#wjc24

[tiger-balm]

Jail time [Dec 29th 2023, sweden v canada]

#FREE HIM #he definitely did the crimes but hes just a little guy #him holding the water in his cheeks is so cute... #the first one... #you can tell hes so upset at taking the penalty :((( #fraser minten #team canada #wjc24 #wjc 2024 #toronto maple leafs #*

[larsnicklas]

[240105 USA VS. SWE] a terrific individual effort from ryan leonard (wsh) ends with a goal to make it 5-2 for the americans, and he blows a kiss to the crowd after ending swedish hopes for a late comeback

#ryan leonard #usa hockey #washington capitals #world juniors #wjc 2024 #wjc #wjc24 #boston college #meg.wjc #meg.gif #meg.usah #meg.all #RYAN LEONARD I CANNOT WAIT TO WATCH YOU IN CAPITALS RED!!!!!! #playbook

[sergeifyodorov]

How does world juniors work and where would one watch?

This is my first season watching the nhl and I’m from nz so I suspect we wont be represented lol but I’m keen to learn more and watch some! Any recommendations on what ones to watch?

omg anon WELCOME and also ... a brief WORLD JUNIORS PRIMER for you all...

Puppy Bowl!

If you're from NZ I'm not sure you know about the Puppy Bowl -- a show run concurrent to the Super Bowl, but all the participants are puppies? It means absolutely nothing but it is adorable. The World Juniors are basically that, but also it is exactly as important as the Olympics what are you talking about. Their official name is the "IIHF U-20 World Championship," which is a pretty self-explanatory name -- it's a tournament for players 20 and under (I believe they have to be at least sixteen, but because young athletes mature physically a LOT in those four years, the vast majority are eighteen-nineteen-twenty). Tradition dictates it starts on Boxing Day, and it runs for about three weeks -- it starts with a round-robin, followed by a single-elimination tournament, a bronze-medal match, and a relegation match.

Players are selected by their national hockey administration -- for Canada, it's Hockey Canada, but all countries within the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) have their own. The intricacies of ~Sports Bureaucracy~ are really long and only a LITTLE relevant, but every country ices the best roster they can, which means players are often "loaned" from CHL teams, NCAA universities, European league teams, or, occasionally, the NHL. (Note: You can usually tell how good a World Junior team is by how many players have been drafted/signed by NHL teams: the Canadians, Swedes, and Americans are almost always entirely draftees or under-18s, while the other teams in the upper division might only have a handful, or even only one, drafted player.)(Second note: The quality of a team has less correlation than you might think to them winning a single-elimination tournament.)

Like I said earlier, it starts with a round-robin: there are ten teams in the main WJ (we'll get to this in a second), divided into two groups of five, who each play each other once. The worst-performing team of each group is sent to the relegation match post-tournament, and the eight other teams do a single-elimination match until one team wins gold.

Teams and Divisions

This year, the top ten teams are: Canada, the US, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Norway, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Latvia. Because of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is banned from participating in IIHF tournaments, but when it's not it's always in the top ten (likely instead of Norway, Switzerland, or Latvia.) UNLIKE the NHL, the IIHF has multiple "divisions" of teams, and at the end of the tournament the bottom two teams play a match to avoid relegation from the official ~IIHF World U20 Championship~ to Division I, which is right under it. There is also a Division II and a Division III -- and after some sleuthing, there IS a New Zealand team in Div III!!!!!

Canada and Broadcasting

Unfortunately, the WJC is basically only popular in Canada -- essentially a Boxing Day tradition to watch the babies play and cheer for our teams' prospects, or, usually, just Team Canada. In fact, Hockey Canada has bid to host it basically every other year until 2030. Because of this (or maybe a bit of a chicken-egg situation), the WJC is... kind of hard to find online if you're outside of Canada? I know for a fact it's broadcast on TSN (one of our sports networks) without any regional blackouts, but I don't think there's anything available in NZ that will be streaming it, especially because it's not one of the IIHF top ten countries. If you're not already doing so, you'll probably have to sail the high seas for your fix. (If you don't know where to do this, you can slide into my DMs and I can send you a link!)

Who to watch?

There's basically two routes for this: one, pick the team you think is going to win, or two, go look up what prospects your NHL team has that are playing at the WJC and watch them (Note: neither the Avs nor the Oilers have any WJC prospects this year!) The IIHF website has the game schedule listed, including time-zone adjusted start times -- they're all staggered, so if you have a lot of free time you might be able to watch more than one!

Personally, as both a Canadian and a Leafs fan -- both WJC-chosen Leafs prospects are Team Canada players, including their captain Fraser Minten -- I would recommend Team Canada (unashamed homer bias here.) They're usually one of the favourites to win, and they're almost entirely either drafted or not yet eligible, so you can see either your prospects or you can look at Celebrini and hope (if your team is bad) that he's coming to you one day. The Americans are generally considered Thee tournament favourites, if you prefer your teams highly touted.

To me, the WJC has twofold appeal: one, junior hockey is, for lack of a better term, messier than high-level hockey? Pucks are more likely to bounce in silly ways, rushes can get crazy, and you can get both a super high amount of shots and a super high amount of goals. Hormonal teenagers playing super high-stakes hockey for the first times in their lives and they can get really, really into it! The passion a kid has scoring a medal-winning goal in front of a sold-out crowd is absolutely unrivalled by all but the Cup Finals. (OMGGGGG THIS IS YOUR FIRST HOCKEY SEASON TOO... ok don't let me start talking about nhl playoffs because THIS is the puppy bowl that is the super bowl. but worse! i mean better but it's worse (for your cardiovascular health.))

Two, that these guys are still so young, and that at least a few of them have long, illustrious, potentially-Hall-of-Fame NHL careers ahead of them. For a lot of young stars, the World Juniors is an important part of their Lore. Watching someone become something as an adult after you've seen him as a junior is... magical? World Junior hockey is diamond-in-the-rough hockey. There's no polish, but it's the rawness of the million-dollar stone that sells it.

#asks #also fun fact to note: mitch marner and auston matthews met in an elevator at world juniors. #wjc24 #wjc 2024

[bedsyandco]

captain rut🥰

#rutger mcgroarty #wjc team usa #wjc24

[extraliga-related]

WJC 2024 | TEAM 🇨🇿 | BRONZE MEDAL GAME

#team czechia #cz u20 #wjc24 #wjc 2024 #iihf world juniors #gifs

[bbrissonn]

someone clearly didnt look in the mirror before the pics…

#bri talks #cutter gauthier #rutger mcgroarty #gavin brindley #umich hockey #bc hockey #usa hockey #wjc24 #gav’s head looks so big 😭😭

[stolligaseptember]

hey let me beat up some north american refs

#THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS #wjc 2024 #wjc24 #world juniors #hockey

[loud-italian-fangirl]

They made the mistake of playing summer of ‘69 and all the Canadians in attendance sang like 3 verses… being up 10-0 is too much power and the Swedish arena staff are aiding and abetting from the playlist

#team canada #wjc24 #wjc 2024 #wjc lb #world juniors #bryan adams #i think they’re also cheering for latvia too #because again #10-0 #that’s nuts #oh canada #i love you

[blackwidowrising]

Nothing like world juniors to give me gender envy.

Oh to be born a boy and placed in hockey exceptionally young

#hockey #wjc24 #jamie jams #jamie’s gender

[filipchytil]

Most, if not all of these guys weren’t even alive 20 years ago when USA won their first gold at World Juniors! Fitting way to celebrate the 20 year anniversary!

USA USA USA!

#world juniors #wjc24 #wjc 2024 #USA hockey

[tiger-balm]

Fraser talking about John's kids putting pressure on him to make the World Juniors team 😭

#hes so funny? #“they get passionate in those circles” #the circles being johns basement #hes actually very well spoken and insightful in the full video #i guess 19 isnt a kid but it is TO ME #fraser minten #john tavares #hes a sweetheart #i hadnt seen anyone post it so I wanted to document it #team canada #wjc24 #*

[larsnicklas]

reblog to make don cherry wake up in a cold sweat muttering about americans being classless

#ryan leonard #rutger mcgroarty #trey augustine #usa hockey #world juniors #wjc 2024 #wjc #wjc24 #meg.wjc #meg.gif #meg.usah #meg.all #obviously would have liked to include leonard gloves off kiss to crowd but it didn't fit the vibe and i gave him his own gifset!!

[sergeifyodorov]

if multiple apply to you, pick the most important one !

#wjc24 #eg im canadian AND the leafs have two prospects on team canada #but i would cheer for team canada regardless so i'd pick option a

[bedsyandco]

#will smith hockey #jimmy snuggerud #ryan leonard #rutger mcgroarty #wjc team usa #wjc24 #wjc 2024 #gabe perreault #umich hockey #bc hockey

[extraliga-related]

#team slovakia #svk u20 #wjc24 #wjc 2024

[slagclaren]

HOW CAN WE LOSE WHEN WE'RE SO SINCERE 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

#next year will be our year ! and until then i'll be inconsolable and depressed beyond comprehension #i'm so sad. so so sad.... curse is 12 yrs strong. HOW CAN WE LOSE WHEN WE'RE SO SINCERE!!!!!! #the fact that u can want something so bad and fight so hard for it and do everything right and still not get it. ahaha 😃👍 #wjc24 #kajs.txt