This tournament is not very important from a win-lose standpoint. It's just a good opportunity for players to showcase themselves for future events, sending three teams is a luxury. I'd like to see two Swedish teams even though neither of them would have a chance to go all the way.
Exactly. Canada uses this tournament to look at players for future events (U18 and U20).
Of course USA looks really good. They have been playing together for 2 months.
I think the tournament is good as it is. It's not like USA has won every year. They had only won one medal in 4 years before 2019.
Golds since 2010...
USA 2010, 2014, 2017
Russia 2012, 2014, 2018
Canada 2011, 2015
Sweden 2013, 2016
I thought goaltending was sometimes a problem for Canada this year. As an example, they took three out of QMJHL territory but two of them are actually playing Midget AAA against kids aged 14-16. They didn't take the one who's actually playing in the QMJHL and who might have been better against tougher competition.
Same thing goes for the U20 game against Russia. Hockey Canada took Gravel because they know him but there are multiple goaltenders who are doing better than him.