Top prospect Auston Matthews among 10 reasons to follow the World Juniors

sharon_orn — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 07:32:39 +0000

The USA-Canada rivalry will be on display in the WJC opener. (USATSI) If youre a hockey fan of any sort, you have at least heard of the World Junior Championship and maybe you’ve tuned in a few times. If you haven’t yet, its the annual tournament where 10 countries do battle for 10 days, with rosters filled with many of the best players under the age of 20 in the world. As the quality of this tournament has improved over the years, the global interest has grown. The TV coverage has vastly improved in the United States as well, with the NHL Network bringing the tournament to fans in the U.S. just about every year for the last six or seven now. This year, featuring all USA and Canada games live and most of the other games on either live or via tape delay. So if you want to watch this year, it shouldnt be terribly hard to do so. And there are many reasons to follow along this year. Last year was appointment viewing for Connor McDavid vs. Jack Eichel purposes, but this years tournament field remains loaded with some players that could hit the NHL as early as this season, and some that already have. So with that in mind, here are 10 reasons you should be following the 2016 World Junior Championship which begins Saturday. 1. USA vs. Canada on opening day The tournament schedulers sure didnt want to waste any time breaking out the Ikem Ekwonu Jersey big guns. The U.S. and Canada normally play on New Years Eve when in the same group, but apparently the tournament hosts werent on board with that. Either way, two of the tournaments top teams will play in what can often be one of the toughest games of the preliminary round. That both teams will play right off the bat doesnt leave a lot of time for either to get momentum or for the teams to truly gel. That may level the playing field for the U.S. against the markedly deeper Canadian squad. No matter when they play though, USA vs. Canada is always must-watch. They’ll play at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday. Shi Smith Jersey 2. Day hockey makes the holidays brighter. With the tournament being hosted in Finland, a good portion of the games are going to be airing in the morning or early afternoon hours in North America. For those of you on a holiday break, vacation or have a fairly liberal video policy at work should be able to catch the games and still enjoy the NHL games at night. No need to divide your attention, unle s family is in town. Hockey all day sounds like a really good thing. 3. Auston Matthews, top draft prospect, will be Team USAs top player One of the most watched and most scrutinized players of this tournament will be Scottsdale, Arizona native Auston Matthews. He is expected to end the year as the first overall pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. At this tournament, he’ll be centering Team USA’s top line and will be leaned on heavily by head coach Ron Wilson. The World Juniors wont make or break his draft stock, but since Matthews is playing this season profe sionally in Europe, this is a rare opportunity to see the consensus top player for this years draft in action for the wider North American audience. This will be a big event for him. 4. Several of the other top players for the 2016 Draft will be in the tournament This years WJC will be about as good as any to watch top draft prospects. Last year had Eichel and McDavid, which certainly drew a lot of eyeballs, but the sheer number of draft-eligibles this year makes it worth watching. You already know about Matthews, but hell also be on a line with Matthew Tkachuk, who projects to be a top-five pick in 2016 and Alex DeBrincat, who could be a top-10 or top-15 pick in June. Thats a lot of fire power. Finland will have a couple of forwards that could be top-10 picks as well in Je se Puljujarvi and Patrick Laine. Both have to be among the most dynamic players in this years draft cla s. Alexander Nylander of Sweden is also generating a Giovanni Ricci Jersey lot of pre-draft buzz playing in the Ontario Hockey League. 5. Canadas star-studded roster is always worth watching Team Canada is always loaded with future NHL stars and this year will be no different. Recent top picks Dylan Strome (No. 3, ) and Mitchell Marner (No. 4, ) will be key players for the . So will Jake Virtanen, who has spent part of this season with the . prospect Lawson Crouse is expected to have a big role as a returning player. Twelve of the 23 players on the roster were first-round draft picks. William Nylander is expected to have a big tournament for Sweden. (USATSI) 6. William Nylander could end up being the star of the tournament William Nylander has been the best player in the American Hockey League this year. Thats near unheard of for a 19-year-old player in what some consider the second best league in the world. The former No. 8 overall pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs will be a key player for Sweden as he was last year, when he posted 10 points in the tournament. Having spent the entire year playing as well as he has in the AHL, with a league-high 34 points in 27 games for the Toronto Marlies, hes poised for a dominant performance at the WJC. 7. Its like a mini Stanley Cup Playoffs compacted into 10 days in the middle of winter The NHLs regular season can get a little tedious at times. Thats especially true in a year when scoring is down. At the World Juniors, the teams have little choice but bring the intensity every night. The preliminary round is more of an appetizer, but once you get to the playoff round, its e sentially a Game 7 for all four quarterfinals, both semis and obviously the gold-medal game. Anything can happen in single-elimination which makes for some tense games. 8. The tournament is perfect in its imperfection The NHL remains the greatest show in the game because it has the best players. However, it also has the best coaches and those guys are better prepared than theyve ever been. The players also execute better than ever. So what does that mean? The Sam Darnold Jersey action can get bogged down in systems and both teams are making fewer mistakes. The World Juniors, on the other hand, is played by players under the age of 20. Theyre going to make mistakes. That leads to more wide-open play, more impre sive individual efforts and sometimes unpredictable results. That usually means several high-scoring games and pretty wild results. The players get to have a little more fun with their skills here. 9. It’s a little bit of a World Cup appetizer, too It will be interesting to see how the World Cup is received when it gets rolling next September. Theres little reason to expect it will match the level of the Olympics, but its going to at least get close from an on-ice quality standpoint. Until then, the WJC remains Robby Anderson Jersey a good chance to bust out your respective international flags and face paint, if youre so inclined. Plus, the players seem to play with a ton of pa sion that may rival their profe sional counterparts. 10. Why should you watch? Because you can. The World Juniors hasnt been as readily available on TV for all that long in the United States. Having as many games to choose from as will be broadcast over the tournament and having acce s to so many of the league’s top prospects gives you a chance to get a glimpse of the NHL’s future. Odds are, your favorite team has a player on one of these national squads, too. And besides, what hockey fan is going to complain about more hockey on TV? Enjoy the tournament. Team USA’s Preliminary-round Schedule Dec. 26, USA vs. Canada, 1 p.m. ET Dec. 28, USA vs. Sweden, 9 a.m. ET Dec. 30, USA vs. Switzerland, 1 p.m. ET Dec. 31, USA vs. Denmark, 9 a.m. ET

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Top prospect Auston Matthews among 10 reasons to follow the World Juniors

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