2021 World Juniors: USA vs Canada Recap, Media All-Star Selections and IIHF Tournament Awards
With another World Junior Championship now in the books, is there any better way to close out the tournament than another clash between the United States and Canada? With 20 first-round picks (technically 19 without captain Kirby Dach) listed on Canada’s roster this year, 6 of which were returning from last year’s gold-medal winning team, it was clear cut right from the start that Canada was the team to beat. Everyone knew that. The influx of talent and depth spread across the Canadian forward group along with them having the best defensive pairing on paper this tournament in Bowen Byram (COL) and Jamie Drysdale (ANA) created a huge mismatch for many teams.
Speaking of Byram, he was by far one of the best defensemen in this year’s tournament without question. There was a new level of confidence he brought which really allowed him to be a top performer for Canada throughout the tournament. This is a much different looking Bowen Byram than what I saw from him in his draft year. He looked more decisive closing gaps while isolating the opposition defensively, added some versatility to his transitional game, and would aggressively attack in transition and on the rush. His spatial awareness has always been superb as he has a very broad understanding of how to create open space with the puck. I saw him take advantage of small space and seams with and without the puck on line rushes, in transition, and of course in the offensive zone as well which was unique to watch.
The biggest question coming into this tournament once again was goaltending for Canada. Year-by-year that almost always seems to be the question for them. But this year they had an unlikely hero in net, and that was Florida Panthers 7th round pick in 2020, Devon Levi. Levi really never had a day off in goal, and it was evident every single game with the tools he brought in net. There really wasn’t a game where he ever looked out of place as he had total confidence in his instincts to take control of the play in all situations. Sure, he definitely could’ve been tested more at 5v5 based on the quality of competition he faced. However, the consistency, confidence, and mental stability he brought each game really made him worthy of being selected to the all-star team and being recognized as the top goaltender in this tournament.
There was obviously a lot of talk about the group up front for Canada throughout the tournament, and for good reason. Excluding Kirby Dach once again here, Canada had eight top-20 picks up front, four of whom were selected in the top-10 (Quinton Byfield, Dylan Cozens, Cole Perfetti, Jack Quinn). Obviously the rest of the group were first-rounders as well, but this was one of the deeper Canadian forward groups we’ll ever see at this tournament.
The loss of Kirby Dach early on in Canada’s pre-tournament game against Russia left some of Canada’s star forwards with bigger shoes to fill. Dylan Cozens stepped right up to the plate, and ended up hitting a home run. He dominated all tournament long and was one of the main reasons why Canada had so much success. He finished with a remarkable 16 points (8G, 8A) in 7 games, only finishing two points back of Tournament MVP, Trevor Zegras (ANA). He also tied for 4th all-time on Canada’s WJC scoring list, ahead of the likes of players like Ryan Getzlaf, Jonathan Huberdeau, and John Tavares. Everything that Cozens exemplified in his game throughout the tournament proved that he has a shot to crack Buffalo’s roster for the upcoming 2021 NHL season. The power, speed, strength, and skill he exemplified to me that he is for sure ready for the next level. But his ability to process and play the game at very high speeds bodes very well with the fast pace of play at the NHL level.
On the other hand, this United States team was much different than what we’ve seen in year’s past…
After what was a grueling 1–0 loss to Finland in the Quarterfinals last year, this United States team was more rejuvenated, motivated, and determined to settle what was unfinished business they still had. That team finished 6th last year, and it was the first time that the United States didn’t qualify for a medal since 2015 when they were knocked out by Russia in the quarterfinals.
Players like Jack Hughes (NJD), Nick Robertson (TOR), Johnny Beecher (BOS), and Thomas Bordeleau (SJS) were all not available for various circumstances this year, so that did leave some holes throughout the lineup at center. But, their revamped and “inexperienced” backend was a huge complement to the success they had this year. They also had lots of talent up and down their group up front, and to top it off they had Spencer Knight (FLA) back at the tournament for the second-straight season in net.
Many of the players on last year’s D-core all aged out, so Cam York was the only eligible player to return on USA’s backend as he was born after the December 31st cutoff date. The United States had lots of different elements in their defensemen this time around compared to last year. More mobility, more fleet-footed puck-moving defensemen with great hockey sense, excellent transitional play, efficiency, and even a little bit of aggression through all three zones as well. Nate Leaman’s system really showed that he preaches offense from his defense, and that really complemented each player on their backend very effectively and allowed them to improve within these two weeks.
To be specific: I thought the blueliners who were able to improve the most in these two weeks were Cam York (PHI), Ryan Johnson (BUF), and Brock Faber (LAK). This wasn’t just a coming out party for York’s offensive abilities and his stellar all-around play, but both Johnson’s and Faber’s play were vastly underrated on this talented group of USA blueliners, especially Johnson’s. Johnson doesn’t bring anything too flashy as he plays the game safely and with simplicity, but he’ll also bring a hint of subtleness to the table as well. He doesn’t have an extremely high ceiling at the NHL level, but the maturity he’s consistently showed in his game has always impressed me. That could definitely allow him to become a capable NHL defenseman down the line for Buffalo who can play up and down their top-six.
Johnson has always been a proficient skater, but his added offensive flair and ability to push the pace of play made him an interesting player to watch throughout the tournament. He also appeared more deceptive in every zone as well. That is something I had never seen from him before in his draft year with Sioux Falls (USHL) and in his freshman season last season with Minnesota. He had plays where he utilized his footwork and open hip pivots to add that deceptive element and evade oncoming forecheckers through the neutral zone. That helped him be more efficient when creating space, because rather than having to work himself through pressure or utilize his pivots to escape pressure, a little subtle move in his skating was all it took to evade pressure for himself.
With what could’ve been a much deeper US team with a few players missing, many players who could’ve been cut or at the bottom part of the lineup saw their roles increase. Players like Matthew Beniers (2021), Brett Berard (NYR), and John Farinacci (ARI) all played key roles throughout the lineup in Team USA’s path to victory. We all know about the success the US had at the top of the lineup with players like Trevor Zegras (ANA), Alex Turcotte (LAK), and even Matthew Boldy (MIN) as well, but those guys did not get nearly enough credit as they should’ve.
Now, let’s talk about Trevor Zegras, shall we?
Zegras capped off his World Junior career with a remarkable 27 points (7G, 20A) in just 12 games, which tied for first with Jordan Schroeder among USA players at the tournament. That also finished ahead of Jeremy Roenick’s 25 points. However, Zegras did finish with the highest PPG rate on the all-time American list. Had he not played such a sheltered role last year, he surely would’ve broken that points mark without a doubt. Unsurprisingly, Zegras ended up being named Tournament MVP after what was an all-time great performance by the Ducks prospect.
This was a much different Trevor Zegras than what we saw in his draft year. He still has that creative and flashy game that allows him to be such a celebral playmaker, but in his D+1 last year, his goal-scoring abilities improved by far. The stats may not show it, but in the games I watched of him with BU it really stood out to me the most. He was able to get more velocity and power on his shots, but was also confident enough to shoot from range more often. His creativity, vision, and instincts as a playmaker were still on full display throughout the tournament, but there was obvious improvement in his shot which allowed him to be utilized as a finisher. Plus, he still had the elite level puck skills and wizardry around the net to finish in tight as well.
Gold Medal Game
This was the first time USA and Canada met up in the medal rounds this decade, let alone the gold-medal game, and boy oh boy did they not disappoint once again. This USA team played with a very high level of confidence against Canada, and that all started with Trevor Zegras and his pregame comments.
“I honestly don’t think (Canada’s) been tested with a real team yet and I think we’re kind of going on all cylinders right now. I think we’re gonna catch them by surprise and I think we’ll go from there.”
On Devon Levi: “I honestly don’t think this goalie’s been tested 5-on-5 yet.”
Well, Team USA and Zegras certainly backed up those comments well.
Alex Turcotte’s eventual game-winning goal put USA up 1–0 with 6:35 remaining in the 1st period. Canada was the one team consistently outworking opponents low-high throughout the tournament, and that opened up weak spots in coverage in dangerous areas and allowed them to generate quality scoring chances consistently. However, it was the USA that countered that and outworked Canada in these situations throughout the entire game. This was a very subtle play by Turcotte as he was able to find a weak spot in coverage, establish inside positioning on Kaiden Guhle (MTL), and he then redirected Drew Helleson’s (COL) point shot perfectly from just inside the slot to put Team USA up by one.
Up until that point, Canada had never trailed at the tournament and it was the first goal Devon Levi (FLA) allowed since Canada’s final game of the preliminary round against Finland on New Year’s Eve. Canada had also never let up a 5v5 goal up until that point as well.
As Kurt Russell stated in the movie Miracle before the United States’ eventual upset against the Soviets later on in the 1980 Olympics:
You don’t defend them — you ATTACK them. You take their game and you shove it right back in their face. The team that is finally willing to do this is the team that has a chance to put them down.
The rest of the world is afraid of them.
Boys, we won’t be.
No one has ever worked hard enough to skate with the Soviet team for an entire game.
Gentlemen, we are gonna work hard enough.
This is exactly what we saw from Team USA. Everything they did pretty much countered Canada’s system and their style of play throughout the game. They did an excellent job neutralizing Canada’s uptempo line rush by holding the line, and they played with more pace and intensity consistently than any other game they played in the tournament. They outworked Canada relentlessly on the forecheck, trapped them inside their own zone by making it difficult to breakout, and were consistently winning loose puck races and outcompeting them in nearly every situation. The pace/intensity both mentally and physically never let up against the Canadians, and to add to that, Spencer Knight (FLA) basically turned into Jim Craig against the Soviets for the Americans in this game.
The only game Knight really struggled in was Team USA’s first preliminary round game on the opening day of the WJC against Russia, back on Christmas Day. Other than that, he was able to rebound quickly against Austria and his confidence quickly grew from there. He was tracking the puck really well with his glove and blocker, his puck management continued to improve, was strong on his pads in the butterfly, and was pretty on point with his rebound control for the most part. There really weren’t any major flaws in his game throughout the tournament, and he was able to take total control of this game for Team USA.
Team USA got a little bit of wiggle room early on in the 2nd with a goal from none other than Trevor Zegras (ANA). Dylan Cozens (BUF) had a little bit of room to attempt to clear the puck out near the half-wall, but Jake Sanderson’s (OTT) aggressive pinch along the boards separated Cozens from the puck and kept the play alive in the offensive zone for the Americans. Arthur Kaliyev (LAK) dropped back responsibly for Sanderson at the point, and had a wildly attempted shot that looked like it was going behind the net to the weak side. The puck managed to stay on the strong side with the weird bounce it took off the side of the net. Devon Levi had no clue where the puck was, so that left the entire short side of the net wide open for Zegras to put the puck into.
Canada turned up the heat and generated more quality scoring chances in the 3rd, but Knight stood on his head and finished with 33 saves for the shutout. That ended up being the first medal round shutout in Team USA’s WJC history as well.
Media All-Star Team Selections
Forwards: Trevor Zegras (USA/ANA), Dylan Cozens (CAN/BUF), and Tim Stützle (GER/OTT)
Defensemen: Bowen Byram (CAN/COL), Ville Heinola (FIN/WPG)
Goaltender: Devon Levi (CAN/FLA)
MVP: Trevor Zegras
IIHF Tournament Awards
Best Forward: Tim Stützle (GER/OTT)
Best Defenseman: Topi Niemelä (FIN/TOR)
Best Goaltender: Devon Levi (CAN/FLA)
My only change would be having Topi Niemelä (TOR) on the all-star team over Ville Heinola (WPG), but other than that I would agree with everything else here. Both defensemen were great for Finland, but I do believe that Niemelä was the stronger defenseman all tournament. I don’t think it really was that close either. He absolutely dominated in transition, was sound in defensive transitions and rushes against, was excellent positionally in his own zone, and was very astute in the offensive zone.
We really saw a unique side to Niemelä’s game that I had really never seen before in all three zones. He definitely had more freedom offensively based on this being a U20 tournament, but overall he was excellent. He was pretty unstoppable in transition as he had one of the highest success rates among defensemen at the tournament on zone exits and entries, oftentimes being a one-man transition for the Finns. Niemelä was far above average, basically considered elite to be quite honest since he was at least two standard deviations above the mean, at limiting turnovers and was nearly unbeatable at defending the rush. It’s not surprising to see him near the average in terms of generating quality shots since plays a steady two-way style and isn’t really aggressive offensively, but I was extremely impressed with what he was able to do defensively.
There were two non-negotiables that Jack Han pointed out in one of his newsletter articles for modern-day defensemen, defending the rush and defensive zone puck retrievals. I’ll link the article down below for you guys, and make sure to subscribe to his newsletter if you want to be more of a hockey brainiac. Niemelä was very successful at both non-negotiables consistently throughout the tournament. Most importantly, he’s also shown the ability to exemplify both of these in league play back in the Finnish Elite League as well, and it’s a good reason to believe that he could be a pretty successful NHL defenseman down the line for the Leafs with how subtle his smarts actually are. Niemelä was ranked as a first-rounder on my board for the 2020 NHL Draft, and I still think down the line he’ll really blossom for the Leafs as a top-4 defenseman.
https://jhanhky.substack.com/p/two-non-negotiables-for-modern-defenseman
We also saw Niemelä dominate with his hockey sense at this tournament as well. He has an excellent ability to read-and-react both properly both with and without the puck, a pro-level attribute that allows you to outthink opponents sometimes 2–3 steps ahead of the play most of the time. It’s not an easy thing to do by any means, especially given the pace Niemelä has played against in the Finnish Elite League and has faced stronger opponents at a young age already. I thought he had a lot of success against Germany and Slovakia in the preliminary round with his off-puck reads and ability to see a play develop quickly with the puck. I’ll link a shift-by-shift of Niemelä below against Germany as this was one of his best games of the tournament, especially in transition.
Now let’s talk about the Germans briefly here. It was tough for them right from the get go as many of their players tested positive for COVID in the bubble just before the tournament actually started. They lost out on the chance to get any pre-tournament action in, and in turn were undermanned for the first few days of the tournament because of that as well. They already lost Lukas Reichel (CHI) due to a positive test a few weeks back, so he was deemed ineligible long before any of this happened. It was a tough break for the Germans losing Reichel, who could’ve formed one of the best returning trios in the tournament with Tim Stützle (OTT) and JJ Peterka (BUF).
Both Reichel and Peterka will be eligible to play in the 2022 WJC for the Germans, as is Stützle, but it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see Stützle back on next year’s team presuming that he’ll be in his second season with Ottawa by then. Florian Elias (2021) will also be eligible to return as he played a major role for the Germans this year as their top-line center with 9 points (4G, 5A) in 5 games.
Going back to Stützle, you could certainly make the case for him to be the MVP of this tournament. Trevor Zegras (ANA) would still atop my list right now with Stützle right behind and Dylan Cozens (BUF) in third, but Stützle did everything in his power to carry this German squad to their first quarterfinal appearance at the WJC. Not only did Germany put up a great fight against Russia in that quarterfinal matchup as well, but without Stützle, there’s no way that Germany would’ve gotten this far to begin with even if they weren’t undermanned to start the tournament. You could just tell how gassed Stützle was at the end of every single game because he was playing so many crucial minutes for Germany both offensively and defensively.
Also, huge props to JJ Peterka (BUF) for what he was able to do as another returning player for this German squad as well. He was another star for them all tournament long as he tied with Stützle in scoring with 10 points (4G, 6A). Peterka proved to be an excellent complementary player on Stützle’s line as they had tremendous chemistry right from the start and were excellent at feeding off each other in the offensive zone. Those two were extremely fun to watch on the same line together.
Tim Stützle was still Tim Stützle, and there wasn’t really that much different in his game compared to last year other than the fact that he was utilizing the middle of the ice more. That was by far the biggest criticism in his game in his draft year throughout the 2020 WJC and with Mannheim as well, even though he dealt with a bigger ice surface. However, that definitely wasn’t a problem for him this time around. He dominated at being able to generate offense from anywhere within the offensive zone on a smaller ice surface, but then again he’s always had success and has dominated at generating offense from the perimeter as well. It’s definitely something I wouldn’t be too concerned about there given his elite offensive abilities and high-end upside.
