This year, the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships are hosted in Germany (Cologne) and France (Paris), May 5-21. 16 teams are divided into two groups. The top four teams from each group advances to the play offs. The worst placed team in each group are eliminated from next year’s tournament. In this post you will find groups and schedule.
Groups, Ice Hockey World Championship 2017
Group A:
Russia
USA
Sweden
Slovakia
Germany
Latvia
Denmark
Italy
Comment: Russia, Sweden, and possible USA will fight for the top positions in group A. However, we will also keep an eye on the host nation Germany, as well as Slovakia and Denmark.
Group B:
Canada
Finland
Czech
Switzerland
Belarus
Norway
France
Slovenia
Comment: We look forward to the game between Finland and Canada. The Czech Republic and Switzerland could offer some resistance against those two teams. Will the host nation France be able to give any of the top teams a go?
Schedule, Ice Hockey World Championship 2017
May 5-16: Group stage
May 18: Quarter finals
May 20: Semi finals
May 21: Final and bronze game
Which team will win the Ice Hockey World Championship 2017?
Team Canada has won two straight World Championships in 2016 and 2016. Russia won 2014 and Sweden 2013. For the European teams much of the success is dependent on reinforcements from the National Hockey League. For Sweden, the interest from the transatlantic players has been sparse the latest years. Maybe the new coach Rikard Grönborg can change that. Maybe some players want to show what they are made of in the national team before the Olympic Games 2018. However, the participation of players from NHL in the Olympics is not secured due to issues between NHL and The international olympic committee. For Team Canada the success is more dependent on interest from the organization: No matter what teams are eliminated from NHL, Canada always has 10 times more players to choose from than most other countries. The latest years they have put teams on the ice that would make anyone star struck. Russia is the biggest competitor since they have many good players in their national league (KHL), given that they can make a collective team out of skilled individual players. We should never rule out the Finns either, even if they rarely go all the way.
