WJC starts tomorrow

The IIHF U20 World Championship starts in Ufa, Russia tomorrow. The tournament is played with ten teams divided into two groups. Group A in played is played in the smaller Sports Palace while group B is played in the main arena Ufa Arena.

On paper Group A looks easier than Group B which contains three of the main favourites. Main favourites of Group A is last year's champions Sweden together with Finland. Sweden are hoping to defend their title but the team doesn't look as strong as last year. Especially on goaltending and defense with many key defenders injured. Latest news says that also Hampus Lindholm may miss the tournament. On offense players like Rikard Rakell, Filip Forsberg and Elias Lindholm, the later has been impressive in Elitserien.

Finland is always an outsider at this tournament has some very skilled players with experince from previous WJC tournaments like Joel Armia, Markus Granlund and olli Määttä. Czech Republic has had problems at junior level lately but should be able to reach at least the quater finals. Players like Martin Frk, David Musil and Tomas Hertl is likely to lead this team, Jakub Varna is another interesting player, born 1996 he is the youngest player of the tournament.

Switzerland and Latvia is likely to end up in the relegation round, Switzerland perhaps could surprise for a quarter final but not even their coach Sean Simpson seams to believe in that. Christoph Bertschy is born 1994 but was good already at last year's tournament, NHL-drafted Tanner Richard is another interesting player. Latvia has an anynomous team and will fight hard to avoid relegation missing their star Zemgus Girgensons that wasn't released by his AHL club.

Group B looks very hard. Canada and hosts Russia are two of the main favourites and has a lot of star players. Russia has several high quality players but NHL top pick Nail Yakupov stands out most togehter with Nikita Kucherov who scored nine and seven points already last year. Canada also have a very strong team led by super star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins but also players like Jonathan Huberdeau, Mark Schiefle and Dougie Hamilton who all made good WJC tournaments last year and is likely to have been playing in the NHL this year if it wasn't for the lockout.

USA made a very poor effort last year and missed the playoff round. This year they should be a solid team for the second round and perhaps also a medal contender. Led by former NHL legend Phil Housley USA have many good players like NHL third pick Alex Galchenyuk and J.T Miller.

Slovakia reached the quarter finals last year but even if they beat the Czechs in a exhibition game before the tournament it should be hard for them to repeat it. The team has an advantage that many of the players has played together in the U20 team that plays in the Slovak Extraliga. Marko Dano and Tomas Mikus both plays in KHL and should be key players. 1995 born Martin Reway is also an intersting player.

Germany is back on top level and is likely to fight with Latvia on who will stay up. Only a few players play in DEL but the team has a star in Tobias Rieder playing in OHL who lead the team that promoted last year and is likely to lead the team again.

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