The really BIG question for me and the Czechs will be whether or not Schwarz is burnt out or not. The Giants are riding him HEAVILY from what I've seen, and I've heard a lot of talk that he seems fatigued...Hopefully this isn't the case, and is purely speculation on my part...
But Canada is, and generally ALWAYS is the pre-tourny favorite. Honestly, they've routinely gone into the WJC's with goalies that are inexperienced and faired AMAZINGLY well.
Last year, the Canadian defense manhandled many of the teams, the Americans included. They were big, quick and could join the rush. This years defense will be nearly identical.
The forwards were also NOT the problem last year. No one is really arguing that actually...it all comes back to how MAF played. Well, he didn't play spectacular at all during the tourny. The Americans winning goal was a fluke. 99/100 I'd say that MAF plays that differently. It was a judgement error on his part...he hesitated and ended up paying for it. Life goes on though.
Canada was not the favorite last year, the Americans were. Canada, I believe was predicted by most to finish 2-4...with Fluery giving them a chance at a silver or bronze depending on how things played out.
Once the finals were determined, obviously the majority of Canadian fans are going to get behind their team and predict a win. Some get a little over zealous and say things such as "easily"...well, there's very few times in hockey when win, especially gold medal wins come easily. Canada played with, and outplayed the United States for probably 40-45mins last January.
Canada is my favorite, and most other people favorites going into this tourny simply because we generally ALWAYS put a damn good f'n team on the ice at the WJCs. I don't see why that won't be any different this year.
The US will be good again, but I think they will take a hit losing some of their "key" players. Canada won't have lost many, if any of their "key" players...and our goaltending is usually quite supberb in these tourny's...and there's no reason to believe that won't be thet case again this year!
1 Canada
2 Russia
3 Czechs