Team Canada defenceman Joe Hicketts of the Victoria Royals, with international experience also at the U-17 and U-18 levels, knows well the style utilized by Canada’s Pool A opponents at the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation world junior championship.
Here is Hicketts’ breakdown of the other Pool A national sides, in the order Canada will play them at the Bell Centre in Montreal:
SLOVAKIA (Today): Canada will be heavily favoured to open with a comfortable win against the Slovakians, to which Hicketts warns: “The Slovakians always work very hard.”
GERMANY: (Saturday): Germany is the two-time defending Olympic men’s hockey champion. But that’s the field version in the Summer Games. And we all know what they did in soccer this year at the World Cup. Ice hockey is another matter. Hicketts, however, believes Leon Draisaitl ushered in a breakthrough era for hockey in Germany by being selected No. 3 overall in the 2014 NHL draft from the Prince Albert Raiders and playing 34 games for the Edmonton Oilers so far this season as a rookie.
“Draisaitl has given that country hope in [ice] hockey and something to look up to,” said the Royals blue-liner.
But that won’t have much of an effect this year. The Oilers, even while they explore ways of returning Draisaitl to the WHL, say the forward from Cologne won’t be playing for Germany at the world juniors.
FINLAND (Monday): One of the traditional hockey-power nations looks to be Canada’s first real challenge in the tournament. Finnish hockey is proportionate and judiciously balanced, explains Hicketts.
“Finland plays with pace on offence while maintaining an absolutely tough approach to defence,” added Hicketts.
“And the Finns are very good in the middle of the ice.”
UNITED STATES (Wednesday): This is the nation that has supplanted Russia as Canada’s greatest rival in hockey. Being a North American neighbour adds another dimension to the rivalry.
“This will be an easy game to get up for,” said Hicketts, who in his Royals career has played alongside several American players.
“We know the Americans will have skill.”
After pool play concludes, the medal round is Jan. 2-5, with all the Canadian games at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
“The biggest thing to remember about international hockey is that teams operate as five-man units on the ice,” noted Hicketts.
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