Forget about Christmas gifts and Santa Claus. The real joy of the festive season this year will be watching the 2025 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Ottawa, especially if Canada wins.
The last time the tournament was played in Ottawa was in 2009, and who can forget Jordan Eberle scoring the tying goal in the dying seconds of the semi final against Russia and his 6-5 shootout winner. The team went on to capture gold in a 5-1 win over Sweden in the final. I hope history repeats itself.
As fans may recall, the Grinch hit the tournament last year in Sweden when Canada finished a dismal fifth. They went into the event as back-to-back gold medalists. Also, the Euro time zone sucked, which added to the miserable outcome for fans like me.
This year, Canada is in Group A with the defending United States, Finland, Germany and Latvia. Canada kicks of the action against Finland on Dec. 26, at 7:30 p.m. EST or 5:30 p.m. MST.
The gold-medal game will be played on Jan. 5 and some Canadian players will be household names by then. They will join the likes of Eberle, Conor Bedard, Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid in an endless string of Canadian hockey heroes.
There is already lots of hype for this year’s tourney. TSN is celebrating 35 years of the World Junior Hockey Championship being aired on the network by counting down the 35 best moments from the tournament.
I will always remember seeing 16-year-old Wayne Gretzky on TV for the first time dominate the 1978 World Junior Championship in Montreal. Canada, however, won the bronze.
The TSN highlights make it seem like the tournament is already underway, but the selection camp doesn’t end until Dec. 13. Canada should ice one of its strongest teams in years with so many top NHL prospects to choose from.
Goaltending, of course, is always one of the biggest factors and question marks. Let’s hope our guy can stand on his head and help win gold to wrap up the holiday season.
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