Welcome to Visby and we hope you found the travel packets helpful as Sweden has been extremely gracious hosts this tournament. We have completed out 7 preseason games for the IIHF, and it seems like our players are ready to go. With that, let us take a look on how all the teams did.

Group A

France 6-1-0
With the exception one bump in the road against the also very good Team USA, France had a great preseason with 6 wins, 5 of them won without any real incident while winning a shootout against Germany. The French were so close to a medal last season, losing in the bronze medal bout, which would have been a major accomplishment for a federation with little hardware. In this fresh tournament, the French now have their eyes set on a potential gold medal. The French have gotten some great points from all around their lineup, but it is Pane and Beauregard who led the French in the Preseason for point. With many players at or near a point per game, the French are looking very deep and dangerous this season.

Finland 4-1-2
Finland’s preseason was a stressful one with tight battles against their opponents, but they came out as the second placed team in their conference. With goals coming from almost every player, the points were very spread out, but Shoyo Hinata led the Finns in points scored. Shaggy Carpet had a save percentage of .926, playing fantastic. He will need to continue his form to see the Finns make their way out of the group stage.

Switzerland 4-2-1
Switzerland started off a little cold, but that is what the preseason is for as they found some consistency later. Spack Jarrow and Ivan Lacksamus led the Swiss with 8 points each, but look for contributions from around the roster with young players like Wizard and Hardison-Laurent. Tibuk Soonika had a .920 save percentage, one that was very respectable with the amount of shots that were thrown at him. The Swiss will need a lot more points to take the fight to the Frances, USAs and Irelands of the tournament, but for now, it could be enough to push their way into the quarterfinals.

Japan 4-3-0
Team Japan is always a fan favorite but with 3 games against the red (white and blue) hot USA and another against Ireland, Japan did not have a great statistical showing in the preseason. Still, they managed to steal a game off of USA in a shootout and defeated Latvia twice as well as Germany. Wide Peepo Happy 3 Koivu and Aleksander Iskandrov led the Japanese in points while BASE PACK was a little down from their usual performance, but still have a .909 save percentage. With maybe a little tamer competition in the group stage (as in not playing the top two teams from preseason 4 times in 7 games) the Japanese I expect to be much better come the group stage and group A will be an absolute battle to get out of.

Czechia 3-4-0
Czechia was led in points by Sunrise van de Schubbekutteveen who continues to have great play in international competitions, but Czechia needs to find a way to consistently get points in the group stage as this group will not be easy. This may come from some experimentations on the defense as they gave up 26 goals in their four losses. In terms of their internal group, they will need to find wins over teams that are not Russia.

Sweden 2-3-2
Sweden being down here is a mild surprise, but maybe they were a little tired from being tour guides all day as they have been welcoming everyone to their country. Last season’s gold medalists had flashes of their brilliance from S75 during the preseason, but offensively looked a little flat (aside from of course that flash against Czechia with 12 goals). In his last IIHF, Lord Farquaads led the preseason Swedes with 8 points. I expect them to be back on form come groups.

Independent Russia 2-3-2
Russia managed a pair of wins over Great Britain and kept this close versus Team USA and Norway twice, but ultimately lost those games. Russia needs to find a way to win the close games with these good teams, but the good news is that they can be a wildcard in their group as they only played Czechia from Group A. 4 players tied at 5 points for the Russians as they are looking for a hero to emerge, but that could come in the form of Jobin, the goalie with a save percentage of .936.

Group B

Ireland 7-0-0
The Irish had a perfect preseason that will hope to replicate in the group stage, winning all 7 games. On a star studded team, Jack McCarthy was the leading scorer as a defender with 14 points, averaging 2 points a game and was followed closely by fantasy phenom Viktor Hargreeves with 13 points. Hargreeves is looking to add a gold medal to his collection as Beau Kavanagh had a save percentage of .925, only letting in 12 goals over 7 games. Their preseason included 3 wins that were absolute routs of their opponents with a 10-2 win over rival Great Britain, 6-0 over Latvia and 6-2 over Japan, making an early statement that Ireland was not satisfied with the Bronze medal from last season’s tournament.

United States 6-0-1
Speaking of great goal tending, USA looks like they are back for vengeance after an unceremonious exit in the group stage last season. Justin Time is playing great with a .937 save percentage as Benson Fiorentini leads the charge for points. While they have far less goals than Ireland, the Americans still scored the third most in the group stage and a big improvement in how dynamic their game can be after flip flopping between being defensively focused or offensively the last few seasons.

Canada 3-4-0
Canada is the first team from this group in, what I like to call, the soup that is the teams below USA and Ireland. At 3-4, this is not an impressive record per se, but considering that the rest of the canabilized itself, with everyone else only getting 2 wins. Another fantasy pick for me, Eggward Elric led the Canadians with 8 points, but the Canadians struggled to keep the puck out of their net. Looking at Ben Jammin to fix their game going into the group stage.

Germany 2-4-1
Riekkert Biemans led the Germans in scoring as the Germans had an inauspicious preseason as they struggled defensively. However with new management, the Germans are learning to work themselves into the form that has been capable of gold medals in the past. Most of the goals against came from the double header against France where they let in 13 goals in two games and lost in a shootout. Minus those two games, the Germans played relatively well and there could be a clear path forward for them to advance out of the group stage.

Norway 2-5-0
Last season’s host in Norway is having an interesting start to the tournament with their only wins in the preseason coming in over Russia in 4-3 shootout win and a 5-3 win straight up. Now one would expect this team to headlined by Adam Prpich, but actually Aksel Finske has 8 goals which led the preseason tournament wide. Spreading those goals around may be the key for the Norwegians going forward.

Latvia 2-5-0
Latvia also sits at 2 wins with a win over Canada and another over Finland, but is struggling with consistency. With a short tournament in only 12 games, consistency is key. Jarrod Lakemore and Benjamin Surkhi-Ze’ev are tied in the lead with 6 points, but the Latvians will need more scoring from their players as the magic number seems to be 4 goals for them to win as their two wins were both when they scored 4 goals (granted one was in a shootout, but still). Juan Tymer had a fantastic preseason for the Latvians with 4 points as a young defender, the recent call up to the Aurora is looking for SHL caliber experience. 

Great Britain 2-5-0
Great Britain was not producing points nearly at the rate that they would like, never scoring more than 3 goals in a game (though whenever they did hit 3 goals they would win). Tiberius Kane led the British with 5 points, but they are going to need a lot more points across the board if they want to make it out of groups.

Thant’s it for this recap. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the start of the group stage as the federations fights for a spot in the quarterfinals and a chance for a gold medal. Who was weighting themselves in preseason and who was not?

WC: 1475