The Foundation of Their Success

This may not seem the proper time to stump for the world junior hockey tournament, with the Olympics still a few days away from beginning medal-round play.

Then again, with Canada and United States about to play their final round-robin game tomorrow, maybe it is.

That’s because the genesis of both rosters occurred during previous world junior tournaments. (If you haven’t watched this event, which usually begins after Christmas and ends in early January, treat yourself and head to Buffalo, site of the 2011 tournament.) That is when many of these elite players first pop up on a fan’s radar.

The United States won the world junior title for the first time in 2004 in Helsinki, Finland, shocking Canada in the final. That tournament was a coming-out party for Zach Parise, now playing on the top line for the American Olympic team. Other U.S. Olympians on that team were defenseman Ryan Suter and forward Ryan Kesler. Suter was also on the 2005 U.S. team at the world junior, along with fellow Olympians Ryan Callahan and Phil Kessel.

The 2005 world junior tournament, held in Grand Forks, North Dakota, remains notable because it was held during the NHL lockout, thus ensuring that NHL teams would not be able to hold back junior-eligible talent from playing for their countries.

Canada won the championship that year with an incredible array of talent. How good? Seven players on that team – defensemen Brent Seabrook and Shea Weber and forwards Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Richards, Corey Perry and Patrice Bergeron – are on Canada’s Olympic team. Jeff Carter, tabbed as a replacement in case Getzlaf’s injured left ankle kept him out of the Olympics, was also on the team. (So was Dion Phaneuf, who was once considered to be a candidate for the Olympic team before he regressed mightily.)

The United States won the world junior title over Canada this past January in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which bodes well for USA Hockey once the NHL caves and makes its players available for ensuing Olympics, as this barkeep believes. The players on this recent U.S. champion and the ones who will head to Buffalo later this year will probably show up in Sochi, Russia four years from now.

That’s something else to look forward to, besides the games of the coming week.

Back to the Olympics for a moment. The most cohesive team of the Games is Finland, without question. Their power play hums right along, probing, probling, then zap! Another goal. The Finns were overlooked before this tournament, passed off as being old. They aren’t getting any younger but right now there are teams in the Olympics – hello there, Canada – who would love to be that old if it brought along the same consistency and unity the Finns have right now. Others have already said this, but let me chime in, too: Finland will be a tough out.