As I mentioned yesterday, training camps will open for the World Cup of Hockey in just under three weeks.
This tournament will have some interesting elements for Canucks fans, so here's a rundown of the timeline and what to watch for.
The main tournament will be played entirely in Toronto, but training camps will be held elsewhere, as will the exhibition games.
NHL.com has the breakdown of those locations.
Each of the six participating countries will hold their training camp in their home nations. Canada will be in Ottawa for that portion of the tournament, while the U.S. team will be in Columbus. Sweden, Finland, Russia and Czech Republic will all start out in Europe.
Team Europe and Team North America will both hold their camps and pre-tournament games in Montreal and Quebec City.
To review:
Team Europe is comprised of players from European nations outside the "Big Four." The lineup includes the Canucks' Jannik Hansen up front and Luca Sbisa on defense. Frederik Andersen of Denmark will be their No. 1 goaltender, and stars up front will include Anze Kopitar (Slovenia), Marian Gaborik and Zdeno Chara (Slovakia), Nino Niederreiter and Roman Josi (Switzerland) and Mats Zuccarello (Norway).
My understanding is that insurance issues for the tournament have been settled for RFAs that have not yet inked their new contracts, so they will still be able to participate, but I wonder if Tobias Rieder (Arizona/Germany) disqualifies himself if he signs in the KHL? That has been rumoured to be a possibility, as negotiations in the desert seem to be going nowhere with Rieder.
Team North America is the team made up of players from Canada and the U.S. who are under 24 as of the beginning of this year's NHL regular season. They should be a ton of fun to watch—with talented youngsters like Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel skating with other bright young stars like Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, Jonathan Drouin and Dylan Larkin and anchored by relative "veterans" like Sean Couturier, Brandon Saad and Mark Scheifele.
Even the defense on Team North America looks good: Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones, Ryan Murray and Morgan Rielly, Shayne Gostisbehere and Colton Parayko, with Jacob Trouba as the seventh man.
The question mark on Team North America *was* the goaltending, but after what Matt Murray did in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year, I think they'll be just fine. John Gibson and Connor Hellebuyck will back him up.
Before all the teams convene in Toronto, twelve pre-tournament games will be held between Sept. 8-14, in these cities: Columbus, Pittsburgh and Washington, DC; Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City; Prague; Gothenburg; Helsinki; and Moscow.
Team Canada will have a home-and-home with Team USA, in Columbus on Sept. 9, then in Ottawa on Sept. 10. The Canadians will wrap up the pre-tournament schedule against Russia in Pittsburgh—Sid vs. Geno and Ovi—on Sept. 14.
The other big rooting interest for Canucks fans, of course, is Team Sweden, which will be highlighted by the reunion of Loui Eriksson with the Sedins after their gold-medal win as linemates at the 2013 World Championship. The tournament will be a chance for the trio to build some early chemistry and see if they can channel the magic once again.
Jacob Markstrom is also on the roster for the Swedes, backing up Henrik Lundqvist in net.
The Swedes will start their pre-tournament schedule in Europe, with a game in Helsinki on Sept. 8 and at home in Gothenburg on Sept. 10, also against the Finns, in the fantastically-named Scandinavium. Their first game in North America will be against Team Europe in Washington on Sept. 14.
It looks like all of the pre-tournament games will be televised on Sportsnet, so we'll have morning starts for the games being played in Europe. I love those.
The actual tournament will start in Toronto on Saturday, Sept. 17—the same weekend as the Canucks' Young Stars Tournament.
All games will be played at the Air Canada Centre, with two games a day during the round-robin portion between Sept. 17 and Sept. 22. Here's how the groupings break down:
Group A: Canada, United States, Czech Republic, Team Europe
Group B: Sweden, Finland, Russia, Team North America
The top two teams from each group will cross over for a one-game semifinal elimination on the weekend of Sept. 24-25, then the winners of those games will play a best-of-three final. Those games are scheduled for Sept. 28 and 29, with the third game, if necessary, booked for October 1.
Bragging rights won't be as much of an incentive as they are at the Olympics, but players will all still have something to prove. The ones that haven't signed their new contracts will certainly have a strong incentive to make sure they don't get injured, but other than that, I think the tournament will be interesting.
I'm especially intrigued by the Young Guns group and keen to see how Eriksson slides in with the Sedins. And I'm still holding out hope that, somehow, this tournament manages to grease the wheels to get NHL players back to the Olympics in South Korea in 2018. It's a long shot right now, but I refuse to give up hope!
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