2019 World Juniors Report (Day 2)
Day 2 in the World Juniors was another day full of games that, on paper, don’t matter all that much.
It is hard to argue that a lot of the games at the start of these major tournaments aren’t just glorified warmups for the big teams.
Tournaments often schedule the best games until the final days where there is a good bet of something serious being on the line.
In the World Juniors, those big games are often reserved for New Year’s Eve where the two teams that are usually fighting for the top spot in each group face off against each other.
More often than not these are the games that will determine the group winner and even if they don’t they provide a serious rivalry game.
This year those games will feature Russia against Canada and USA against Finland in games that are sure to mean something after only two days in the tournament.
On the other side of things is the start of the tournament where the games are often between the biggest programs and the smallest.
Games where teams that barely made it into the top tier take on teams that would consider it a disaster to even be close to relegation.
When looking at them they are basically a way for the big teams to get into a groove before they get into the more difficult games in the tournament.
It is easy to see them exactly this way as they are often games that end up very one-sided and aren’t all that entertaining.
The perfect example was in Day 1 when the Canadians opened their tournament against Denmark.
The Danes have rarely ever beat Canada and are playing mainly to stay in the top tier of the tournament while the Canadians are expected to play for gold.
The two teams are pretty far apart in terms of the level of skill and the expectations for either team.
That is why it wasn’t a big surprise to see the Canadians take a 14-0 win in that opening game as the game itself served as a glorified practice.
This is where the danger comes in though as the big teams know that they have the ability to beat teams like Canada did Denmark.
In the Juniors, these are essentially kids who head into games like this knowing that they don’t really have to put in a full effort to win the games.
The more mature of the players will understand that this is still the best of the best throughout the world of hockey.
There are future NHLers on almost every team even if they aren’t going to be massive stars when they get there.
At any given moment a team can go ahead and all of a sudden the plan for the big team goes out the window.
When teams take a game for granted they can get into some serious trouble as all it takes is a couple of bad minutes to change everything.
Despite the fact that the games at the start of the tournament are not the best games they are still important for every team.
The smaller teams get their measuring stick to figure out just how far away they are or how close they are to the bigger teams.
The big teams have a chance to deal with a different type of adversity as they have to learn to stay focused.
They can easily get by these teams if they are focused and they play the game that they are capable of playing.
It is a lot harder when these teams lose focus and let off of the gas pedal allowing for good teams to get their chances.
The Americans experienced this against the Slovakians and barely came out on top in Day 1 and the Canadians got a lesson in Day 2.
Canada took on Switzerland in their second game of the tournament and got to a very early lead.
Things were going well for them as they had control of the game but in the second period, the Swiss were able to score a power-play goal to tie the game.
The Canadians came back to score two goals in the second but the Swiss hung around with their second goal in the third period.
After a lot of pressure in the final minute of the game the Canadians pulled off the win but it was not as easy as many thought it would be.
The game was a scare for Canada, one that they may have needed as they head towards their important matchup against the Russians.
Meanwhile, the Swiss proved that they are a more competitive team this year and despite not being able to grab the upset did fire their shots.
It was proof that these games are not all as easy as they may seem and as these games begin to give way to bigger games there is still time for some upsets.
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