On May 12, the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship gets underway in Finland and Latvia, pitting the teams of the top division to find the best nation in the sport.
The competition gets underway with a packed slate that sees Finland face the US, Sweden take on Germany, Slovakia vs Czechia, and Canada meet Latvia.
Before the first puck drop, the reigning champions, Finland, are the narrow favourites in the outright betting markets at +200, but few are counting out Canada, Sweden, or Czechia just yet.
Here’s your preview of the prestigious upcoming international hockey tournament and which national teams have the backing of the odds.
Finland Looking to Meet Canada in the Final Again
Each of the last three instalments of the IIHF World Championship have seen Finland battle Canada in the final. On two of those occasions, the Scandinavian team left as the champions.
Prior to that May 2022 tournament, Finland laid down the gauntlet at the 2022 Winter Olympics, pulling off a 2-1 comeback victory over the Russian Olympic Committee team to claim gold. Canada bowed out in the quarterfinals.
For the 2023 IIHF World Championship, Finland and Canada have been drawn into opposite groups, with co-hosts Finland headlining a Group A that features the US, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, and Hungary.
Canada, in Group B, won’t have an easy time, though. Czechia regularly come into this tournament as a dark horse contender, Switzerland arrive with a strong team, and Slovakia, co-hosts Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan, and Slovenia make up the rest of the group.
Knowing that the NHL is the biggest domestic hockey tournament in the world, many will look to the US and Canada as frontrunners for this tournament – especially as a win for Canada will make them the record leaders.
While both rosters will be loaded with NHL and NHL-aligned players, it’d be fair to say that neither team has been able to call on its highest-calibre skaters or goaltenders.
Canada will hope that veteran leadership from Tyler Myers, Milan Lucic, and Tyler Toffoli will help to buoy the young-gun ranks of Adam Fantilli (expected to go second overall in the draft), Peyton Krebs, Cody Glass, Justin Barron, and potentially Devon Levi in goal.
The US team is headed up by NHL veterans Nick Bonino and Casey DeSmith, drawing several skaters who’re primarily tied to the AHL or NCAA. If the North American sides meet, it’s clear that Canada has the edge on paper.
Finland’s roster, on the other hand, is looking experienced and formidable thanks, in part, to the reigning Stanley Cup champions bowing out to leave the Panthers and Hurricanes as the favourites at +333 and +350 in the NHL odds.
With the Avalanche out of the playoffs early, Mikko Rantanen will be joining the Finnish ranks for the IIHF World Championship, joining the likes of Kasperi Kapanen, Kaapo Kakko, and Olli Määttä.
Importantly, Finland’s spoiled for choice in goal. They have a goaltender who has excelled in this tournament, Jussi Olkinuora, as well as two younger netminders who have enjoyed superb domestic seasons: Emil Larmi and Christian Heljanko.
Group A Favourites and Dark Horses
In Group A, Finland are the clear-cut favourites to progress to the top of the standings, boasting a strong and experienced team that draws from exciting NHL talents and the best of the best from European leagues.
After Finland, neighbours Sweden look to arrive with the next-best unit. From the NHL, Alexander Nylander, Jakob Silfverberg, Patrik Nemeth, Lucas Raymond, and Rasmus Sandin look to make up the core of the Swedish team.
That said, at the time of writing, the full Sweden team hadn’t been revealed. It’s still highly likely that the roster will be padded by seasoned stars from European leagues and perhaps the odd top prospect entering the NHL Draft this year.
Even though they’ll be battling in the same group as Finland, Sweden are intriguing dark horses to win the tournament at +450, seeking to better their quarterfinal loss to Canada last year after finishing second in Finland’s group by one point.
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Group B Favourites and Dark Horses
Group B looks to be the more intriguing of the two and the most likely to offer a banana peel to the frontrunners of the opposite group – as the quarterfinals are drawn as 1A vs 4B, 2A vs 3B, etc.
Canada are, naturally, the standout favourites here and going strong in the odds as the narrow second-favourites at +250. However, the joint-record winners look set to face some tough competition from their European foes.
Czechia has a penchant for upsetting the odds in this competition and even finished third last year by beating the US in the bronze medal game.
With 12 skaters measuring 6’2’’ or taller, the lines look set to bully the perhaps more technically gifted teams into submission while looking to goal-hungry forwards Jiří Smejkal, Dominik Kubalík, Jakub Flek, Filip Chytil, Filip Chlapík, and Ondřej Beránek to find the back of the net.
At +500, Czechia is certainly a dark horse team to watch, while Switzerland are rated a fair bit behind their fellow Europeans at +1200.
Like Czechia, the Swiss look to have picked a team that’ll be hard to beat. Only two true full-time NHL skaters were selected in Nino Niederreiter and Janis Moser, with Tim Berni breaking into the Blue Jackets lines this season.
Still, it’s a very experienced side with an average age of 28.3 years looking to return as finalists for the first time since 2018.
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Both Canada and Finland are deserving favourites for the 2023 IIHF World Championship, but if any team is going to rain on the parade of either of the frontrunners, it looks set to be Czechia.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to AP Photo*
