A glimpse to World Championships

While the NHL playoffs are heating up for the second round, there will be another show played in Slovakia early May. The hockey world championships are about to start and it's definitely going to be a thrilling two weeks too.

I just checked out the rosters of some of the top candidates to win it all. Here's some random thoughts on the setup before the first puck drops.

Canada seems to be determined to get back on the throne after three years off. There's a very good team out there with young rising superstars supported by some solid success stories from the earlier internationals. Rick Nash is going to finish some breakaways again. Hopefully not against Finland.

Russia continues the trend to build most of the roster from KHL and let the smaller rink specialists rest for next NHL seasons. There's still the ever-so-dynamic Ilya Kovalchuk to keep an eye on in the scoring stats. Tough team and really at home on the larger rink.

Sweden seems to settle with mostly Swedish league players, still being supported by some really good NHL players, like Loui Eriksson. A hard team to beat as always, but slightly below Canada and Russia on my expectations.

Czechs and Slovaks have both pretty local rosters as well, with some bright superstars like Marian Gaborik aiming to end their seasons with a high note after swift exit from NHL playoffs. Not likely to fight for the gold, but you never know.

USA brings in the weakest team on paper for a long time. Maybe the NHL second-liners have gotten tired on travelling to Europe to be pushed over on first elimination round or something. Now there's a bunch of guys who just played in junior level championships. Not that these aren't really dangerous when in the right groove, but missing the experience is likely to leave them out of the medal games again.

Finland has been losing the foothold in NHL and it is shown in our roster too. There's a way too big gap between NHL heroes Tuomo Ruutu and Mikko Koivu and the average lineup gathered from Finnish and other European leagues and KHL. Solid goaltending and some surprise scoring punch might carry the resilient Finns all the way to the medal games, but that requires timing the best game for the quarter finals. The opponent there will likely be one of the tougher teams after another 2nd or 3rd place finnish in the group games. I'll love to see Tuomo Ruutu bring it all on the ice again like in the last Euro hockey tour match against Russia. Better to aim the crushing checks to the time when there's no giants like Artyuchin in the rink or prepare for a punchbag moment again..

The rest of the teams will remain in a surprise spoiler role with Denmark and Swizerland having the most punch. None of them will carry on to the semifinals this year. In general, this is again going to be the best hockey in the larger rink this year and definitely a tournament worth watching. With national pride to boost, naturally. Go Finland!