Hello hockey fans, due to the NHL’s 2020-21 season not beginning till January due to the COVID 19 pandemic, I will be reporting and doing game recaps of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships since that is the next big event happening in the hockey world. The game recaps will be mostly for Team USA , and also I will talk about how the players that Kings have drafted that are on other National Teams such as Canada and Sweden have played during the Tournament. If either Team USA, Canada, or Sweden make it to the Gold or Bronze medal game I will report on those games as well. All games in the tournament will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta due to the Pandemic. Some players had to be cut from their national teams due to testing positive for COVID 19. Fans in the United States can watch all the games on the NHL Network while in Canada fans can watch the games on TSN.
The players that are on the Kings and made their teams are Forward Quinton Byfield and Defenseman Jordan Spence (Team Canada), Defenseman Tobias Bjornfot (Team Sweden), Forwards Arthur Kaliyev, Alex Turcotte and Defenceman Brock Faber (Team USA), Forward Kasper Simontaival (Team Finland), Goaltender Lukas Parik (Team Czech Republic), Forward Martin Chromiak (Team Slovakia). Helge Grans (a prospect that the Kings drafted this year) did not make the Team Sweden roster even though he tried out Team Sweden. Grans was cut the final day of training camp due to other players wining the rosters spots.
I think that Quinton Byfeild and Jordan Spence will make a big impact for the Canadians this year
as Byfield’s speed and quick hands will be able to get pucks on net and produce big goals in the tournament, while Spence is a all around defenseman that can play both sides of the puck extremely well and set up some nice goals from the slot and behind the net.
For Team USA Alex Turcotte will be interesting to watch, since being picked by the Kings in 2018, Turcotte has been playing hockey at the University Of Wisconsin and has not achieved the potential that analysts predicted when he was drafted.
The first Team USA game will be on Christmas Day as they take on Team Russia, which is a always high anticipated matchup between the two countries. After that game the USA will have three more games in their group to play as they take on Austria on December 26th, then on December 29th they face off against the Czech Republic and finally on New Year’s Eve Team USA closes the Round Robin group play against Sweden.
Team Canada will start play on December 26th against Germany, then will take on Slovakia the next day on December 27th, then on December 29th Team Canada faces off against Switzerland, and end the year off on New Year’s Eve as they take on Finland in a rematch of last years semi final matchup which Canada beat Finland 5-0.
Can not wait for hockey to be back and watch some the of the future stars of the NHL.
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