IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS DAY 1 RECAP; ANALYSIS, SCORES, NEWS, AND MORE!!!

[@martinhage2832]

Gold: Canada Silver: USA Bronze: Sweden Lock it in! Looking forward to more videos during the WJC

[@onthefly1515]

Certainly a possibility! From what I gathered through the tournament format and expected results, you’ll likely need Czechia to beat Finland in the QF to get that result! Certainly wouldn’t mind that outcome though :)

[@exclusiveoro5349]

I need the lock 🏴‍☠️

[@USALLTHEWAY]

Wasn’t too impressed with the crowd, only cheered when they scored or when George made big saves, the chants were quiet or at a minimal It’s probably most convenient to have Canada host every other year but after seeing 2024 wjc in Sweden and videos of other tournaments, Europe teams and USA should host a lot more. Every team should be able to host 1 every 4 years at the most

[@ngarcia103]

Long reply incoming, fair warning. I point to 2015/2017 as the point where it started to change for the worse. Both years, the tournament was in Toronto and Montreal. The main difference was that in 2015... - Toronto hosted: the non-Canada group, the relegation series, 2 quarterfinals (including Canada's), the semifinals and medal games - Montreal hosted: Canada's group and 2 non-Canada quarterfinals. For 2017, simply switch "Toronto" and "Montreal" above. I attended (almost) every game in Toronto in both years. First row 300 level seats, one section apart when comparing my 2015 seats to 2017. In 2015, even with the non-Canada group, the crowd was always jumping. Filled with enthusiastic Canadians and fans of whichever teams were playing in that game. Other than relegation, attendance never fell below 12,000 (including 12,000-something being on hand to watch Denmark get their first ever top level WJC win). Even the relegation games saw crowds of 7,000-8,000 (which is VERY good for relegation standards). And all this was before Canada even arrived for the quarterfinals, so when they did arrive, it was even louder. 2017 was a far different story. Toronto had the group with Canada, but the crowds are about as you describe. Only loud during saves / goals. Games not involving Canada were almost completely dead in terms of atmosphere, and only one non-Canada game drew a 5 digit amount of fans. A relegation game in 2015 (GER-SUI Game 2, 8,392) managed to do better than both QFs in 2017 (RUS-DEN, 7,801; USA-SUI, 8,176). What changed? (Remember, I had first row 300 level seats both years.) In 2015, the tickets were actually affordable. I still have my ticket book from that year. During the preliminary round, only one game - SWE-RUS - was above $50 in face value. Only during the quarterfinals did it start to rise, and only the gold medal game was above $100 (and likely would have come down if Canada wasn't in that game). Relegation Game 3, if it had happened, would have been free! Then, for just about the same seats in 2017, they started to creep towards NHL level prices. My 2017 ticket package was far more expensive than 2015. The CHEAPEST game was $90-something; games involving Canada ran for three digits. And it appears Canadian hosted WJCs haven't looked back since.

[@onthefly1515]

I definitely agree with @ngarcia103 with it arising due to NHL level ticket prices, however in the same aspect when the IIHF can sell out a full, NHL arena, the dollars make sense to keep bringing it back to Canada, just my thoughts but I think we’d all agree that ticket prices should be lower!

[@thomasnox1141]

100%

[@Jferrara_207]

Augustine was horrible

[@onthefly1515]

He certainly didn’t look like himself in net, really was a shame to see but still plenty of tournament left for him to find his groove!