Tournament starts today
From May 12 to May 28, in two countries – Finland and Latvia, in two cities – Riga and Tampere, the next Ice Hockey World Championship will be held. The tournament will be attended by 16 of the strongest teams on the planet and the national teams of Russia and Belarus will not play. Sport Arena tells you everything you need to know about the 86th Ice Hockey World Championship.
Host countries
Initially, the World Cup was to be held in Russia, more precisely – in St. Petersburg. But due to Russia’s large-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the right to host a world forum was taken away from the country and the city. And the national teams of Russia and Belarus, as accomplices of aggression, were excluded from the number of participants in the tournament.
As a result, the tournament was moved to Finland, which hosted the World Cup last year, and Latvia. For the latter, this is the third hockey world championship in history. Finland hosts the tournament of the strongest teams in the world for the tenth time.
arenas
The World Cup will be hosted by two cities – Finnish Tampere and Latvian Riga. The first one got the group round, both semi-finals, the bronze medal match and the final. The fights will take place at the Nokia Arena, built for last year’s World Cup and accommodating more than 13,000 spectators.
Arena Riga, which will host the matches of the tournament in Latvia, was built in 2006, also for the World Cup. The arena can accommodate more than 10,000 spectators and will host quarter-final matches in addition to the group stage.
Tournament participants
As mentioned above, 16 teams will take part in the World Cup, divided into two groups of eight teams.
- Group A: Finland, Sweden, USA, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, Hungary.
- Group B: Canada, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Slovenia.
Tournament Format
The group round will be held in one round. The top four teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals. The teams that take the last places in their groups are directly relegated to Division 1A. Teams that take places from 5th to 7th in their groups stop playing in the tournament.
Scoring in the group stage is standard: 3 points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, and one for an overtime or shootout loss. Overtime is played on a three-on-three system.
The quarter-finals will be played in a cross-over system: the winner of Group A will play the fourth-placed team in Group B and vice versa. The semi-finals will be preceded by a seeding based on the results of the group stage, with the highest ranked team playing the lowest performing team. The other two teams will face each other.
Who is the tournament favorite
They are traditional. First of all – Finland, which won the last World Cup and hosts the current one. On the side of Suomi there is an excellent squad, even without Patrick Laine, an experienced coach – Jukka Jalonen won the World Cup three times with the national team (including last year), won and became a bronze medalist at the Olympic Games (gold 2022), and also home arena.
The Finnish coach and the Czech team, which finished in second place at the 2022 World Cup, is Kari Jalonen, who led the team to last year’s third place. But this time the team will miss many of their stars. For example, due to injuries, Columbus defender Irzhichka, his colleague from Toronto Pastrnak, will not play, and Zaha, representing Boston, refused to come to the national team after the season in the NHL. But nevertheless, the Czech Republic has a fairly even line-up and a set game.
The US national team cannot be discounted either, although many experts and fans note that the American squad will be one of the weakest in recent times. Plus, the USA really has a very young team, but you should not underestimate it, knowing the character and skills of the players. Moreover, there are enough bright hockey players. Among them, for example, is not a young TJ Tynan, who earned more than a hundred and fifty assists in two seasons in the AHL. Or two avenues of Montreal – Farrell or Hutson.
Many of the stars were missing from Sweden. It would be more accurate to say almost everyone. Most of the players from the NHL simply refused to come to the national team, and the insurance of 300 thousand dollars requested by the Vancouvers for Elias Petterson was simply not pulled by the country’s hockey federation. However, Sweden also has enough quality “home” players, and the character and training should help the team at least compete for the semi-finals.
Canada surprised with three “blank” places in the application for outfield players. It is quite possible for the team to be strengthened by someone during the tournament, taking advantage of the departure of their clubs from the Stanley Cup playoffs. And in general, the composition of the Maple Leaves does not look like the most stellar, although there are certainly bright players. And first of all, this is the likely first draft pick Adam Fantilli, who became the best player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the age of 18. Or 26-year-old Samuel Blaze, who earned a 9+11 in his 31st game for St. Louis.
Who can surprise
First of all, the Slovakian team. Yes, it will be difficult for the team that abandoned the players playing in the Russian KHL, and there are only a couple of people left from the squad that won bronze at the 2022 Olympics, but it is ready to surprise.
Quite in order and the German national team, missing a number of players, but all with a strong composition. It is interesting to look at the Swiss team, which lost its main star, Liane Bixel, but called Andres Ambuhl, who will play at his 17th World Championship and participated in five Olympics. Well, we are counting on the Latvian national team, which has gathered an experienced team and gained the advantage of its native walls.
Where to watch the Ice Hockey World Cup
Group round matches received three hour slots – 12:20, 16:20, 20:20. The group stage will end on May 23rd.
All matches of the Ice Hockey World Championship will be seen in Ukraine. The official broadcaster of the tournament is the Xsport TV channel. Live broadcasts of the matches will be available on both TV and YouTube platforms of the channel.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
