2015 World Junior Championship Ultimate Guide

ROSTERS, SCHEDULES, PREVIEWS, AND PREDICTIONS

 Montréal and Toronto are the two cities with the greatest amount of hockey history. Countless legends have played for the people of those fine cities, and a pantheon of storied contests were played on their ice. This year, the hockey world will converge on both of these puck-head havens for the annual gut-wrenching, heart-racing, awe-inspiring tournament that is the IIHF World Junior Championship.
 With games split between Montréal's Bell Centre and Toronro's Air Canada Centre, 10 countries' finest young men will compete for national pride, glory, and hockey immortality. Every team will have its fair share of obstacles if it wants to reach its ultimate goal, but no matter how much they all want it, no matter how hard they work, only one team will have gold draped around their necks after the final game.
 In this, your Ultimate Guide to the 2015 World Juniors, fans can find complete rosters of every team and its corresponding group stage schedule, a preview of all 10 teams, and predictions as to who will end up with individual honors and what country will be the one singing its anthem at center ice with new hardware.
 The tournament runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. Games will air on TSN and its affiliates for Canadian audiences and on NHL Network for those watching in the United States.

Takeaways From the 2014 WJC

 After Rasmus Ristolainen, leader of the Finnish defense corps, slid the puck underneath the right pad of Oscar Dansk on a great individual effort, it was all over. The thrilling Gold medal game: over. The cheering chants and screams of the hometown Swedish fans: over. The 2014 World Junior Tournament: over, and the nation of Finland reigned supreme.
 Now that the competition is complete, it's time for the Hart of Hockey's annual "what we learned" from the World Junior championship. Plenty during the past two weeks was exciting, but some things stuck out more than others. If you noticed it, too, you'll read it here. If you missed it, you'll get the chance to hear about it here. 10 teams and 31 games leave us with five major takeaways from this year's World Junior Championship.

NASHVILLE HAS FINLAND FIGURED OUT
 The Nashville Predators have had a knack for finding gems late in the NHL Entry Draft. The most notable nugget they dug up is probably Pekka Rinne. The Preds snagged Rinne in the eighth round (which doesn't even exist anymore,) and now the Finnish netminder is one of the best goalies in the world.

Juuse Saros was a fourth round pick of the Predators in 2013.
(Associated Press/Ludvig Thunman)

 Nashville's scouts have flown across the pond into Finland and apparently stumbled upon more treasures in Juuse Saros and Saku Mäenalanen. Though not named the best goalie by the tournament's directorate, Saros was the media's selection as goaltender of the tournament, and was the best player on Team Finland every time they put him between the pipes. He came up with big saves at big times, he didn't surrender a single goal in regulation or overtime when he came in cold and his team was in need of a comeback against Switzerland, and, of course, he earned a gold medal with his performance.
 In a world that has become seemingly obsessed with a goalie's measurements instead of his talents, five foot nine inches Saros has the Preds looking like geniuses for drafting him. Oh yeah, and they got him in the fourth round. Eight different goalies were chosen ahead of Saros at the 2013 Draft, and none of them have had anything close to the success Saros has had since then.

Mäenalanen celebrates his goal in the Gold
medal game. (IIHF Images/Francois LaPlante)

 Mäenalanen was taken one round after Saros in 2013, and went undrafted the year before. Mäenalanen demonstrated a complete game at the World Juniors, using his speed, effective forechecking, and smarts to score an incredible amount for the Finns. He led the entire tournament in goals with seven, and had a knack for finding the back of the net in big moments, as well.
 Saros and Mäenalanen still haven't proven anything at the NHL level like Rinne has, but still, to even think those Finnish players tumbled down the draft as far as they did is surprising. The fact that Nashville was the team to take them all in is more than coincidence. The Predators have that country figured out.

World Junior Championship 2014: Preview and Ultimate Guide

ROSTERS, SCHEDULES, PREVIEWS, AND PREDICTIONS

 Oh, it's the most wonderful time of the year! With the holiday season almost over, we're about to unwrap Malmö, Sweden chasing gold medals and national pride.
one of the greatest gifts of all: World Junior hockey. Yes, it's the same present every year, like socks from grandma, but unlike those socks, the IIHF's annual tournament manages to maintain enough charm to keep us elated year after year. This year will likely be no different, as the best junior age hockey talent on Earth will be in
 Here we've compiled every team's roster, round robin schedule, and a preview of what to expect from them over the next two weeks in Sweden.
 There's two groups with five teams each, and it's worth mentioning that this is the first time that the top FOUR teams from both groups will advance to a single-elimination quarterfinal. Previously, only the top three countries would advance and the top team from the group would have a first round bye. Now, every squad will have to win three straight games with their championship dreams on the line if they want to go back home with gold around their necks.
 Unlike the NHL, overtime and shootout wins are scored differently than regulation wins. A victory in regulation is worth three points, an overtime/shootout victory worth two points, an OT/shootout loss only one point, and, of course, a loss in regulation gets you a big fat goose egg towards the group standings.
 Now that those technicalities are out of the way, we can finally take a look at the teams that will be competing against each other.