During the game yesterday, TSN announcers kept mentioning that USA is Canada's biggest rival. While there is a natural cross border rivalry that might drive this opinion, Russia is Canada's true number one rival and until another nation dominates like Canada and Russia do at this level, nobody else should even be mentioned. I realize that the US has improved their program dramatically over the past decade, but the results speak for themselves. Since the WJC changed the tournament format in 1996 so that teams play each other for the Gold (rather then best record vs everyone), the teams in the medal round are as follows over those 11 years ...
Team G (Gold) S (Silver) B (Bronze) F (Fourth)
CAN 4G 4S 2B 0F (10 medals in 10 appearances)
RUS 3G 4S 2B 0F (9 medals in 9 appearances)
FIN 1G 1S 4B 0F (6 medals in 6 appearances)
CZE 2G 0S 1B 4F (3 medals in 7 appearances)
USA 1G 1S 0B 4F (2 medals in 6 appearances)
SWE 0G 1S 0B 2F (1 medal in 3 appearances)
SUI 0G 0S 1B 1F (1 medal in 2 appearances)
SLV 0G 0S 1B 0F (1 medal in 1 appearance)
Russia will win their pool and the rested team always has an advantage over their opponent in the semis. Even though hockey experts have stated that USA and Sweden are the top contenders to dethrone the defending champs, I fully expect to see another classic Canada/Russia final.
Team G (Gold) S (Silver) B (Bronze) F (Fourth)
CAN 4G 4S 2B 0F (10 medals in 10 appearances)
RUS 3G 4S 2B 0F (9 medals in 9 appearances)
FIN 1G 1S 4B 0F (6 medals in 6 appearances)
CZE 2G 0S 1B 4F (3 medals in 7 appearances)
USA 1G 1S 0B 4F (2 medals in 6 appearances)
SWE 0G 1S 0B 2F (1 medal in 3 appearances)
SUI 0G 0S 1B 1F (1 medal in 2 appearances)
SLV 0G 0S 1B 0F (1 medal in 1 appearance)
Russia will win their pool and the rested team always has an advantage over their opponent in the semis. Even though hockey experts have stated that USA and Sweden are the top contenders to dethrone the defending champs, I fully expect to see another classic Canada/Russia final.