The Young Guns

Maybe the NHL playoff aren't doing it for you.  Don't live in an area that has minor professional hockey?  Your favorite junior team is out of the playoffs?  I invite you to take in some under 18 action tomorrow.  Perhaps I should rephrase or qualify that statement.  It's the U18 World Hockey Championships in Finland.  Remember with hockey there is no off-season.

One of the exciting things for fans to witness when watching this tournament is that these players were not old enough to be in the last NHL draft.  Many will be this time around.  The draft is only two months away and we are only in the first round of the NHL playoffs.  It will be here before the parade route is cleaned up in the winning city.  A good amount of future first round picks have been playing in this tournament.  The ones who aren't are probably still playing in their various playoff leagues.

Four countries are left to battle to play to go to the gold medal game.  Sweden will take on the United States in the first game tomorrow.  Canada follows against the Czech Republic.  Both Canada and the U.S. finished at the top of their divisions.  No real surprise there.  It doesn't mean much of anything.

Sweden led the tournament in goal scoring.  That doesn't even include their quarterfinal game against Finland which they won 10-0.  If that Swedish teams shows up the U.S. team will be in trouble.  Sweden is led by William Nylander who will surely be one of the top picks of the draft.  You might know his father Michael who had a fairly successful NHL career and is still playing in Europe.  The U.S. relies on forward Jack Eichel to lead the offense.  He too will certainly be a very high pick in the draft.  The difference with Eichel is he will still be too young this season to get drafted.

If you had to pick a team with a slightly easier road I guess it would be Canada.  The Czech Republic isn't exactly stacked but doesn't mean they aren't going to be tough.  They knocked out Russia on the way to this match-up with Canada with a few top prospects of their own.  One thing that hurts Canada is that most of their better players either were or still are playing in the playoffs for their junior teams.  Somehow it never seems to bother them.

If I'm making picks look for Canada and Sweden to meet in the finals.  The USA can't always dominate.  They have won 4 of the last 5 tournaments.  Watch this Nylander kid.  Or go outside or watch the NHL or whatever else you do on weekends.  There will be another tournament in a few more weeks.  No, seriously.  There will be.