My intention was to write before the World Juniors started, but I got sick as the Pre-Tournament Series was getting started in Duluth, and that stupid thing lingered through Christmas and was still bugging me as the World Juniors started. Didn’t stop me from getting down to the Twin Cities a bunch, which didn’t help me kick it.
Anyway, now that I’m done laying out excuses, you’re going to get a couple columns this week. The second will be more focused on UMD as the Bulldogs men and women are both home this coming weekend.
Hope everyone’s holiday season was fun, and hopefully you’ve had a chance to watch at least some of this fantastic hockey.
9 THOUGHTS
1. There’s been a lot of discourse about the attendance we’re seeing at the first Minnesota World Juniors in years.
Much of this is understandable. Organizers decided to put both groups in larger buildings, banking that people would fill Grand Casino Arena for the U.S. games at the minimum, and banking that Canadian fans would come down in large numbers to see games in Minneapolis at 3M Arena at Mariucci, which seats nearly 10,000 fans.
The U.S. crowds were mostly good, thanks to the late opening up of the upper bowl at Grand Casino Arena, with some very affordable tickets available there.
Across the river, not so much. They had fewer than 6,000 for Canada’s opening game against Czechia on Boxing Day, and fewer than 4,000 the next day for the Latvia game. Finland on New Year’s Eve drew over 7,500, with it looking and feeling more like a Canadian game at the World Juniors.
2. We all know why a lot of those folks decided to stay home and watch the tournament on TSN. We can nitpick ticket prices, but they’re expensive every time this tournament is held in Canada, with no issues filling the NHL building being used for the Canadian games.
Yes, expenses were a factor, but not as much as Canadians being, en masse, turned off by myriad comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump about Canada becoming the 51st state.
This isn’t a “look online and see what people are saying” thing. Those types of surveys are typically unreliable.
It’s a “think about how they felt when these things were said and imagine how they’re going to behave in response” thing.
It’s not even a left-versus-right thing. You can support Trump and still understand why what he said — over and over again — might be considered a turn-off.
(To be fair, attendance in Buffalo the last two times it hosted, in 2011 and 2018, was hardly inspiring. But it was better than what we saw in Minnesota, at least for Canada’s games. More on this to come, but even the biggest Trump critics are going to struggle blaming him and only him for the large number of Canadians who stayed on their side of the border.)
3. Local organizers took too long to react to low ticket sales. They did a BOGO around Black Friday, but it was not well-advertised, and it came with not even a month to go before the tournament started.
The opened upper bowl at GCA, combined with some affordable prices, helped get good crowds in the door for the U.S. games. The atmosphere was increasingly better, as well. But even base ticket prices around $20 weren’t going to fill that building for noon games between the likes of Slovakia and Germany. Nor were similar prices going to fill 3MAM for games like Czechia vs Finland.
The hockey was fantastic, as advertised. But this isn’t the right country to try to fill an NHL-size building for games that featured European nations.
(The United States will host this again in 2031, based on the current schedule from the IIHF. It’s been reported that Tampa and Seattle were very involved in the bid process that eventually brought the event here, so don’t be stunned if they are in the game again in a few years.)
I was begging for years for a St. Paul/Duluth World Juniors. Amsoil Arena wouldn’t have been full when Latvia played Denmark. But the 3,000 or so who showed up would have looked a lot better in the lower bowl of a smaller building, and it would have been a far better atmosphere.
4. You like hockey, but you probably understand that hockey is not a major sport in the United States.
And that’s the NHL.
College hockey is even more of a niche sport, and junior hockey’s audience is even smaller than college hockey.
I also probably don’t need to tell you that Minnesota, while a hockey-mad state, has a lot of competition for people’s eyeballs. And money.
While college hockey is mostly dormant during the World Juniors, high school and youth hockey are not. People are traveling around the state so their kids can play in holiday tournaments, which affects their ability to buy tickets and go to the World Juniors.
And then there’s this …
5. The NHL Network helped grow the World Juniors in the U.S., but it’s time for both sides to move on.
Two things can be true. What advancement we’ve seen in interest in this tournament stateside is mostly due to the work NHL Network has done. I’m biased because he is a friend, but Dave Starman’s knowledge and passion for hockey at the Under-20 level came through time after time. He knew how to present this tournament to this audience, one that doesn’t see a lot of hockey at that level, whether the players are in juniors or in college, without insulting the intelligence of the true diehards.
And even without Dave on the broadcasts the last couple years, it’s the simple presence of the games.
But NHL Network is not widely available, and the World Juniors aren’t a big enough event for most people to structure their television package purchases around it. There is no availability via streaming in the U.S., either. Without wide distribution or some sort of streaming component, there’s a limit to the audience and any growth in the tournament.
I don’t know the answer. You can’t just put everything on ESPN. There’s already so much going on most days on that app that it can be hard to find something that isn’t widely promoted on linear television. Plus, the IIHF and TSN (which produces all the non-U.S. games that you see on NHL Network) are probably going to want money for these rights, which TSN pays a lot for. It’s not as simple as throwing it on YouTube.
But if the IIHF is going to take this event somewhere that isn’t a stone’s throw from the Canadian border when the United States hosts again in 2031, it had best spend time between now and then figuring out a better television path in this country. Either that, or it’s going to be pissed off at all the empty seats again.
6. As for the hockey itself, it’s been awesome. Yeah, it sucks that the U.S. lost in the quarterfinals (more on that in a moment). But you can’t ask for better drama so far in this tournament.
Couple of the quarterfinals ended up being duds, but the semis more than made up for that. Sweden and Finland had another absolute battle Sunday, with Finland tying it late before Sweden won it in an eight-round shootout. They only got it there after having to kill a Charmin-soft slashing penalty on Viggo Bjorck, who has been tremendous for the Swedes in this tournament. Finland hasn’t been very good on the power play in this tournament, and that last one Sunday is going to haunt them for years. They kept trying to set up the Emil Hemming one-timer, which is understandable because he’s very good at it. But Sweden wasn’t going to let him get a good look, and Finland was wayyyyy too slow to adjust their deliberate puck movement.
Czechia beat Canada in the knockout rounds for a third straight year Sunday night, breaking a 4-4 tie late and adding an empty-netter for a 6-4 win. Three meetings in three years, and three game-winners from Czechia inside of 90 seconds to play in regulation. Incredible theater.
Sweden vs Czechia for gold Monday, while Canada plays Finland for bronze in the afternoon. It’s the first time in 13 years that one of Canada, Finland, or the United States will not win World Junior gold. There are five nations who can win this thing, and if Russia ever gets the hell out of Ukraine, there will be six. It’s a win for the sport to see this much young talent being developed all over the world.
7. Two primary complaints about the officiating from this tournament, neither of which is an IIHF-exclusive issue. The glut of completely soft slashing calls is becoming a scourge in hockey. The one on Bjorck was a great example Sunday.
We can’t get consistency with stick infractions on skill players, but we can count on the occasional soft slashing call that has no impact on a play. Bjorck certainly slashed the Finnish player, but he had to take his hand off his stick and sell it to get the call while he was driving the net. It was more embellishment than a slash, but that’s par for the course in the sport nowadays.
Embellishment is a major problem. And the fact it keeps getting rewarded in big spots guarantees it will never go away. It’s a problem without an easy solution. I’ve said for years that officials shouldn’t be asked to litigate embellishment in real time, because a lot of times it is called at the wrong time. But continuing to reward players who embellish minor contact is obviously not the answer here, either.
(Also, can we stop rewarding defensemen who check adversarial forwards into their own goalies? Happened twice in the Czechia-Canada game. 🤣)
8. Lots of talk about why the U.S. didn’t get the job done, and a lot of blame being thrown around, especially at Bob Motzko. I’m not saying the U.S. staff did the greatest coaching job ever, but a lot of this discourse feels misguided.
It’s not Bob Motzko’s fault that two top forwards — Trevor Connelly (before the tournament) and Max Plante (in the third game) — were injured and did not return to play after suffering those injuries. It’s not the coaches’ fault that the U.S. went into the tournament without an established No. 1 goalie, a scenario that often ends poorly in events like this. It’s certainly not their fault that they had to play two and a half games without possibly their best player, Cole Hutson, after he was stretchered off the ice Dec. 27 against Switzerland.
(And you saw the difference he can make upon his return for the quarterfinal loss to Finland.)
We can argue about the large number of experienced U.S. players who underperformed in the games, and maybe some of that is on the coaches, but it’s hard to pin it all on them. The U.S. staff was filled with coaches who had won gold before, they didn’t forget how to coach. Things just didn’t work out.
9. Busy week at Amsoil Arena this week, as UMD’s teams both play at home for the first time in 2026. The women get Wisconsin, while the men host Lindenwood. I’ll be back later this week with much more on both teams, as well as Sophie’s Squad, which will be at Amsoil for both games on Saturday. Make sure you check them out in the concourse while you’re there.
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