World Junior Game Day: USA vs. Slovakia Preview
News, notes, projected lineups and more from the first day of the 2022 WJC
The 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship opens today with a full slate of games, capped off tonight by the defending gold medalist U.S. National Junior Team taking on upset-minded and highly skilled Slovakia.
As of right now, my plan is to have a brief preview for every USA game as well as some extra news and notes from around the tournament. This first one will be available to all readers for free, while a portion of the remaining previews will be available to all, while some things will be subscriber exclusive.
If you’d like to keep access to things like players to watch, projected lineups and then all of the post-game analysis and player-by-player reviews coming on Hockey Sense, you can sign up for a premium subscription at the link below.
Also, if you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to listen to my podcast with Corey Pronman as we preview the tournament. Relevant to tonight’s game, we spend some time on the Slovakian draft-eligibles that should get a lot of attention at this tournament. Consider subscribing and leaving a rating on your app of choice, too:
USA vs. Slovakia, 9:30 p.m. EST, NHL Network/TSN
The U.S. will open the tournament against a Slovakia team that has way more skill than we’re used to seeing. They’re also pretty young, which can be a problem in a tournament like this with so many 19-year-old laden teams, including the U.S. Either way, the expectation that Slovakia is an easy three points should go right out the window.
We’ll find out what the U.S. has learned about itself after an uneven pre-tournament game that saw them start slow, then lose a 3-1 lead late to fall 4-3 in overtime (full game recap here). Meanwhile, Slovakia earned a 4-0 win over Germany in their only pre-tournament game. Juraj Slafkovsky (2022) had two points, while Simon Latkoczy earned an 18-save shutout.
Slovakia outshot the Germans 34-18 in that game, scored twice on the power play and, according to USA head coach Nate Leaman, play with a lot of skill and speed. “They’re going to offer a big challenge,” Leaman said in his pre-game availability.
Here’s a few other things to know about tonight’s game:
USA forward Ty Smilanic (FLA) will miss tonight’s game with a lower-body injury. His status for the tournament will not be known until Monday at the earliest. He was slated to play on USA’s fourth line, providing some speed and scoring depth.
Forward Red Savage (DET) will not face further discipline for the hit that saw him earn a major and game misconduct for elbowing against Finland. He is expected to be in the lineup tonight.
Head coach Nate Leaman says that the team will use a 13 forward, seven defenseman rotation tonight, saying he thinks that’s the most appropriate balance the tournament calls for. At times last year, they ran 12 forwards and eight defensemen. This time around, even though they have such a great D corps, you are often better served to have that extra forward in case you run into a situation like they found themselves in against Finland after Smilanic went down.
Slovakia is returning 13 players from last year’s team that finished in eighth place after being bounced by the United States 5-2 in the quarterfinals. Amazingly, Slovakia is both the youngest team by average age and has the most World Junior experience in terms of total games played in the tournament (via eliteprospects.com). Captain Samuel Knazko (CBJ) and fellow defenseman Marko Stacha are each playing in their third World Junior Championship.
Slovakia Players to Watch
Simon Nemec, D, 2022 Draft Eligible: The Slovakian team has a number of high-end draft-eligible players with three projected first-rounders in the mix. Depending on who you ask, Nemec may be the best of the bunch. He’ll certainly be the most important to this team, in my estimation. He is a smooth two-way defenseman who skates very well and plays an especially mature game. He’s already played in this tournament and played on the senior national team at the last Men’s World Championship. He should log a boatload of minutes and can be a huge difference maker.
Juraj Slafkovsky, LW, 2022 Draft Eligible: A massive forward with high-end skill and vision, Slafkovsky is 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. He protects the puck well, wins battles down low and has the skill to finish off plays. He currently plays in Finland’s top pro league and when TPS has had him on the U20 team, it’s been men against boys. Like Nemec, he’s played at the WJC and the Men’s Worlds. A lot of the offense is going to go through him here.
Martin Chromiak, RW, Los Angeles Kings: A key figure for this WJC roster, Chromiak is one of the team’s oldest players and certainly one of its most accomplished at the junior level. He has 32 points in the OHL this season with the Kingston Frontenacs. As one of the older players, he’ll need to be a factor.
Simon Latkoczy, G, Undrafted: After winning the Clark Cup with Chicago last season, he was returned to the Madison Capitals, which held his rights while they were on hiatus. Latkoczy earned Slovakia’s starting job at the last tournament and gave them a chance in the games he appeared in, finishing 1-2 with a .922 save percentage. If he’s on his game, he makes Slovakia a much bigger threat.
Projected Lineups for Dec. 26
These are simply projections based on pre-tournament games. Official lineups do not come out until an hour before the game.
USA
Brett Berard (NYR) - Matty Beniers (SEA) - Matt Coronato (CGY)
Matthew Knies (TOR) - Logan Cooley (2022) - Carter Mazur (DET)
Landon Slaggert (CHI) - Dominic James (2022+) - Mackie Samoskevich (FLA)
Red Savage (DET) - Tanner Dickinson (STL) - Chaz Lucius (WPG)
Sasha Pastujov (ANA)
Jake Sanderson (OTT) - Ian Moore (ANA)
Jack Peart (MIN) - Brock Faber (LAK)
Tyler Kleven (OTT) - Luke Hughes (NJD)
Wyatt Kaiser (CHI)
Drew Commesso (CHI)
Dylan Silverstein (2022)
Note: One of Team USA’s defensemen will be scratched. Both Wyatt Kaiser and Scott Morrow (CAR) were last on the team in total ice time among defensemen in the first game. Odds are it will be one of those two on the sidelines tonight. With Morrow on the second power play unit in the pre-tournament game, we might see him in there, but I’m not sold he’d get the nod over Kaiser at this point. We’ll find out tonight.
Slovakia
Martin Chromiak (LAK) - Oleksiy Myklukha - Matej Kašlík
Filip Mešar (2022) - Servák Petrovsky (2022) - Juraj Slafkovsky (2022)
Maroš Jedlička - Dalibor Dvorsky (2023) - Roman Faith
Ján Lašák - Jakub Demek (VGK) - Adam Sykora (2022)
Pavol Stetka (2022)
Samuel Knažko (CBJ) - Marko Stacha
Rayen Petrovicky - Šimon Nemec (2022)
Šimon Bečár - Maxim Štrbák
Denis Bakala
Simon Latkoczy
Tomáš Bolo
Elsewhere in the WJC
Full Schedule for Dec. 26
Finland vs. Germany, 2 p.m. ET
Russia vs. Sweden, 4:30 p.m. ET
Czechia vs. Canada, 7 p.m. ET
USA vs. Slovakia, 9:30 p.m. ET
News and Notes
The Swiss team has registered only 15 skaters and two goaltenders. The team reported that one player has tested positive and two remain in isolation. The team had to quarantine in their hotel after one player tested positive. They were released from quarantine on Christmas Day and were able to practice. Their pre-tournament game against Czechia was cancelled, too, so their preparation for the tournament has been less than ideal. Lucky for them, they don’t play until Monday. Their first game is against Russia. Ouch.
The IIHF announced Sunday that three players have tested positive so far, including the one player from Switzerland. Finland had a player test positive upon arrival while each team was in their mandatory quarantine. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports that player is Roby Järventie (OTT) who plays for the AHL team in Belleville that had a number of positive cases. Jarventie’s quarantine is due to end soon, assuming he is well enough to play and tests out of quarantine. Additionally, one player from Team Austria is in isolation and the entire team has had to quarantine. They are due to play Monday.
Canada is bringing back the “Hey Baby” goal song that we’re going to have to get used to hearing an awful lot as they have Austria and Germany in their group. I was there in Buffalo when that thing was rolling and let me tell ya, it’s a tough listen! Which I believe is it’s intended purpose. It was funny to hear all the Canadian fans singing it on their way out of the arena after that 2018 gold medal game though.
Please let me know if you like these types of previews. I’m trying to decide whether or not to commit the time to building them out. If you enjoy them, let me know in the comments or on Twitter. I’ll keep an eye on the metrics and your feedback and make a call about whether or not to continue. Also, if you want even more WJC content as I plan to have post-game analysis every single game, subscribe below.
Thanks for the preview. Love these.