Team Sweden celebrates winning gold at the2012 world junior championship.Back in the early 2000s, the Swedish junior hockey program was in a shambles. It hit rock bottom in 2003, when they were on the verge of relegation at the world junior championship in Halifax. As a nation that had always prided itself on developing top hockey talent, an eighth-place finish was embarrassing.

Tommy Boustedt helped change that. One year earlier, he left his job coaching Frölunda in the Swedish Elite League to become his country’s national director of hockey development. His first task was to investigate what was going wrong in their junior system.

Under Boustedt’s direction, the Swedes overhauled their entire junior hockey program and invested their resources in player development. In 2012, Sweden won gold at the world junior championship for the first time since 1981. Of the 25 players on that Swedish team and the one that won silver at the 2013 tournament, only four played hockey in the CHL.

“Our professional men’s teams have put more money into their junior Read More »from Sweden's junior success built on homegrown talent

It’s hard in junior hockey to relay the talents of a future bright star without giving them a label of an NHL star from the past. We often use “next” – the next Gretzky, Jagr, Lindros, Lidstrom – to give fans a reference point.

It is often an unfair burden to be “the next” when all a player strives to be is himself.

Elias Lindholm led Team Sweden at the 2013 WJC in Ufa, Russia. (AP)Elias Lindholm knows this pressure all too well. The media in his native Sweden are already billing him as the next Peter Forsberg.

“It’s fun when they’re talking about me and (Forsberg),” said Lindholm. “But it’s tough to be compared with him.”

The comparison to Forsberg, particularly in Sweden, is a lofty one. But it’s this kind of comparison that has Lindholm ranked as one of the top European skaters for the 2013 NHL entry draft. Like Forsberg, Lindholm is a complete player – a good skater, extremely smart, skilled with and without the puck, and both a deft passer and capable goal-scorer.

Roger Ronnberg, who coached Lindholm and Team Sweden to a silver

Read More »from Sweden's Elias Lindholm earns Peter Forsberg comparisons and top billing for 2013 NHL draft

UFA, Russia — One year ago in Calgary, Jim Johannson was standing in the media area trying to explain what went so terribly wrong. As the man in charge of hockey operations for USA Hockey, he was there to answer for his team’s seventh-place finish.

The U.S. won gold a year after a disastrous seventh-place finish. (Reuters)He said their program would go back to the drawing board and reassess every detail in building a team.

They did.

On Saturday, in Ufa, Russia, Johannson was once again standing in the media area, but this time he was surrounded by his American players wearing gold medals around their necks. They had just beaten the defending champions from Sweden 3-1 to win their first world junior tournament since 2010.

“It’s a tough tournament,” said Johannson. “Things happen in the tournament, some things you can control and some you can’t. I think in the end it comes down to getting key performances from players and the coaches along with just having some good fortune mixed with good performance.”

Among those who stood out for the Americans

Read More »from 2013 WJC: Team USA takes gold after finding stride in playoff round

UFA, Russia — For the first time since 1998, Team Canada will come home without a medal from the world junior championship.

Canada failed to earn a WJC medal for the first time in 14 years. (Reuters)“It’s tough to put into words,” said Canadian captain Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “It’s disappointing because it’s not what we came here to do. It’s not something Canada does – come fourth.”

Russia beat Canada 6-5 in overtime to secure a bronze medal in front of a raucous crowd of 7,617 fans at Ufa Arena. Forward Valeri Nichushkin, one of the top European prospects for the 2013 NHL draft, cut to the outside and blew past Canadian defender Ryan Murphy before beating another rearguard, Morgan Reilly, to the front of the net.

Nichushkin, donning the full cage of a 17-year-old, then slipped the puck past the outstretched pad of goaltender Malcolm Subban.

Once the red light went on, it was bedlam.

The Russian fans celebrated and their players dove on top of one another in the corner just to the right of the net where Subban sat dazed in his crease. As they

Read More »from 2013 WJC: No medal, no satisfaction as Canada comes up short against Russia

UFA, Russia — When Canadian defenceman Griffin Reinhart served his two-minute penalty for a high-sticking call against the Americans on Thursday, he did his time, skated back to the bench and thought nothing of it. His mind was focused on the semifinal game between the two nations at the world junior championship.

Griffin Reinhart had a two-minute penalty turn into a four-game suspension. (Reuters)After the game – a 5-1 loss to the U.S. – the International Ice Hockey Federation announced it was calling a hearing to review the high-stick that caught American forward Vincent Trocheck in the head.

The stick glanced off the helmet and Trocheck was uninjured. He didn’t miss a shift.

On Friday morning the IIHF, the governing body of the tournament, suspended Reinhart for four games. Hockey Canada said it was one of the largest suspensions ever handed out at a world junior tournament.

As a result of the suspension Reinhart will miss the Canada’s bronze medal match against the Russians on Saturday.

“The referees in the play found it a two-minute penalty and I

Read More »from 2013 WJC: Canada's Griffin Reinhart shocked by lengthy suspension for high stick

UFA, Russia — For the first time, in a long time, American defenceman Jake McCabe stood on his blueline, saw his nation’s flag raised and heard the Star Spangled Banner being played.

Canada's Jonathan Drouin reacts with teammates goalie Malcolm Subban and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins after their loss to the U.S. (Reuters)“I think to myself how many times I’ve had to see a different country’s flag go up and I can count that on one hand,” said the U.S. captain. “It’s not fun and it’s pretty awesome having that flag rising up at the end and singing our national anthem.

“It’s pretty special.”

His special moment was a nightmare for Team Canada.

The Americans stunned the Canadians with a 5-1 victory in the semifinals of the world junior championship. The Canadians, who earned a bye to the semifinal, were undefeated in round-robin play and had beaten the U.S. earlier in the week.

“We played exactly how we needed to,” said McCabe, who scored a pair of goals for the U.S. “We played in their zone, we controlled the pace and we put them on their heels right off the bat. They really didn’t know what hit them in the

Read More »from 2013 WJC: U.S. stuns Canada with emphatic semifinal victory

UFA, Russia — It’s a moment that Jonathan Huberdeau still remembers vividly. He remembers suffering defeat at the hands of the Russians in the semifinals of the 2012 world junior championship.

Jonathan Huberdeau doesn't want to come up short again in the semis. (Getty)A year later the wound is still fresh and the disappointment still stings.

“It’s been a year, but it feels like it was yesterday that it happened,” said Huberdeau, one of Canada’s alternate captains.

On Thursday, he will get another chance to advance to the gold medal game when Team Canada faces the U.S. at Ufa Arena at 4 a.m. ET. Like last year, when Canada won bronze in Calgary, the team will have had two days of rest before the semifinal.

“For sure we think about that – we had two days off – it’s the same scenario that happened last year two days off and then we play a semifinal,” said the third overall pick of the Florida Panthers in 2011. “It’s a different team and it’s a different tournament.

“We just want to have a great start and we want to be focused, that’s the most

Read More »from 2013 WJC: Canada doesn't want to repeat history in semifinal showdown with U.S.

UFA, Russia — Team Canada head coach Steve Spott ended his post-game conference with Russian media by wishing them a “Happy New Year” in their native tongue.

Ryan Murphy, Jonathan Drouin and Mark Scheifele celebrate Drouin's goal against Russia. (Reuters)As far as the man sitting beside him on the dais, Russian head coach Mikhail Varnakov, was concerned there was nothing happy about it. His team had just lost 4-1 on home ice to Canada on one the biggest days on the Russian calendar.

“To play against a team like Canada is always hard,” said Varnakov through a translator. “You should always be alert and you should always be disciplined.”

Thus far in the tournament, it has been Team Canada that has struggled with taking penalties. This time however, it was the Russians that found themselves in the box early in the first period when Valeri Nichushkin was given a five-minute major for checking from behind and a game misconduct for slamming defenceman Tyler Worthersoon face-first into the dasher board. Adding injury to injury, it was his first shift back for the Calgary Flames

Read More »from 2013 WJC: New addition to top line sparks Canada's big victory over Russia