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While 2020 may be a weird year, there’s one constant that remains the same — Team Canada playing hockey on Boxing Day.
The Canadians open their 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship campaign aiming for back-to-back gold medals. The home nation (although they won’t have the backing of a raucous crowd at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alta., thanks to bubble hockey) kicks things off with a match-up against a depleted German squad.
Due to COVID-19 positive tests and extended quarantines, Germany will only be able to suit up 16 players — nine forwards, five defensemen and two goalies. That’s great for a beer league game; not so much for an international tournament or on the second game of a back-to-back or against the both of the powerhouses in your group.
It’ll be a tough one for the Germans as the Canadians look to get their feet wet and start things off on the right foot. Canada will sport a re-jiggered line-up as captain Kirby Dach was lost following Wednesday’s exhibition game with a wrist injury. Devon Levi, who shut out Russia in that contest and has been a calming force, gets the nod in net.
And while Canada will be cheering for the Maple Leaf from coast-to-coast, there will surely be a few in the nation’s capital rooting for a good game from Senators prospect and 2020 third-overall pick Tim Stuetzle.
Here’s how to watch Canada and Germany face off in Group A action at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship.
How to watch Canada vs. Germany
TV channel (Canada): TSN
Live stream (Canada): TSN Live
TV channel (USA): NHL Network
Canada vs. Germany: When is puck drop?
Date: Saturday, Dec. 26
Time: 6 p.m. ET
World Juniors 2021: Latest news
Both Canada and Germany will be understaffed when they clash on Saturday in World Junior tournament preliminary round action. However, the situation is far more dire for the Germans.
The Canadians lost team captain Kirby Dach to a broken wrist he suffered during a 1–0 pre-tournament victory over Russia. The Germans, however, are missing nine skaters due to COVID-19.
The favorites to win the tournament, Canada is a solid 5.5-goal favorite to open the tourney with a victory over the Germans.
Dach Departure A Blow To Canada
Dach, the third overall pick at the 2019 NHL entry draft, spent all last season in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks and was expected to be a key cog in the Canadian machine. During last season’s Stanley Cup, Patrick Kane was the only Chicago forward who logged more ice time than Dach.
Canada will likely miss the presence of the hulking power forward at some point this tournament, but his absence shouldn’t play a factor against a weakened German club.
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Even minus Dach, Canada still suits up 19 players who were NHL first round draft picks, including four players selected among the top 10 of the 2020 draft.
Germans In Dire Straits
It’s already been a rough tournament for Blackhawks first-round picks. Dach is out and so is 2020 first-rounder Lukas Reichel. He was lost to the German team when he tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the club’s departure for Edmonton. Reichel tallied three goals and five points in seven tournament games last year.
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Of the nine who’ve tested positive who are still with the team in Canada, three will be eligible to return from quarantine on Sunday. Another five could be back in action by Tuesday.
Another 2019 NHL first-round pick, defenseman Moritz Seider, a Detroit Red Wings prospect, opted out of the tournament.
The Germans do have forward Tim Stutzle, who was selected third overall in the 2020 NHL draft by the Ottawa Senators. But with just 14 available skaters, they’re going to be up against it facing the defending champions from Canada.
Ready To Face The Music
The IIHF offered to reconfigure the schedule in order to enable the Germans to regain their health, but team officials declined the offer. They lost 5–3 to Finland in Friday’s tournament opener.
Canada is another matter. The Germans recognize that even with their full squad available, they aren’t going to beat Canada. There’s sound reasoning behind that thought process.
The Canadians and the Germans have clashed 26 times on the ice in Word Junior tournament play. Canada owns a 25–1 edge in those games.
Those 25 victories include seven shutout decisions and just three occasions when the final margin on the scoreboard was less than three goals in favor of the Canadians. Germany’s lone win was a 7–6 verdict over Canada in the consolation round of the 1981 tournament.
Even at -5.5, Canada looks to be a sound investment in the puck line, and the over (7.5) looks like an inviting play as well. This game should get ugly. Remember, goal differential is a key tiebreaker at the World Juniors. Canada will be looking to fill the German net.
Forty-one days after selection camp got underway, Canada’s National Junior Team finally drops the puck on the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship when it takes on Germany. It has been a long road to Boxing Day for both teams as COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on tournament preparations.
LAST GAME
Canada earned a win in its lone pre-tournament game on Wednesday night, getting 23 saves from Devon Levi and a third-period goal from Jamie Drysdale to blank Russia 1–0. It did, however, lose captain Kirby Dach for the tournament with a wrist injury.
Germany opened its tournament with a 5–3 loss to Finland on Friday. Despite being outshot 50–22 and icing only 16 players, the Germans cut a three-goal deficit to one in the second period before two goals in two minutes gave the Finns back their cushion. Tim Stützle, the third-overall pick by Ottawa in the 2020 NHL Draft, was as advertised, contributing a goal and an assist.
LAST MEETING
The Canadians and Germans met in the preliminary round a year ago in Ostrava. Bouncing back from a disastrous 6–0 loss to Russia, Nolan Foote, Liam Foudy and Ty Dellandrea had a goal and an assist each to help Canada cruise to a 4–1 win.
WHAT TO WATCH
After skating in the same trios almost exclusively since the team was officially named on Dec. 11, the injury to Dach has thrown the Canadian forward lines into disarray; no line will remain the same from the pre-tournament game, and the loss of the captain means all 13 forwards left on the roster will dress (Philip Tomasino was the odd-man-out for the Russia game).
For the Germans, nine players remain in quarantine — three will be released Dec. 27 and five on Dec. 29, while the most recent positive test will stay isolated until Jan. 4. That means the team will once again dress only 16 players — nine forwards, five defencemen and two goaltenders. Throw in the fact they’re playing the defending gold medallists in the second half of a back-to-back, and it’s a tough test ahead.
HAPPY BOXING DAY!
The 2021 World Juniors mark the 36th time that Canada will take to the ice on Dec. 26, and the 31st time it will do so in its tournament opener. The Canadians are an impressive 33–2 in Boxing Day match-ups, including four wins in a row and 17 of their last 18, and 29–1 in curtain-raisers.
It will be the sixth time Canada has faced Germany on Dec. 26 (including two games against West Germany). The Canadians are a perfect 5–0 in the previous meetings, outscoring the Germans 31–9.
A LOOK BACK
The Canadians have dominated the head-to-head history between the teams, winning all 14 games since the reunification of Germany, 10 of them by at least three goals. Including games against West Germany (1977–1989), Canada has earned 25 wins in 26 games; the lone blemish was a 7–6 loss in the consolation round in 1981, a defeat that indirectly led to the creation of the Program of Excellence the following year.
All-time record: Canada leads 14–0–0
Canada goals: 75
Germany goals: 19
When the IIHF decided to go ahead with its plan to hold the 2021 World Junior Hockey Championship, the concern was how so many teams, with so much personnel, were going to travel from all across North America and Europe to enter the bubble in Edmonton, Alberta.
Several teams dealt with COVID-19 issues earlier in the fall, and those players recovered in time to attend the tournament. Sweden was forced to scramble in the days leading up to their departure to replace players, trainers, and an entire coaching staff that has tested positive, but did get a squad together.
Germany experienced what many feared would happen: a full-blown breakout upon landing in Canada. The tests confirmed eight positive cases among the players, which were reported on December 18. The club entered quarantine, which was set to last until December 24: the day before their tournament officially begins.
As of now, the roster lists all 25 players who made the trip, but we will learn when the imposed quarantine ends how many are available for Friday’s game.
Strengths
Based on the media spots he’s been doing over the past week, it seems that Tim Stützle avoided the infection that struck a third of his teammates, and that’s good news for the best player on the team, and one of the best in the entire international pool of Junior players. It was his play in the tournament last year that helped him rise to third overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, and he should be even better this time around.
Touted as an NHL-ready scorer, it’s likely he will be headed directly to the Ottawa Senators’ training camp when the tournament completes. His offensive game will be leaned on by his coach in all situations, especially if that coach is missing a line’s worth of players to start.
Weaknesses
Outside of fellow 2020 draftee John-Jason Peterka, whose health status isn’t known at this point, there isn’t a lot of offensive help coming Stützle’s way. The third member of last year’s team who got snatched up by an NHL franchise in the fall, Lukas Reichel, was forced off the team by a positive COVID test before the team left Germany. Reichel scored three of the nine goals Germany managed last year, so his loss is a massive one.
The positive tests mean that not only will Germany have a depleted roster to start, but they didn’t have the benefit of any tune-up games before the real thing begins. We’ve seen just how rusty the players have been in the few pre-tournament games on the schedule, and Germany will have to scrub that off pretty quickly on Christmas day.
X-Factor
The best news for Germany is that the opening games are against teams they probably weren’t going to beat anyway — Finland and Canada — so the overall effect of their depleted roster may just be losses by a few more goals than would have been the case, and they won’t derail the tournament entirely.
No team is getting relegated this year as there was no Division IA tournament to decide a new replacement, so that pressure is removed. But the nation still wants to perform well, and games against Slovakia and Switzerland to end the prelimary round were going to be their best bet even with their full complement of talent.
With that in mind, the coaching staff will likely give Stützle and Peterka fairly standard minutes in the opening games to get as much out of them as possible later on. It’s something their opponents with hopes for medals probably won’t be doing. Perhaps Germany can fill out its roster and ramp up its play just in time to knock off one of those clubs and earn a place in the quarter-finals.
Slovakia, Finland and Russia were the winners on day one of the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships in Edmonton, Alberta.
Sabres prospect JJ Peterka was one of just nine forwards in the lineup for Germany on Friday night, part of a depleted German team thanks to COVID-19 and quarantine requirements. Despite having a short bench, Germany did their best to keep up with a tough Finnish team. Peterka finished the game with one assist and three shots in 23:49.
Finland goals: Anton Lundell, Topi Niemela, Mikael Pyyhtia, Henri Nikkanen, Aku Raty
Germany goals: Tim Stutzle, Samuel Dube, Florian Elias
Kari Piiroinen (W): 19 saves on 22 shots
Arno Tiefensee: 45 saves on 50 shots
Russia goals: Vasiliy Ponomarev (3), Zakhar Bardakov, Yegor Chinakhov
United States goals: Cam York, John Farinacci, Trevor Zegras
Yaroslav Askarov (W): 23 saves on 26 shots
Spencer Knight: 8 saves on 12 shots
Dustin Wolf: 11 saves on 11 shots
Group A Standings:
1. Finland (1–0)
2. Slovakia (1–0)
3. Switzerland (0–1)
4. Germany (0–1)
5. Canada (0–0)
