The 2023 World Junior Championship kicks off at 12 pm. The tournament runs from December 26th, 2024 until January 6th, 2025 and will take place in Canada. The United States are the defending champions and compose Group A with Finland, Canada, Latvia, and Germany. Group B consists of Sweden, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Kazakhstan.
Each team will play a group stage of four games. The top 4 teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals beginning January 2nd. There are no games New Years Day. The two teams who don’t make the Quarterfinals play in a relegation game.
Canada is the odds on favorite to win the Championship this year.
This years World Championship tournament will not feature a top star like Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini but will spotlight some major young talent, especially out of last years draft.
There are four games each day and our biggest game tomorrow will be team USA at 2:30 pm.
Tomorrow opens up with Slovakia taking on Sweden. All three major books (BetMGM, Fanduel, Draftkings) have lines for the tournament. Each book will offer different plays or props so I will specify which book for each play.
Sweden is coming off a finals loss to USA and it was ugly at the end of the game. USA took a 4-2 lead early in the third before adding two late goals in the final five minutes to seal the game. Sweden took some liberties at the end of the game and it was great to see Team USA stand up for each other. Sweden is a heavy favorite at -1600. This line is tough to gage. Slovakia was an impressive team last year in the tournament but the roster is very different. Sweden should rout here but Slovakia is a team that plays with pride. The game total live is where I will be looking. We will start the day slow with the two biggest edges coming in the middle games.
Both USA and Czechia, who play at 5 pm, should open the tournament with a win. By how much is what we need to determine. Zeev Buium is one of the top names to watch in this tournament. Buium has been discussed as a future James Norris trophy winner. James Hagens is the potential number one pick in this coming draft and will play with 2024 1st round draft picks Cole Eiserman and Trevor Connelly. Germany played in and won last years relegation game to stay in the tournament this year. They shocked everyone beating Finland in day two of the tournament and played relatively close games for where they should have been. Don’t expect Germany to make any waves in the tournament this year but if they can get on the board tomorrow for two goals we should be in for a great game with the books. USA should dominate but I worry about it being opening day to keep me off the spread. If USA gets out early we want to look at their team total live.
The Czechs come in every year underrated and overlooked. They play gritty hockey and know how to succeed. The Czechs are skilled and found revenge last season knocking Canada out in the quarterfinal round. The Czechs lost to the Canadiens the previous year in the finals. I expect a win here and am surprised to see the spread at -130.
I will be back to break down the Finland/Canada game.
Official Plays:
- 12 pm Slovakia/Sweden over 6 -185: 1u
- 2:30 pm USA/Germany over 7.5 -165: 3u
- 5 pm Czech Republic -1.5 -135: 2u
- 5 pm Czech Republic over 3.5 -135: 1u
