As the marquee venue, Rogers Arena in Vancouver has scored the motherlode in the form of the host Canadian team, for the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation world junior championship tournament.
But Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria arguably has the better and most appealing pool, featuring the likely first two picks for the 2019 National Hockey League draft in forward Jack Hughes of the United States and Kaapo Kakko of Finland.
Then there is the intrinsic home-province interest to be heaped upon Quinn Hughes of the U.S., the University of Michigan Wolverines defenceman selected seventh overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 2018 NHL draft.
The tournament begins today with defending-champion Canada headlining Pool A and playing Phillip Schultz of the Victoria Royals and upset-minded Denmark at 5 p.m. in Vancouver.
Pool B opens in Victoria today on Blanshard with the U.S. meeting Slovakia at 3:30 p.m. and Finland playing Sweden in an intriguing Scandinavian showdown at 7:30 p.m.
The Pool B heavyweights look to be the U.S., with five returnees from last year’s world junior bronze-medallist squad in Buffalo and nine players from the Americans’ gold-medallist 2017 IIHF U18 team, and a Finnish team loaded with likely 2019 NHL draft selections such as projected first-rounder Kakko and the blue-line duo of Anttoni Honka and Mikko Kokkonen projected for the second or third rounds. It also hasn’t hurt the Finns’ cause that the Chicago Blackhawks have released Henri Jokiharju to play in the world junior tournament.
Meanwhile, Slovak head coach Ernest Bokros is under no illusions what awaits his team this afternoon in the pool opener against the Americans.
Puck control will be the key.
“We can’t give them the puck too much,” said Bokros, through an interpreter.
If the Slovaks do cough up the puck, the Hughes siblings and the likes of Canucks third-round draft pick Ty Madden will inflict damage.
“We have good poise and we want to possess the puck and not give it away,” said U.S. team general manager and Detroit-native John Vanbiesbrouck, who played 882 regular-season NHL games in goal over 17 seasons, most notably for the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers.
“We have great balance at each position and are versatile. On defence, we have offensive guys and shutdown guys. Offensively, we are very quick and with good chemistry with guys having played together on [national] teams in the past. We love our tempo. Part of balance is wearing the other team down.”
This junior national team will represent the growing depth of American hockey, said Vanbiesbrouck.
“There were a lot of worthy players to select,” said the U.S team GM.
“The players earned the right to be here. By no means did we come to this decision easily, and that’s a credit to the players. It’s easy to say our talent pool is deeper than it’s ever been, but so too is the character of these young players. And now it’s time for these 23 selected players to come together and represent our country with pride.”
Every player invited to a national team camp is a star on their club teams. Vanbiesbrouck said selection can come down to “intangibles,” such as “how they carry themselves, how they interact and who’s a leader, and who can bring something that maybe somebody else can’t.”
The U.S. team has named returning defenceman Mikey Anderson from the University of Minnesota-Duluth as the captain and Quinn Hughes and Josh Norris from the University of Michigan as the assistant captains. Forward Norris was selected 19th overall in the first round of the 2017 NHL draft by San Jose before the Sharks traded his rights to the Ottawa Senators. Anderson, a fourth-round draft pick of the L.A. Kings, succeeds his brother Joey Anderson, who captained the U.S. last year. The Anderson brothers led Minnesota-Duluth to the 2018 NCAA title.
U.S. head coach Mike Hastings lauded the trio of Quinn Hughes, Mikey Anderson and Norris for their “tremendous leadership traits” among a “real close-knit group,” adding “we’re excited to get started here in Victoria.”
Slovakia will counter with a familiar face as forward Milos Roman of the Vancouver Giants — the biggest rival of the WHL’s Victoria Royals — returns to Blanshard Street, but this time in his national team colours. There is another WHLer who has previously skated on Blanshard in the form of forward Andrej Kukuca of the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Defending silver medallist Sweden might have lost a step or two from last season because of a heavy rate of players who aged out. And although eligible, defenceman and 2018 No. 1 NHL draft pick Rasmus Dahlin is hardly about to be released by the Buffalo Sabres.
Sweden will attempt to counter the flying Finns tonight with Anaheim Ducks-loaned forward Isac Lundestrom and a blue line that features Toronto Maple Leafs-prospects Pontus Holmberg and Rasmus Sandin from the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. Six-foot-three defenceman Philip Broberg is projected for the first round of the 2019 NHL draft and forward Nils Hoglander for the second or third rounds.
Kazakhstan, making its first appearance at the world juniors in a decade, is the Pool B team with the opening-day bye. The Kazakhstanis, who will be looking to avoid relegation back to the Tier 1 ranks next year, which is the fate that awaits the 10th and last-place team in this year’s world tournament in Victoria and Vancouver, open Thursday on Blanshard against Finland. Kazakhstan comes into the world junior tournament with a legitimate pro player in emerging Kontinental Hockey League defenceman Valeri Orekhov, who is considered to have a bright future in the game.
Meanwhile, Slovak coach Bokros provided a bit of controversy to the Pool B mix by saying his team’s dressing rooms at the Memorial Centre are not up to standard.
“We are not satisfied with our locker-room,” he said, following Slovakia’s 6-1 loss to Canada in a pre-tournament game last week on Blanshard.
“It is not up to the quality of a world championship. It should be better.”
Dressing rooms are assigned to teams on a permanent basis throughout the tournament and are allotted on a formula based on the previous year’s finish. So in Pool B at the Memorial Centre, the 2018 silver medallist Swedes get the Victoria Royals home dressing room and the 2018 bronze-medallist U.S. the WHL visitors’ dressing room. As lower placing teams in last year’s world tournament in Buffalo, the Slovaks and Finns have been allotted the Memorial Centre’s two youth hockey dressing rooms with built-out areas added. The Kazakhstanis, promoted from last year’s Tier-1 world championship, have had a temporary dressing room built out for them.
“The dressing rooms are all reviewed by the IIHF,” said Barry Petrachenko of Victoria, CEO of B.C. Hockey, and co-chair of the 2019 organizing committee with Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo.
“But we will certainly look into it and address any concerns any teams have and bring it up to the standard required. There had to be temporary dressing rooms built even in NHL rinks in Toronto and Montreal in 2017 because few arenas have the permanent number of rooms for a tournament such as this [featuring five pool teams in each arena].”
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