Team USA bested team Canada in the World Juniors last night 2-0. USA went into last night’s game against their rivals up north as underdogs. Canada was undefeated in tournament play entering last night. They scored first in all of their games and controlled the puck and all three zones. It was important for the USA to not bend the knee to Canada and push back. It was well talked about that Canada’s goalie was not tested throughout the tournament. The Americans bracket was a lot tougher than Canadas, going up against the likes of Russia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. Canada did, however, face eventual Bronze medal winners Finland, but that is where the competition stopped. American goalie Spencer Knight made 34 saves on route to a shutout victory. The USA top-line sustained a lot of pressure in the Canadian zone before opening the scoring. It wasn’t long into the second period, 32 seconds to be exact before USA jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately, the thinking wasn’t that the USA was going to cruise to a gold medal. Canada held a 2 goal lead against the Americans in the 2017 World Juniors final. With the Canadian roster stacked with talent, them scoring two quick goals weren’t out of the picture. With no scoring in the third period team, USA regained their rightful place as the kings of hockey. In case anyone in Canada is keeping track, USA has faced Canada four times in the finals of the World Juniors since 2004, and rightfully so, team USA is 4-0 in those games. Canada does have 18 total gold medals in the World Juniors, most of which came when helmets were optional.
Here is my problem with the way the World Juniors is run. Hockey is growing in popularity across America, yet not one major network picks up the games. Unless you have NHL Network, which not a lot of people do, then you are stuck finding an illegal stream or keeping up with the game on Twitter. The average hockey fan didn’t know these games were happening, and it is a shame with all the talent that is in this tournament. Last night there were no NFL games on, MLB hasn’t started yet, NHL just started their training camps, and only 5 NBA games were on last night. Why not take the opportunity and display the young talent on a major network? The same thing happens with the World Baseball Classic. They only air it on MLB Network. More than half of these kids are on their way to NHL training camps, and they’ll likely be in the league later this year. It’s time to start making hockey more popular in the states. It will never be as popular in America as Canada, I get that, but when a gold medal is on the line against your rivals, who wants to match a regular season basketball game when bragging rights are available.
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