If you remember my first post on this blog, I said I'd be writing a sports related article once a week. Yeah about that, it didn't quite work out that way with the end of my academic semester. Whoops. But now I'm back and will make this blog a high priority to have at least one post a week. If not even more than one a week if I'm feeling particularly inspired. Like the next couple of weeks as it's my favorite time of the year in the sports world. It's the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Juniors tournament, which this year is being hosted in Buffalo, New York.
As I think I noted in my first blog post, or if you follow me on any social media platform, I'm a huge hockey person. It's such a great sport to watch and be around and nothing exemplifies that more than the World Juniors Tournament. It's the best kept secret in the hockey world that for some reason, the USA hasn't quite picked up on yet, unless you're a hockey nerd like myself. It can be a little hard to describe exactly why the World Juniors is such a great tournament for hockey and just sports in general.
I think it's because these are still kids, and you see that in their utter joy at winning, or utter devastation of losing. There's also something about being able to play for and represent your country on a national stage. Even if the World Juniors is a smaller stage than something like the Olympics, it’s still a wild ride carrying the expectations of a nation on your back. Especially when you're only 18, and 19 years old. That adds up a lot in this tournament, which motivates the play, and displays the emotions of these kids which you sort of lose at the professional level. There isn't quite that display of emotion or even sometimes the quick and inspired play.
Now that I've finished waxing some poetic on why the World Juniors is such a great tournament, let’s get into the nitty gritty of it. I'm writing this post right before the second day of round robin play begins. So far there have been four games on the first day, the Czech Republic versus Russia, Belarus versus Sweden, Canada versus Finland, and the United States versus Denmark. The winners in each of these games were the Czech Republic, Sweden, Canada, and the United States. And it was a wild ride to most of those final finishes.
I will be honest and tell you I missed the first game against the Czech Republic and Russia. It's winter break for me from school and I've gotten into the inevitably bad habit of waking up in the early afternoon. Meaning by the time I was awake and coherent yesterday, the game was in its final period and I didn't want to head down to the basement to watch it. Which is a shame because it ended up being the closest game of the day and the first upset of the tournament. The Czech Republic beat the dominate Russians 5-4 by playing some close defense throughout the game and never backing down to the favored Russian team.
The other three games of the day were less close than that. Sweden blew out Belarus after a close first period 6-1. And the current reigning World Juniors champion USA team ended the day with a decisive win over Denmark in a 9-0 shutout. The last closer game of the day was between Canada and Finland.
Last year Finland went from winning the entire tournament in 2016 to being in 9th place in 2017. So, it's expected that this year the Fins will storm back stronger than ever. In this game Canada ended up taking their first-round robin 4-2, but the game was much closer than the score tells. Canada was a little undisciplined taking a total of 6 penalties throughout the game, one of which Finland was able to capitalize on. Finland was also able to take more high danger shots in front of the net as opposed to Canada. Canada's lucky they have goaltender Carter Hart who was and is masterful in goal for this team. But a team can't win on goaltending alone, so Canada should be careful of how they play in the elimination round as if they end up too sloppy, that'll quickly be it.
Overall it was a fun first day of competition and I'm really looking forward to the next two weeks of games. Up on the docket today is Switzerland against Belarus at 3 pm EST and then Slovakia taking on Canada at 7 pm EST. Let me know if you want me to write more in-depth posts on the tournament, as I think I kind of want to do that this year. World Juniors is of course the best time of year in hockey so its a great time to write and discuss the tourney. Also follow me on twitter @lizholbrook65 for real time game updates as I watch and follow along with the tournament. You'll get some good hot takes along with some hopefully amusing commentary.