One thing I think we can all learn from a game like this is how fans and media have a tendency to underrate prior success, team cohesion, experience in these big junior international championships.
It's easy for fans to look at the rosters based on draft position and decide how the games will go. However, that is way too simplistic. There are many factors that go into draft position that aren't in common with who wins these games at this level.
Some boasted about all Canada's first rounders and how that meant they were unstoppable, but take for instance the difference between the two goaltenders. Knight was a little inconsistent throughout, while Levi was great until the final. In the final, Knight is great and Levi was shaky. Consider the difference in game experience at these big tournaments. Between the WJC18 and WJC20, Knight has played 21 of these games, Levi has 7 of these games. Knight has 4 medals, and already had played in a championship game. Levi, this is absolutely the biggest stage he's played on and nothing comes close. He was playing Junior A last year. Even his own teammates were saying they didn't know who he was until very recently. Knight has been there and done that. Levi hasn't.
Consider the two US goalscorers. Turcotte has played 26 games between the WJC18 and WJC20. 3 medals, already played in a championship game. Zegras has played in 19 games. These guys are not phased because they've played in so many of these big games. Even not in these two tournaments, how many more finals do you think they've played in for the NTDP? Yet again this year showed why this is a 19 year old tournament. You win and lose almost every year based on your 19 year olds. The big American 19 year old players showed up when it mattered most. Knight, York, Thrun, Turcotte, Zegras, Boldy all had big performances, and part of that is because these guys have cohesion playing together for years and experience playing in these big tournaments. They have won together for many years.
To think these things don't play a big role into these tournaments is naive. We are all guilty of it. I was writing off the Finn's this year partly because they were starting an undrafted goalie with awful stats in the OHL. However, Piiroinen played well, and the Finn's won a Bronze medal. Obviously I underestimated how the Finnish program regarded his game and his experience with that Finnish age group. How many years did the Russians bring all these 19 year olds that no one had heard of that were undrafted who outplayed early round picks from other teams? They've been the most consistent team at this tournament with these teams. It's strategy. It's not luck.
This isn't to suggest that draft position doesn't matter. Clearly it does. The Canadians could've won that game last night, and the story would be different. I'd merely ask that going into these tournaments in the future we all take into account which countries have had success in these age groups, which teams have good crops of 19 year olds, which teams have players who have cohesion, and which teams have an experienced crop in these big tournaments. These things matter, and we saw that this was a big difference in a close game last night between two good teams.