With all of the inconsistencies in today’s IIHF competition, the one thing that hockey fans can always count on is the World Juniors.
Whether or not NHL players will attend the Olympics is still up in the air, and even then, the tournament is only once every four years. The World Championships are great, but with much of the NHL’s premiere talent missing and rosters changing mid tournament, it doesn’t quite feel right.
Although the World Juniors will miss top players like Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, the World Juniors never seems to disappoint. Perhaps it’s the time of year. It’s a festive time in which many people have time off from work and can stay glued to the TV for basically a week straight. Some better reasons are the ones that Taylor Hall pointed out in his piece for the Players’ Tribune.
“At Christmastime, when outdoor-rink season is in full swing, you get to play against all your cousins and extended family. When you’re out there, you don’t pretend you’re an NHL player. Instead, you imagine you’re on Team Canada at the world juniors.
There’s something more than patriotic pride that connects you to that team. When you’re a kid, the players on Team Canada are only a few years older than you are — you may even have watched them playing for the CHL team in your hometown. Or maybe they learned to skate at your local rink. Or maybe they are phenoms who have been in the national spotlight since they were 12 years old.
In other words, you know the players – and you know them in a way that no grownup ever could.
I vividly remember watching the 2002 tournament. My current teammate, Mike Cammalleri, was racking up points over in the Czech Republic. I think I begged my mom for a Canada sweater that year. Even before that, the first jersey I ever wanted was from the world juniors.
When you’re a kid, those players are like superheroes.”
Taylor Hall on the World Juniors
That’s a pretty perfect example. Hall goes on to explain how the tournament is basically like March Madness for Canadians.
The tournament is becoming more and more popular in other countries, especially with the playing field seeming to level off a bit in recent years. Still, it will always be a huge event in Canada, which can put a lot of pressure on the kids in the tournament. Hall explains that the pressure is exactly what makes the tournament important.
"It’s a bit hard to explain, but when you’re a highly-rated player in the CHL, there isn’t that much pressure. You go out, get your two points per game and watch as your name goes up everybody’s draft ranking boards. At Team Canada training camp, the coaches want to see how you perform under pressure, because that’s what the tournament will be like.
Camp is filled with fast-paced, intense five-on-fives. There are 30 different scouts, directors, coaches and press watching you from the stand, tweeting your every move. The media spends hours trying to figure out which players will be cut and why. After every day at camp, you go back to your hotel room, where you’re told by friends and family what everyone has been saying about you. It gets in your head. It got in mine, and I had a bad camp. They cut me a few days before Christmas."
Taylor Hall on the Pressure of the World Juniors
Hopefully the kids don’t get too stressed out about the event, but it does a good job of preparing them for the NHL and gives their team’s an idea of how they’ll handle the spotlight.
