The failure of Sweden and the failures of Canada. All the thrills of the World Hockey Championship :: Hockey :: RBC Sport

The current Ice Hockey World Championship in Riga has already been marked by an unprecedented number of sensations. For example, for the first time in history the Swedish national team failed to advance to the playoffs as Canada came close to failure. All Unexpected Results – In RBC Material

Unique sensations in the matches of the ice hockey world championships occurred regularly. But this year’s tournament broke all records for the number of unexpected results. There is a rational explanation for this.

Due to the late start of the playoffs (May 16), there were hardly any NHL players on the teams. European teams were mostly made up of hockey players playing for Old World clubs. For Canada and the United States, the third and fourth link players of the NHL underdogs play for the most part. This leveled the level of established favorites and other teams.

The exception is the Russian national team, which has 10 overseas players – the best indicator among all European teams. Among them are Sergey Bobrovsky, twice the NHL’s top goaltender, as well as Stanley Cup winners, defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Vladimir Tarasenko. There are no such eminent hockey players in the lineups of other teams. In many ways, that is why there were practically no surprises in matches with the participation of Russians.

Behind the World Cup group stage. In terms of level of play, the current championship is significantly lower than the previous ones. But this is offset by heightened intrigue. We remember all the unexpected results of the matches of the first stage.

The main sensation of the World Cup was the failure of the Swedish national team. For the first time in history, the eleven world champions have not reached the playoffs (relegation matches to the world championships have started to be played since 1992). Moreover, for the first time since 1937, the Scandinavians finished outside the top eight.

“It’s a big failure for me as a coach and a big failure for us as a hockey nation,” said team coach Juhan Garpenlev after the last game of the tournament.

In the tournament, Sweden, which had five NHL players, lost for the first time in world championship history to Denmark (3: 4) and Belarus (0: 1). Additionally, the Swedes lost to the Czech Republic (2: 4) and Russia (2: 3 in the post-game shootout). Victories over Switzerland, Slovakia and Great Britain were not enough to qualify for the group – the Swedes took fifth place.

The Czech national team with six hockey players from NHL clubs started the World Championship with two losses – from Russia (3: 4) and Switzerland (2: 5). The team released such a start for the first time in history. In 1991, she also started with two failures, but the Czechoslovakia national team also participated in this tournament.

Going forward, the Czechs have won five in a row and advanced to the playoffs. But the team’s play in the squad still left a lot of questions. For example, the team only beat Belarus and Denmark in overtime (3: 2) and in a series of post-game throws (2: 1).

In matches with the participation of the Russian national team, only one unexpected result was recorded – a defeat of Slovakia, which brought a team to Riga, which is only younger than Canada, and it did there are hardly any players known to a large circle of fans.

However, in the game with the Slovaks, the Russian national team had serious personnel problems. Orlov and Tarasenko have not yet reached Latvia. Defender Nikita Nesterov was in quarantine. Forward Mikhail Grigorenko was unable to play due to an injury. Therefore, this defeat should not be seen as a sensation, but as a surprise – perhaps.

As a result, the Russian national team won all other matches and took first place in the group.

The Belarusian national team does not belong to the giants of world hockey. But she also stood out with a minus sign, losing to Great Britain, who seemed to be an obvious outsider of Group A. Moreover, before that, the Belarusians had beaten the Swedes and took a point in the meeting with the Czechs. Therefore, the failure to meet the British struck like a thunderclap.

Great Britain, after beating Belarus, claimed their first regulation time victory at the World Championships for the first time since 1962, when they beat the Finns 7: 5. played in the top flight only twice. In 1994, they lost in all matches, and in 2019, in overtime with a score of 4: 3, they beat the French.

Belarus became the weakest team in Group A, having received 0: 6 each of the Swiss and Russians in the last two matches. But the team will not leave the elite, since competitions in the lower groups have not taken place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For the first time at the world championships, the Canadian national team lost two starting matches – for the first time in the history of Latvia (0: 2), as well as the United States (1: 5). Besides. In the third game of the tournament, the founders of hockey lost to Germany (1: 3).

However, everything was still in the hands of Canadians. They have won three straight victories and if they had taken at least two points in the final meeting with the Finns they would have qualified for the quarter-finals without further conditions. But Canada, winning 2-1, conceded four minutes before the end of the third period, and lost in a series of post-game shots.

As a result, Canada was helped by the Germans, who beat Latvia, thanks to which the representatives of the Maple Leaf country took fourth place in Group B and advanced to the playoffs in Russia.

There are only three NHL representatives in Finland. And at first it looked like Finland would have a hard time breaking out of the squad, because in the second meeting of the tournament, the team lost to Kazakhstan for the first time in history (1: 2 in the series of post-game throws).

But, as time has shown, this surprise became unique – Finland won all remaining matches and took second place in Group B.

Of all the favorites, the Americans passed through the group stage most regularly – in matches with their participation no unexpected results were recorded. The United States lost only to Finland (1: 2), but no one is ashamed of losing to the reigning world champion. “Stars and Stripes” took first place in Group B.

At the same time, the team has an ordinary composition, which is significantly lower than that of Russia and does not exceed the number of players of any other leading national team. We distinguish the young Jason Robertson and the experienced Justin Abdelkader.

A year ago, Robertson, 21, was not known to the general public. But last season, the forward shone in Dallas and is now Kirill Kaprizov’s main rival in the fight for the best rookie of the season.

Abdelkader played 11 seasons for the Detroit main team and spent the last championship in Zug, Switzerland. However, the 34-year-old USA forward will not help in the World Cup qualifiers due to an injury.