World juniors

We traveled to Pardubice on Thursday for a couple of round-robin games in the World Junior Hockey Championships. (This is an under-20 tournament that is a really big deal in Canada, but apparently not so much everywhere else. It's a good preview of players who will be stars in the NHL in a few years.) We got to see two games, Canada vs. Slovakia and the Czech Republic vs. Denmark.
Canada is going for its fourth straight title at this tournament, and are considered one of the favourites (along with the Russians and the Americans). The Canadians looked pretty good in this game, winning 2-0. Slovakia is generally a good team in hockey; they've never won an Olympic or World Cup title, but are usually competitive. Their goalie did a good job holding Canada to two goals, but the Canadians didn't allow the Slovaks many chances at all. Through the first two games, Canada has yet to allow a goal.
The second game I expected to be an easy win for the host country, as Denmark are generally not a strong hockey nation and are really just here as filler for the 10-team tournament. It looked like I would be right when the Czechs scored less than a minute into the game, and had a 3-0 lead halfway into the first period. It settled down after that, but the Czechs still won comfortably, 5-2, with a hat-trick by Mikael Frolik.
Two players I was watching for were P.K. Subban, a Montreal Canadiens draft pick, and John Tavares, who is supposed to be the next great goalscorer - but who is not eligible for the NHL draft until 2009. Both had limited ice time in Canada's game, however.
-Jason