your PP lethal with centers like Lindholm and Leo. And yeah, let's not forget you can have the option of having either Ziba or Wennberg as centers as well. Backlund and others...
All in all, good netminders with a very good first option. Good D. Good top6 and PP formations. Center depth. Combine that with a decent team effort and you will most likely medal.
Canada on the other hand, they have some great leaders and are perhaps the biggest favorites followed by you guys. Crosby, MacKinnon, Celebrini are just it guys. Fantili and Johnson could have chemistry and be good together. But their D aren't as good imo and Markström is better than their goalies. All in all could be pretty even. Don't forget, goalies are important. A team like the Czechs can upset all these three as well. They have the top6 quality making their special teams good and they won't have any pressure. Pastrnak is used to carry a big load on his shoulders as well.


Perhaps he was, but in the NHL he's nothing but a nobody currently. He's a lot worse than Kakko, Nyman and Beniers and they aren't that great either. Nyman can eventually become something good though. Kakko and Beniers are both pretty one dimensional as well. Tolvanen is not the greatest either but has a better shot imho. And again, they belong to one of the weakest teams in the NHL. So that's that.

One of my fav posters.

 

[therealdeal]

All the teams have a lot of fun and everyone gets along

 

[BigBadBoar]

On paper it looks somewhat like this:

1. Canada
2. Sweden
3.-6. Czechia, Finland, Switzerland, US
7.-10. Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Slovakia
11.-13. Austria, France, Norway
14.-15. Kazakhstan, Slovenia
16. Hungary

But of course: The games get decided on the ice, not on paper and everything can look completely different at the end. In general, I can't quite imagine any other team than the projected top 6 winning any medal (not so surprising) and would be quite a lot surprised if Hungary doesn't get relegated, considering several important players won't show up for various reasons and they don't have sufficient depth to find even nearly adequate replacement.

In the Sweden group I expect Canada, Sweden, Finland to advance to the QF with ease, and the same for Czechia, Switzerland, US in the Denmark group (again: not surprising). But that's probably the only thing I feel pretty confident they will happen. The playoffs are always hard to predict even after the group stage, the less before the turnament even starts.

 

[Summer Rose]

On paper it looks somewhat like this:

1. Canada
2. Sweden
3.-6. Czechia, Finland, Switzerland, US
7.-10. Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Slovakia
11.-13. Austria, France, Norway
14.-15. Kazakhstan, Slovenia
16. Hungary

But of course: The games get decided on the ice, not on paper and everything can look completely different at the end. In general, I can't quite imagine any other team than the projected top 6 winning any medal (not so surprising) and would be quite a lot surprised if Hungary doesn't get relegated, considering several important players won't show up for various reasons and they don't have sufficient depth to find even nearly adequate replacement.

In the Sweden group I expect Canada, Sweden, Finland to advance to the QF with ease, and the same for Czechia, Switzerland, US in the Denmark group (again: not surprising). But that's probably the only thing I feel pretty confident they will happen. The playoffs are always hard to predict even after the group stage, the less before the turnament even starts.

You're absolutely right. While the preliminary round standings are much more predictable, the playoff round gets murkier since anything can happen in a single game of hockey. I'll try my hand at it anyway, kind of making things up as I go, and go into some further detail on the playoff round matchups that my preliminary round standings predictions would produce.

Group A:
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Finland
4. Slovakia
5. Latvia
6. Austria
7. France
8. Slovenia (relegated)

Group A is pretty straightforward with a few surprises possible, but that's about how I would see them shaking out.

Group B:
1. Czech Republic
2. United States
3. Denmark
4. Switzerland
5. Germany
6. Norway
7. Kazakhstan
8. Hungary (relegated)

Group B is less straightforward than group A. I put the Czechs on top because they always seem to be pretty strong in the preliminary round. The United States takes second because even though I think we have the strongest "on paper" roster of the group, we don't like to have our shit together for a tournament like this, so I'll drop us a place in favor of the Czechs. Denmark has the host thing going for them so that vaults them into third, and Switzerland edges out Germany for the final quarterfinal place, but it wouldn't really surprise me if it goes the other way. Kazakhstan edges Hungary to avoid the relegation place, and that leaves Norway in 6th, because that's all there's left at that point (but it wouldn't surprise me either to see Kazakhstan take 6th and Norway drop to 7th).

That leaves the following quarterfinal matchups:

Canada vs. Switzerland - Canada shouldn't have too much trouble dispatching Switzerland. Maybe the Swiss keep it close, but lose anyway.
Czech Republic vs. Slovakia - Slovakia could elevate their game and win it, but I think the Czechs take it anyway.
Sweden vs. Denmark - battle of the hosts! Easy advantage Sweden, depends on where the game is played (I think in this case it would be in Sweden, maybe that's where all the quarterfinals are anyway, I don't know actually).
United States vs. Finland - since I'm cynical about my own country's showings at this tournament I wouldn't put it past Finland to elevate their game and win this one, so I'll go with that.

That leaves a final four of Canada, Czech Republic, Sweden, and Finland. Since the semi-finals are re-seeded, and I don't really feel like going into the details of what the exact record will be of the teams in the preliminary round, it wouldn't be entirely fair for me to say what the semi-final matchups would be. However, I did notice I took the top three teams in group A plus the group B winner to advance, so for the sake of this rather arbitrary prediction, I can possibly form the following semifinal matchups and medal games:

Canada vs. Finland - Canada should take this one.
Czech Republic vs. Sweden - Sweden takes this one.
Canada over Sweden for the gold, leaving silver with Sweden.
Czech Republic over Finland for the bronze. Sorry Finland, you had a good run.

Very arbitrary and kind of random guesses. I will not be taking any questions.

 

[Fil]

1.Canada
2.Czech
3,Sweden
4.USA or Swiss

Relegated: Kazaks and Slovenia
(If hertl comes i think czech can win)

 

[Czechboy]

All this Czech optimisim makes me think we are f***ed.lol It'd be nice though.. we didn't medal at Womens and we shit the bed at the U18s. So any color medal would be nice.

 

[ORRFForever]

All this Czech optimisim makes me think we are f***ed.lol It'd be nice though.. we didn't medal at Womens and we shit the bed at the U18s. So any color medal would be nice.

The (foul) language, CB, the (foul) language.

 

[Fil]

All this Czech optimisim makes me think we are f***ed.lol It'd be nice though.. we didn't medal at Womens and we shit the bed at the U18s. So any color medal would be nice.

Who give af lol
This the one that matters

 

[Czechboy]

The (foul) language, CB, the (foul) language.

I've actually learned that is how to do it on HF... we are not supposed to 'circumvent' the swear words. No joke. If I had wrote F$%K I could get a warning but if I write f***.. it automatically changes it for me.

 

[Svedu]

You're absolutely right. While the preliminary round standings are much more predictable, the playoff round gets murkier since anything can happen in a single game of hockey. I'll try my hand at it anyway, kind of making things up as I go, and go into some further detail on the playoff round matchups that my preliminary round standings predictions would produce.

Group A:
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Finland
4. Slovakia
5. Latvia
6. Austria
7. France
8. Slovenia (relegated)

Group A is pretty straightforward with a few surprises possible, but that's about how I would see them shaking out.

Group B:
1. Czech Republic
2. United States
3. Denmark
4. Switzerland
5. Germany
6. Norway
7. Kazakhstan
8. Hungary (relegated)

Group B is less straightforward than group A. I put the Czechs on top because they always seem to be pretty strong in the preliminary round. The United States takes second because even though I think we have the strongest "on paper" roster of the group, we don't like to have our shit together for a tournament like this, so I'll drop us a place in favor of the Czechs. Denmark has the host thing going for them so that vaults them into third, and Switzerland edges out Germany for the final quarterfinal place, but it wouldn't really surprise me if it goes the other way. Kazakhstan edges Hungary to avoid the relegation place, and that leaves Norway in 6th, because that's all there's left at that point (but it wouldn't surprise me either to see Kazakhstan take 6th and Norway drop to 7th).

That leaves the following quarterfinal matchups:

Canada vs. Switzerland - Canada shouldn't have too much trouble dispatching Switzerland. Maybe the Swiss keep it close, but lose anyway.
Czech Republic vs. Slovakia - Slovakia could elevate their game and win it, but I think the Czechs take it anyway.
Sweden vs. Denmark - battle of the hosts! Easy advantage Sweden, depends on where the game is played (I think in this case it would be in Sweden, maybe that's where all the quarterfinals are anyway, I don't know actually).
United States vs. Finland - since I'm cynical about my own country's showings at this tournament I wouldn't put it past Finland to elevate their game and win this one, so I'll go with that.

That leaves a final four of Canada, Czech Republic, Sweden, and Finland. Since the semi-finals are re-seeded, and I don't really feel like going into the details of what the exact record will be of the teams in the preliminary round, it wouldn't be entirely fair for me to say what the semi-final matchups would be. However, I did notice I took the top three teams in group A plus the group B winner to advance, so for the sake of this rather arbitrary prediction, I can possibly form the following semifinal matchups and medal games:

Canada vs. Finland - Canada should take this one.
Czech Republic vs. Sweden - Sweden takes this one.
Canada over Sweden for the gold, leaving silver with Sweden.
Czech Republic over Finland for the bronze. Sorry Finland, you had a good run.

Very arbitrary and kind of random guesses. I will not be taking any questions.

Good take. Funny thing is Eye of Ra liked this post but "Thought" it was unheard of having Sweden as one of the top3 or even top2 favorites for this tournament when I wrote my post. I guess our old friend was trolling, again...
I mean if anything, having the US out in the QF already is more "controversial" than my take.

 

[Svedu]

Who give af lol
This the one that matters

Nah, it all matters if you love Leijonat or in your case Czechia. But I get you, this one matters more.

 

[Fil]

Nah, it all matters if you love Leijonat or in your case Czechia. But I get you, this one matters more.

Well it matters more compared to u18 and women's lol
It should be like that for everyone if not im shocked

 

[RKBoy]

Group A
1.Canada
2.Sweden
3.Finland
4.Slovakia
5.Austria
6.Latvia
7.France
8.Slovenia

Group B
1.Czechia
2.USA
3.Switzerland
4.Germany
5.Denmark
6.Kazakhstan
7.Norway
8.Hungary

QF
Czechia - Slovakia
Canada - Germany
Sweden - Switzerland
USA - Finland

Semis
Canada - Switzerland
Czechia - USA

Bronze
Czechia - Switzerland

Final
Canada - USA

 

[ORRFForever]

I've actually learned that is how to do it on HF... we are not supposed to 'circumvent' the swear words. No joke. If I had wrote F$%K I could get a warning but if I write f***.. it automatically changes it for me.

The point is : You're NOT supposed to talk like that at all - especially on a day when we MIGHT get a new Pope.

 

[kudla]

Hard to see Canada not take gold with Crosby and MacK

 

[Czechboy]

Canada just added Bennington, danault and schenn.lmao. That gold is Canada's to lose.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Good take. Funny thing is Eye of Ra liked this post but "Thought" it was unheard of having Sweden as one of the top3 or even top2 favorites for this tournament when I wrote my post. I guess our old friend was trolling, again...
I mean if anything, having the US out in the QF already is more "controversial" than my take.

im flirting with her

 

[Peiskos]

Just checked the roster, pleasantly surprised to see the likes of MacKinnon and Crosby. How can you not go with gold for Canada knowing that. The clear favourites, but we still need to play the games of course.

 

[Czechboy]

Canada also added Fleury in net.lol This has 2015 vibes to me at this point.

 

[Czechboy]

The point is : You're NOT supposed to talk like that at all - especially on a day when we MIGHT get a new Pope.

It's okay, the new pope is one of my people,lol

 

[ORRFForever]

View attachment 1032367

It's okay, the new pope is one of my people,lol

Shame, CB, shame.

 

[Erikfromfin]

 

[illone84]

Nothing like having fantasies of beating Austria. Too bad it happens on May 9th and not April 30th