CGD: A New Hope (Canada vs. Russia)

It’s the most wonderful time of year! The World Juniors are back, and with them, we can all unite in arguing with each other about which teenagers carry the best passports. For Canada, the land that occupies most of our hearts, that two-week journey begins with their game against the Russians at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

Canada, unsurprisingly, doesn’t really have draft-eligible talent for you to salivate over. But they’re stacked with some of the highest profile names in the prospect world; which should make them tough to beat. Dylan Strome (Arizona) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (Columbus) are probably the biggest names to watch.

On the other hand, the Russians are going to be a really interesting team full of players who are ripe for the picking this year. Outside of their stacked goaltending platoon, a player I’d recommend keeping an eye on is Alexander Polunin; the 19-year-old wasn’t drafted this year, but is having another decent season with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL. To be a regular contributor in the second best men’s league int he world as a 5’9 teenager is pretty impressive, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does this year against players his own age. Last year, he had three goals in 7 games.

The last time the two countries faced off in this tournament in Toronto was during the 2015 Gold Medal Game. Canada, of course, came out victorious.

Perhaps their most famous matchup of this generation, though, was a semifinal game. Who could forget 2009? Say 5.4 seconds to any Canadian hockey fan and they’ll tell you their vantage point.

We all know how Canada/Russia goes. Thre’s an insane amount of passion involved, especially when one team has home ice. This time, Russia will be looking to upset their biggest hockey rivals in their own building, while Canada looks to not be dealt an embarrassing situation like that.

Combined with the fact that this will be the opening game of the tournament for both, and with kids on both sides looking to make an immediate impression, just about anything can happen.

Ultimately, though, I’m going to lean towards the Canadians, barring a lights-out performance from Samsonov in goal. This isn’t their best team ever, but the firepower is definitely there. Puck drop is at 8:00 PM in Toronto (7:00 in Winnipeg, 6:00 in Alberta, 5:00 in Vancouver), and you can catch the game on TSN.