TSN's commercials for the World Junior Hockey Championship are pretty much bang on.
You can make a convincing argument that it is, indeed, the most wonderful time of the year.
After the hubbub of Christmas is over, there are few pleasures like kicking back on Boxing Day and watching Team Canada open the world juniors.
Usually we get a minnow like Latvia or Ukraine on Boxing Day. This year we're lucky. It's Finland.
(I almost called Switzerland a minnow there. After Torino and Saskatoon, not so sure we can do that anymore.)
Sure, TSN's coverage is a wee bit overkill, but we lap it up. Sure, the tournament matters more in Canada than anywhere else in the world. But why should that matter? European fans are all over the World Championship. At that time of year, most Canadians care more about watching the NHL playoffs and getting the lawn mower fixed.
Team Canada is on a two-year drought at the world juniors (imagine, a two-year drought - we would have killed for that in the early 2000s) and this year's team isn't exactly star-studded.
Sure, you have the big names up front like Brett Connolly, Jaden Schwartz, Jonathan Huberdeau and Mark Scheifele, and the blueline has the likes of Brandon Gormley and Ryan Murray, but there are a lot of supporting cast kind of players.
It's the kind of team where almost everyone will have one player they knew virtually nothing about who blows them out of the water.
Maybe the next Darren Helm is Michael Bournival. Maybe the next Matt Halischuk is Tanner Pearson.
Perhaps Scott Wedgewood becomes the next Dustin Tokarski.
(I could throw down a few bucks on that - still not impressed by Mark Visentin's play last year.)
There are a lot of names like that. Heck, outside of Western Canada, there are likely a lot of people who don't know anything about Mark Stone or Brendan Gallagher. The same goes for Scott Harrington outside of Ontario.
I like the fact that they've added some much-needed grit to this year's roster. Bournival is a player I felt should have made last year's team. Having him and Boone Jenner in the bottom six will add more ability to take face-offs, kill penalties and play an up-tempo physical game.
Hard to say if Canada should be considered the favourite. Russia has star power with Nail Yakupov, Mikhail Grigorenko and Vlad Namestnikov.
Sweden has Filip Forsberg, Mika Zibanejad, Jonas Brodin and a lot of returnees.
The Americans are probably not as solid on paper as they were last year, but they have Jack Campbell and that alone is enough for me to give them good odds.
Now drop the $@&$*!# puck already.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail [email protected], on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog, newly located at estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. Don't be surprised if all you hear on the phone is a bunch of muttering and "Yu Darvish" though.
