The 2022 WJC 2.0: a Round Robin Roundup
Some musings on WJC Hockey in August, black clouds over a normally whimsical tournament, Wolverines in starring roles, and the case for a robust WJC field
The 2022 World Juniors 2.0 is underway from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta. You’ll recall the original attempt to hold the event—in that incarnation split between Edmonton and nearby Red Deer—along its traditional holiday timeline when the bubble burst into a large-scale COVID outbreak. So, since that didn’t go so hot, we have meaningful hockey in August again. Here are a few musings on the tournament’s round robin phase.
August
To put our analytical cards on the table, we must count ourselves among the number whose appetite for hockey in August needs whetting. The World Juniors is always a highlight in hockey’s calendar, but, without the context of an ongoing season, an international tournament is an odd form of introduction.
Playing in August also means that some notable names from this age group’s top talent—who would have played in the regularly scheduled tournament—are absent this go-round (Michigan’s Matty Beniers among them).
Empty seats in World Juniors’ arenas aren’t an uncommon sight in the round robin phase, particularly when the host team isn’t playing, but crowds in Edmonton have appeared tepid on television, even by that standard. Again, it being one of what we assume can’t be more than two months in Alberta with pleasant temperatures would seem a factor.
On the ice, NHL Network color analyst Dave Starman noted the prevalence of “August penalties” throughout the group stage during the U.S.’s 3-2 victory over Sweden Sunday night. By “August penalties,” Starman referred to the offensive zone stick infractions and holds that have abounded in the early stages of the tournament, with players still acclimating to the pace of competitive games.
(As a total aside, Starman also offered the following theory on modern (North American) goaltender development: today’s young goaltender tends to struggle glove side because fewer of them play baseball where young goaltenders of yore honed their skills with the catching glove. We have no idea whether this is accurate, but we’re totally persuaded.)
We have managed to come up with one definitive advantage of holding this event in August. Normally, the tournament begins just after Christmas and runs through the early days of the new year. As such, it always happens across two calendar years, despite being just a two-week event. Even if the tournament is generally referred to by its second year (i.e. the one in which the final is played), playing the tournament in August (and thus just one calendar year) alleviates that immense strain. Is that reason enough to move the tournament to August? We’ll leave that to you, esteemed reader.
Black Clouds
Content Warning: This block delves into sexual assault in relation to recent news about Hockey Canada. Don’t hesitate to jump ahead to the next one if that makes the most sense for you.
There are of course two other enormous reasons this year’s World Juniors: the rapid exposure of a series of sexual assault scandals at Hockey Canada and Russia’s absence due to its ongoing war in Ukraine.
We wanted this to be more of a fun hockey reprieve from our Michigan hockey coverage of late, but unfortunately that’s not much of an option at this year’s World Juniors.
In the late Spring, thanks to reporters like TSN’s Rick Westhead and The Athletic’s Katie Strang (both of whom were heavily involved in bringing the details of the Chicago Blackhawks’ sexual misconduct scandal to light and the latter of whom did thorough reporting on Mel Pearson’s departure from Michigan), news surfaced of an alleged incident of sexual assault at a Hockey Canada golf tournament and gala commemorating the gold-medal winning 2018 Canadian World Junior team.
Further investigation revealed that Hockey Canada (the sport’s national governing body) paid out a hasty settlement accompanied by an NDA to make the scandal vanish. The funding for the settlement reportedly came from a slush fund derived from the registration fees paid by youth hockey families across the country.
Along the way news of a different alleged incident of sexual assault involving Canada’s team at the 2003 WJC in Halifax, which again was resolved via cover-up and settlement.
Suffice it to say it’s not hard to understand why there might not be much enthusiasm for the national team right now in Edmonton.
Meanwhile, Russia is conspicuously absent from this summer’s WJC field. The decision itself is a no-brainer, even if it does cost young Russian players with no influence on their home nation’s foreign policy the chance to play at this unique event. Given the atrocity that is their dictator’s invasion of Ukraine, there was no room for a team under a Russian banner at this tournament (and that includes the farcical OAR and ROC teams from recent Olympics), and we have previously covered the fact that hockey will be forced to reckon with that invasion in ways other North American sports, based simply on where its talent comes from. Even if it is an obvious political consequence of Putin’s invasion, it makes for one more reason this special summer edition of the WJC doesn’t quite have the punch of the event’s traditional holiday iterations.
Michigan Makes a Major Stamp
On to the good news at last. This being a major stage in the world of men’s hockey, the University of Michigan boasts a bountiful and impactful presence.
In a fond reminder of watching last year’s Wolverines, Kent Johnson has dazzled the tournament with his paranormal hands. It started with a casual between-the-legs, backhand toe drag against Latvia.
Even if it didn’t amount to anything more than a harmless one timer, it was a fitting warm-up act for the main show that came later in the group stage against Czechia.
Johnson, forever a Wolverine, pulled off Mike Legg’s famous “Michigan” against the Czechs.
The reaction of linemate Logan Stankoven, a forward for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, said it all.
Johnson is not the only Wolverine emeritus playing a starring role at these World Juniors. Thomas Bordeleau—who missed WJC 2021 and WJC 2022 1.0 due to COVID contact tracing—has taken center stage on a USA team loaded with talent.
Bordeleau leads Team USA in points at the conclusion of the group stage, with a goal and six assists in four round robin games. At twenty and with an “A” on his sweater, Bordeleau brings a veteran presence and the familiar combination of skill with the puck, shiftiness, and deceptive power along the boards that distinguished him in Ann Arbor.
Bordeleau helped get the Americans’ tournament started with a well-timed one-handed pokecheck, sending the puck along its way to an eventual Luke Hughes goal from the point.
Hughes returned the favor a game later against the Swiss, setting up a Bordeleau one-timer
As good as he’s been on the ice for the U.S., Bordeleau’s highlight of the tournament came in the moments before the Americans’ final game of group play against Sweden. Knowing he had the automated ear of the referees microphone, the Houstonian Quebecois took the opportunity to say hi to his mom.
Elsewhere on the ice, Luke Hughes has been a sensation for Team USA, offering the daring one-man rushes we grew to love during his freshman year in Ann Arbor, along with impeccable walks along the offensive blue line.
Among his finest play from group play came in the Switzerland game, with the rangy defenseman sashaying across the top of the offensive zone before pirouetting to set up a Matt Coronato deflection.
Hughes—playing alongside Minnesota Golden Gopher (and future Minnesota Wild) defenseman Brock Faber on the Americans’ top pair—looks poised for a Hobey Baker-type campaign in his second year for the Wolverines. With a goal and five assists, he leads American defensemen in points. The “man amongst boys,” or rather “deer amongst dogs,” dominance we saw throughout the second half of last season has been on full display in Edmonton.
If there is one small area where Hughes could perhaps improve, it might be in raising the floor on the individual rushes that distinguish him from so many of his peers. Hughes is the rare player who, even against elite competition, can skate the puck from his own end to the offensive zone, almost as though he has forgotten that passing is an option.
If you are the sort of person turned off by comparisons that require a bit of projection or acknowledgement that it is just a comparison, not an equation, you might want to skip this next paragraph. These types of rushes—which Hughes attempts a half dozen or so times a game—are the kind of plays we see from a vanishingly small number of NHL players. The list starts with Connor McDavid and Cale Makar, and if it goes on any longer, it’s not by much. Even stars like McDavid and Makar, who can produce these efforts, seldom succeed in converting them into goals.
The same is true for Hughes, but one way he can ensure that even lesser individual bids achieve something for the team is by making even the lower-end ones more productive.
As it stands, there are a handful of plays each game where Hughes gains the offensive zone but can’t find a path to goal. In those moments, we suspect he could be slightly more effective in finding a teammate or productive area into which he could deposit the puck rather than returning it to his opposition.
Of course, this is a microscopic nit to pick in an outstanding tournament for Luke Hughes.
While Bordeleau and Hughes have been leading the way for the U.S. on the scoresheet, Mackie Samoskevich looks poised for a breakout in the tournament’s knockout phase.
The Connecticutian registered just three assists in group play, but the positive trajectory we have seen from him since WJC 2022 1.0 last December remains in place. In the early days of his freshman season a year ago, it felt as though Samoskevich would flash impressive skill—an impressive move to set up a formidable wrister or a burst of speed through the neutral zone, but he didn’t always pop consistently throughout a game.
That could not be said of his WJC performance to date, where he continues to pop up all over the ice, even without much to show for it in terms of results. Samoskevich appears a more serious dual threat in the offensive zone, showing a greater willingness to shoot or facilitate rather than defaulting to shots, and he’s impressed us at Gulo Gulo with his defensive effort.
Next up for the Americans is a quarterfinal date with Czechia tomorrow (Wednesday the 17th) evening. It was smooth sailing for a perfect record and Group B crown for
Team U.S.A., including an impressive 3-2 win over the Swedes to cap things off, and now the U.S.’s biggest challenger will likely be Johnson and Group A winners Canada.
The Case for a Robust WJC Field
One annual WJC tradition we haven’t skipped just because it’s August is complaining about the broad field at the tournament and a perceived lack of quality competition during round robin play.
This year, it was the aforementioned Starman leading the charge. That Starman took the lead here is unusual; normally, the guy mad about blowouts in the early days of the WJC is Canadian.
While it’s true that the number of nations that can field a team capable of competing for a championship is relatively small, that is not a reason to trim the field. So there are lots of blowouts in the early going, but would you rather a tournament with a three-to-six team field?
The various European nations where hockey is not exactly a priority give the tournament a texture it would otherwise lack, and pool play is more about getting to know the various rosters than the results. There are very few hockey fans with the time to have an intensive working knowledge of the full roster of the tournament’s teams, even for the top contenders.
Many of the most memorable WJC performances in our memory come from an elite prospect, helping a non-traditional hockey nation punch above its weight class. Here, we’re thinking of performances like Tim Stützle for Germany, Timo Meier for Switzerland, or Nikolaj Ehlers for Denmark.
This time around, there wasn’t a singular standout performance amongst the bottom half of the WJC, but Latvia managed to make history by winning its first WJC game and advancing to the quarterfinals, also a national first.
Even if the Latvians’ chances of making their way past Sweden are near-nil, their presence made this a better, more fun tournament.