Finland stunned the hockey world on Saturday night in Vancouver as they scored the eventual game-winning goal with just under 90 seconds left to play to defeat USA for the World Juniors gold medal.
While watching the teams compete night in and night out for two weeks, it’s hard to remember that the players are still kids who are hoping to make a living out of playing hockey. However, it’s easy to tell after a team loses that they’re still kids as they wear all their emotions on their sleeve. Following Saturday’s defeat, potential first overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft Jack Hughes talked about the loss and his experience and was pretty emotional through the whole thing.
It’s very easy to forget that Hughes, like a lot of his teammates and competition in the tournament, is only 17-years-old when you watch him put his skills on display on the ice and in high pressure situations, but it’s easy to come back down to Earth when you see how devastating these losses are to some of the players.
There’s a good chance we’ll see Jack Hughes compete with USA at the 2020 World Juniors in Czech Republic, but a lot can happen between now and then.
