World Juniors Predictions

Gold Medal: Canada
This team is too strong, has too many highly touted prospects that have already been drafted, and are solid across the board. They have several offensively talented forwards and defense men. And they also have a good mix of two-way and defensive players. In net they have returning goalie Mark Visentin who is a first round 27th overall pick of the Phoenix Coyotes. And they have Scott Wedgewood who has been one of the best goalies in the CHL this year and can get the job done if Canada calls on him.

Silver Medal: United States of America
Like Canada, the USA has many highly touted prospects on their team, and they have many returning players. Their goaltending is superb, as they have Jack Campbell who has stolen more than a few games as a member of this team the past 2 years. They have a potent first line of Emerson Etem, Nick Bjugstad and Charlie Coyle. And possibley the most defensively sound defense men of all the teams in the tournament.

Bronze Medal: Sweden
This team showed that it had what it takes to win a medal when they beat Canada in a close pre-tournament game.This team has good goaltending, good defense, and fantastic forwards. They have some great draft eligible players in Pontus Aberg, and Filip Forsberg who is touted to go in the top 5 in the 2012 NHL entry draft. They also have a bunch of high picks from last years draft in Mika Zibanejed (6th, Ottawa), Jonas Brodin (10th, Minnesota), Oscar Klefbom (19th, Edmonton), Rickard Rakell (30th, Anaheim), And Victor Rask (42nd, Carolina)

4th Place: Russia
They still have Yevgeni Kuznetsov, who was arguably the best player at the tournament last year when Russia won gold. However, they don't have many returning players, including their captain from last year Vladimir Tarasenko, who was a major factor in Russia winning gold last year. They also don't have Igor Bobkov anymore who backstopped Russia the last 2 years as their goalie. They may have replaced those players with solid other players, but they just don't have enough experience this year.

5th Place: Finland
With Christopher Gibson, who was a second round pick of the LA Kings this past year, as Finland's goalie, they should be in pretty good shape there. They have got some fabulous offensive weapons in the Granlund brothers Mikael and Markus. They have an amazing defense man in Olli Maata. But the thing that will prevent Finland from medalling, will be their lack of depth at both forward and 'D'.

6th Place: Czech Republic
This team is very similar to Finland. They have a couple great players like David Musil, Dmitij Jaskin and Martin Frk, they just have very little depth. Their stars might win them a couple of games, but then teams like Canada or USA that have a very small difference between their best and worst players will beat Czech Republic.


7th Place: Switzerland
This team doesn't have great goaltending, but they have good team defense. They only have one 'star' player in Sven Bartchi who was drafted 13th overall by the Flames last year. If there is a game changer on this team, it's Bartchi. They also have some good two-way players like Alban Rexha. But they just don't have the same quality of players to contest with the top teams.

8th Place: Slovakia
Slovakia is similar to many of the bottom teams in this tournament in the way that it has a couple great players but nothing else. Those players are: Martin Marincin and Tomas Jurco.

9th Place: Denmark
Denmark only has one good player and that is Niklas Jensen. He'll score a couple of goals this tournament, but will be one of few bright spots on this team.

10th: Latvia
I don't even recognize anybody on this team. Latvia is going to be in for a long tournament.

The Rookie Report

Obviously in this post your going to hear a lot about Ryan "The Nuge" Nugent-Hopkins and some of the other big name rookies, but in this post I will also point out rookies who nobody had on their radar until now, and some rookies who even after great play, still haven't gotten much recognition.

I'm going to start by talking about the Nuge himself and some of the bigger name rookies:
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: Too Young? Too Frail? Not Ready? Not a chance. The Nuge has been huge for a young Oiler's team. He has 29 points in 27 games so far and 12 of those points have been goals. He has been outstanding defensively posting a plus 4 rating. Only part of his game that has been a bit of a weakness has been his faceoffs where he is hovering around winning 35% of them. Of course for young rookies this is normal.

Gabriel Landeskog: Landeskog has been a beast for the Avalanche. Most people expected him to make the 10 game mark in the NHL to solidify his spot on the Avalanche but I don't think that many people expected him to look like a 10 year NHL vet. He thinks the game better than many veterans, and you don't see him make many mistakes. He has been amazing defensively, and he's been good offensively posting 13 points in 27 games.

Cody Hodgson: He has been doubted ever since he didn't make the team out of camp last year. People thought that he would be a 4th liner this year and be up and down from the minors all year. People had written him off as a hockey player. Well Hodgson has silenced most people. He hasn't been the defensive liability that people thought he was going to be, and he has an impressive 12 points in 26 games from the 3rd line.

Now time for the rookies that nobody had on their radar.

Craig Smith: He is second in rookie scoring behind Nugent-Hopkins with 21 points in 26 games and is leading the Nashville Predators in points. Smith is a player who was a 4th round pick just 2 years ago. It's quite the feat that he even made the team at all. Yet now he is stealing ice time from Nashville's previous leading scorers Martin Erat and Sergei Kostitsyn on the first line.

Matt Read: This guy has been lights out good for the Philadelphia Flyers. The undrafted 25 year old rookie was signed last off-season by the Flyers. Now get this, Read was signed this past summer as an undrafted player, and now he's averaging almost a point per-game in the NHL and playing on the Flyers second line. It's crazy, Read was overshadowed by Sean Couturier making the team, but now Read is the one lighting it up. He stole Brayden Schenn's roster spot. Brayden Schenn who this past summer was called "The best player not in the NHL" by Flyers GM Paul Holmgren.

Adam Henrique: The 3rd rounder in 2008 was expected to make the Devils this year... as a 3rd or 4th liner. Now Henrique has 17 points in 22 games, is ahead of player such as Ilya Kovalchuck, and Zach Parise who play on the Devils. The only player on the Devils who has more points than Henrique is Patrick Elias who has 21 and has played 3 more games then Henrique. Henrique has been a great two-way player on a struggling Devils team.

Roman Horak: Horak was just a throw in, in a deal between the Calgary Flames and the New York Rangers. The Rangers just threw him into the deal along with 2 second round picks for Tim Erixon and a fifth round pick. The Rangers didn't think that their 5th round pick in 2009 would have the slightest chance of really doing anything in the NHL, at least not for a couple years. Well they were wrong, Roman Horak has been fantastic for the Flames this year. He has been a fabulous defensive forward on a 13th place Flames team in the west. Horak has posted a plus 5 rating on a team that has lost more than they have won. Horak might not be lighting it up, with only 9 points in 24 games, but when they need to hold a lead late in a game, he's the one that they will be sending out.

You Know What They Say, They Are Hired To Be Fired

In the last month, 5 coaches have been fired, 4 of them head coaches. Perry Pearn was an assistant coach for the Montreal Canadiens, until about a month ago. Davis Payne was head coach of the St. Louis Blues until 2 weeks ago. And Paul Maurice (Carolina Hurricanes), Bruce Boudreau (Washington Capitals) and Randy Carlyle (Anaheim Ducks) all in the last week. However Boudreau, was hired in place of Carlyle with the Ducks just 2 days after being fired. The beneficiaries of these head coach firing's are: Kirk Muller (Carolina Hurricanes), Ken Hitchcock (St. Louis Blues), Dale Hunter (Washington Capitals) and Bruce Boudreau (Anaheim Ducks). It is interesting how so many coaches are fired pretty early in the year. And in someone like Paul Maurice's case, to a team that didn't necessarily have too big of expectations. I guess GM's and management have decided that if the team isn't performing by the quarter mark of the year, it's time to pull the plug. And rightfully so. A stat shows that post-lockout 71.9% of teams that are in the playoffs at the quarter point of the year make it in to the playoffs at the end of the year. one thing that will be interesting to see is how Dale Hunter does in Washington. Some people may remember him as a Capital in the 80's and 90's. Hunter is making the jump from junior coaching to NHL coaching, which hasn't gone too well in the past. In fact, that jump has only worked a couple of times. Some notably good junior coaches that didn't do to well in the NHL and are currently in junior are: Craig Hartsburg and Don Hay. Both these coaches have had tonnes of success at the junior level, and at the junior international level, but couldn't get it done at the NHL level. Which begs the question, Why? Is it the Pressure? The players? I don't know. But good luck Dale Hunter. You and all the other new coaches have quite a bit of work to do.