After Christmas, we immediately shift into another magical holiday. December 26th rolls around, the days are weird, foggy messes that don’t really count, and the best U20 players from around the world get together for their yearly rumble.
It truly is the greatest time of the year in my opinion. Obviously those of us at TMS have been spoiled to see Canada and the USA be historically (very) successful in this tournament, so there’s a little more joy to carry on from the holiday season, but still, it’s the best hockey in the world since Bettman and his jolly little band of idiots decided the Olympics weren’t cool enough for them. Whatever, I digress.
As you’d expect, December 26th came rolling around with the initial shock of pre-sunrise hockey for the first time in a little while, but something about shaking off a Christmas hangover by rolling out of bed for hockey seems right.
Now, onto the action. Canada kicked things off with a gritty win over a Finland team that we’d find out afterwards didn’t really deserve to make us earn it like they did. Or maybe they did? Spoiler Alert: Group A was a weird mess.
USA started off slow, and did NOT stay slow. After struggling to find the cage early against Norway, they soon figured it out and did not look back, putting up two double digit tallies, all but walking through Group B save for an OT thriller against the defending silver medallist Czechia.
There’s obviously a ton to go through but honestly, it’s the round robin, and hockey gets way more exciting after we ring in the New Year, so there’s some little aspects of what we’ve seen so far that deserve our attention.
Firstly, Canada is not the Threepeat Bound Rocketship we all thought they might be. Frankly they’ve looked flat and uninspired at times, despite Macklin Celebrini being a straight up stud, and Mathis Rousseau managing to bully his way onto a few pretty little highlight reels in between the pipes. The roster is solid top to bottom, the goaltending is exactly what you hope for, but something about the vibe is off. Obviously it’s always gonna be tough for a bunch of teenagers to find chemistry with dudes they started playing with a month ago, but other teams have done it, as we’re about to look into. Despite the “vibes being off” as I so eloquently put it, Canada had a successful kickoff, losing to host Sweden in the middle of the Swede’s absolute defensive heater (they didn’t allow a goal until their 4th game). Rolling into 2A with the unyeilding knowledge that we historically do pretty okay in the medal rounds with a humbling loss on our round robin scorecard.
Next, and the only reason it’s not the first paragraph is cause I’m a fuckin’ patriot. The US squad, real fuckin’ good. Like dangerously good. Like if Canada was this good I’d feel guilty for other teams that had to play us. Now truthfully I haven’t seen full games from the Red, White and Blue because my job requires me to sleep whenever the hell I can, but this unit is one that you don’t need to see the whole story to understand that they are scary. Chips on the table, if Canada and the US bring exactly the same heat from this point they did to the round robin, Canada is gonna have a not good time. Also, Rutger McGroarty is a first-ballot Hall of Fame handle, and it deserves recognition.
Next, we get into the George Parros meets classic international hockey of it all. Officiating. I will say that it’s a stereotypically Canadian thing to spend entirely too much time on the PK because banging bodies just isn’t the way it’s done out here. (It used to be, and sweet Jesus was it glorious).
Now I’m not about to bitch that Canada has been unfairly boned by the refs, cause that’s not the case. When you come from North American Jr. Hockey to this tournament, you need to expect that you’re gonna get dinged for stuff you get away with back home. It’s fine unless you actively choose not to rein it in and cost your team. What I am here to bitch about is that there seems to be no fuckin’ rules (much like the George Parros Wheel of Punishment) as to what’s what out here. I’m gonna put two hits below here. One was five and a game, one was…. well it wasn’t. You tell me which is which.
It’s just inconsistent. Typically you have that inconsistency in all officiating but it’s been coin-flips everywhere. Major’s reviewed down to no-calls, follow-throughs on shots catching double-minors, a 6’4 guy bodies a dude who is not 6’4 and gets the gate (it was a charge, but it was a 2 minute charge, also I have a soft spot for this hit as a person who was 6’6 at 17 years old who spent a lot of time in the box for hitting normal sized people). All I need is some sort of guideline on how physicality is going to be addressed so I know, as a fan, what I am allowed to be pissed about and what I have to shrug and say “well shit ya just can’t do that”.
Next, Group A was a shitshow. The Great Ring of Parity completed itself in such a gross, weird way. Latvia beat Germany, okay. Germany beat Finland, yikes. Finland beat Sweden, huh? Sweden beat Canada, honestly it was a good game. Canada beat everyone but Sweden, who did, in fact, beat everyone. As much as I miss the good old days where there were like 4 wagons and everyone else fought for scraps, it is really good to see this tournament not being so lopsided and predictable. These kids from the non-traditional hockey markets are out here grinding and getting their flowers. I personally love to see hard work pay off on such a big scale.
Lastly, the Scandanavium where Group A had their round robin? Familiar looking, unbelievable vibes. Truly a work of art.
The Quarterfinals kick off tomorrow morning with Canada taking on Czechia in a rematch of last year’s Gold Medal Game, while USA gets the distinct pleasure of hearing their goal song a bunch of times against a really loveable Latvian squad. There’s two other games but honestly, we’re only paying attention to those two until we need to know anything further (it’s SWE/SUI and SVK/FIN for those of you truly wondering).
I hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year, now let’s get onto 2024 with what we can only pray is a Cross-Border classic come the end of the week.
The Morning Skate 
Getting the NHL out of the Olympics is probably the only thing I’ve ever agreed with Bettman on. Pros should never have been allowed to participate.
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