With Christmas being only a week away, that can mean only one thing for Canadian hockey fans: the World Junior Hockey Championship is only eight days away. In what has become a holiday tradition, starting on boxing day and usually lasting until the fourth or fifth day of January, it’s an exciting time when fans of opposing NHL teams can put aside their differences in support of the national Junior Team. This will be the fortieth year the World Juniors have been held, with the first being in 1977. (There were actually three tournaments held before 1977, but the International Ice Hockey Federation did not sanction those tournaments and they’ve been classed as invitational and unofficial.)
As big as the tournament is for
Canadian fans, it didn’t really take off until 1991, the first year that TSN
acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights. It has developed from a small
holiday tournament into a nation wide experience as fans of all ages are
focused on the performance of 20 players between the ages of 16 and 20. The
pulse of Canada beats with excitement for these ten days or so and despite the
popularity the World Juniors has achieved, it’s not without its detractors.
Fans and media of other
countries involved in the tournament, particularly those of the United States
and Sweden, are always quick to put down Canada’s success at the Juniors. When
Canada wins the gold medal, they say that no one really cares about the
tournament and that Canada was expected to win anyway. When Canada doesn’t win,
they take great pride in announcing the (supposed) sudden demise of the game in
the country that invented it. Read some of the posts on the TSN comment section
once the tournament begins to see the kind of trash they come up with.
What makes me wonder is, if they
don’t care about the tournament, how come they’re reading the stories on TSN’s
website and posting comments. Obviously, if they take the time to do so, they
care about it. I’m assuming that it’s a jealousy thing, as the United States,
despite being a competitive hockey nation, has only won gold in three of the 39
tournaments, while Sweden, a top hockey power for even longer that the US, has
mustered only two golds. (Their main rival, Finland has three, mind you.) So rather
than focus on the lack of success their teams have had, they feel it better to
put Canada down.
Canada’s biggest
rival—regardless of the media, including Canada’s, trying to convince us that
it is the US—is Russia, and before 1991 the Soviet Union. The Soviets/Russians
are second all-time in gold medal victories (13 to Canada’s 16) and yet to
don’t hear their fans complaining as much as the Americans and Swedes. Now
there’s a lot of tension and bad blood when the two teams play each other in
the tournament, of course, but there’s also mutual respect among the two
nations.
And when the two countries,
combined, have won 75 per cent of the tournaments, that’s respect that’s been
earned through years of tough battles, heartbreaking losses and thrilling
victories. And there’s no bigger hype in the building when the two teams play
each other.
It’s impossible to predict who
will win any given tournament as the rosters change so much from year to year.
But chances are Canada and Russia will be the favourites to win again this
year, with the US, Sweden and possibly Finland fighting for the bronze. And
outside chance has Slovakia or the Czech Republic to possibly pull of an upset
as well.
It
all starts a week from Saturday with Canada playing the United States, while
Russia opens against the Czechs. As always, it will be an exciting week and a
half of international hockey.
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