Woke up this morning (afternoon) to see a ton of news about the World Junior Championship. I realized.. It must be that time of year. The most wonderful time of year.
Not Christmas, necessarily, but close enough. From December 26 to January 5 every year, it's World Juniors time.
If you're completely confused, you're missing out on some of the best hockey ever. The WJC is an international tournament for players under 20 (this year, meaning 1990 birthdates or younger), and it's without a doubt the best yearly hockey tournament you could think of (besides the NHL playoffs, of course). Since all these guys are 19/20 (mostly), most have been drafted, so it's nice to see them get some additional exposure. It's pretty much just as big of a deal as the Olympics in Canada, they go nuts for it. It's not nearly as big in the United States, but the NHL Network did an incredible job covering the games last year, and even did some original pro-American broadcasts instead of just ripping feeds from TSN.
Canada has run the table recently with five straight gold medals. This was the best game of the tournament from last year, the annual showdown between Canada and the USA on New Year's Eve. With Wings' prospect Thomas McCollum in net, Team USA stormed out to a 3-0 lead on Canadian soil, but Canada stormed back to tie it... before the end of the first period. It was tragic from the perspective that it was McCollum getting lit up. But it was awesome from the perspective that I was practically shaking with how back and forth this game was, even once Canada ran up the score to 7-4. McCollum was the USA's goalie for the whole tournament, and struggled. He bounced back nicely, and I don't fault him as USA's defense last year was just awful.
Here are the highlights. At least watch the first period. If you're not hooked, check your pulse:
Fear not, the USA's had their laughs. This was the deciding goal at the 2004 games (full game highlight here):
There are unbelievable moments every year. One of the stars of last year's tournament was Tomas Tatar -- pretty much bumped him up from a potential late round pick to a legitimate top two round selection. He scored seven goals as Slovakia was the surprise team of the tournament, upsetting the Americans en route to a loss in the bronze medal game.
Detroit sounds like they're going to release Tatar from Grand Rapids for two weeks to play in this tournament again. He's guaranteed to be the go-to guy for Slovakia, so if nothing else, watch the tournament for him.
Other than him, there weren't really any locks for the Americans. I posted this summer when the summer camp roster came out, because I was disappointed that neither Brian Lashoff or Max Nicastro had made the roster. Lashoff is understandable -- sometimes politics get in the way and the USA "overlooks" American players that choose not to play college hockey (see Bobby Ryan, but they've been better on this type of thing recently), and Lashoff is not a highly touted prospect to begin with, as he was never drafted and you don't hear too much fawning over him. Nicastro I was more surprised about. I didn't think he would make the team, but I thought he deserved to be among the 20 or so defensemen they had on the initial roster, especially considering he starred last season for the World Junior A Challenge, where the Americans won gold. I was disappointed, but knew that they could play their way onto the roster.
I knew that they could, but I didn't expect them to. USA widdled down their roster today from 20 or so to to 11 defensemen -- including both Lashoff and Nicastro. Here's the roster (it's a .doc file). If Nicastro and Lashoff ever wanted to start playing exceptional hockey, now would be the time. The final roster will most likely consist of seven defensemen, so four cuts. Of that list, I would say that John Carlson, Jake Gardiner, Cam Fowler, and John Moore are definitely 100% safe, no fear of being cut.
For the final three spots, I'd say David Warsofsky has an advantage, but if Team USA feels they already have enough offensive defensemen in that top 4, they could look to the defensive puck-mover Lashoff or the two-way Nicastro over Warsofsky. Jon Merrill and Justin Faulk are on the roster, but as 1992 birthdays for a tournament of '90s, don't have much of a shot. Could only be at the camp just to get experience to play big parts in the next two years. The other two are John Ramage (Brendan Smith's defensive partner at Wisconsin), who is a '91, and Matt Donovan, who I haven't heard of but could make the team as the US loves to take one random "who is this guy" defensive defenseman, which is what Donovan sounds like.
So the chances are pretty good for at least one Wing on the blueline. Tatar is an 150% lock. The only other player with a chance at competing is Andrej Nestrasil for the Czech Republic, as the Czechs haven't released their roster. As a '91, he's a lock for next year's team, but could force his way onto this year's team with his better than point-per-game clip early in the QMJHL season. The Wings' two long shots in Brent Raedeke and Willie Coetzee didn't make Canada's 36-man roster, but if you're a fan of local hockey players, the Plymouth Whalers' Matt Hackett (nephew of Jeff), and Tyler Seguin (potential #1 overall pick in 2010) did make it.
Final rosters will most likely be towards the second or third week of this month. I advise all of you to watch this tournament, but if you don't.. expect coverage here.
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Thanks for the write up. I hope I can somehow see one of these games. I'd love to see Tatar play. I'm a huge hockey fan and I like prospects but I know 1% of what you do and I still heard about him last year. Any bets on a Swedish, Slovakian, Czech, or Russian player that steps up this year and gets drafted next year by Detroit? When the final rosters are set could you give us a "who to watch list"?
It's tough to pick guys to break out on those teams. I'd heard of Tatar before last year's tournament, but I had no idea what type of player he is.
But picking a guy at random to have a really good tournament might be difficult. It doesn't happen every year. This is a U-20 tournament, meaning that most of the guys playing ('90 birthdays and '91 birthdays) have already been drafted. There are a handful of non-drafted players each year, but they're all so young that it makes it difficult for them to get significant ice time amongst players that can be two years older than them. The '92s that make the team are usually all potential first round picks. A country like Slovakia has to be really weak on depth for there to be another situation with a guy like Tatar (although, he was only a late-'90 in a tournament for '89s).
But one guy to look out for is Sweden's Adam Larsson. Not looking like a Wings pick, but looking like the early favorite to go 1st overall in 2011. He's already logging big minutes in the SEL at 17, producing more than even Victor Hedman at the same age. He's already made the Swedish roster, and, with a couple Swedish defensemen in the NHL/AHL (Hedman and Ottawa's Erik Karlsson), he's poised to have a big role on the U-20 team.
I'll do a who to watch thing once the rosters are finalized, though. Should be pretty soon.
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