The Canadian Men's Juniors defeated Finland in the finals yesterday 3-2 (OT). This wealth of talent in the Junior ranks is well felt by the Hockey community. As Canada had defeated the Czech Republic in the semi-finals and Finland had defeated Sweden in their semi-final clash we see how influential the European contingent of Hockey nations has almost equaled that of Hockey Giants Canada and Russia. Including Slovakia, Germany, and Switzerland alongside Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic we see a European game of hockey evolving into success as evidenced by Finland and Sweden taking titles in the last number of years. Let's also not forget that it was the Czech Republic that won the Gold Medal at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan in 1998 the first year integrating NHL'ers into the World scene. Slovakia almost defeated Team Canada in 2002 in Salt Lake losing 3-2 in probably their most impressive game in that tournament and who can forget Germany defeating Canada in the Worlds' a few years back.
We see stars that have or are coming from pretty much every European Nation;
1. Sweden - Mats Sundin, Perter Forsberg, Niklas Lidstrom, Borje Salming
2. Finland - Jari Kurri, Teammu Selanne, Mikko Rantanen, Patrik Laine
3. Czech Republic - Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr, Stan Mikita, David Pastrnak
4. Slovakia - Peter Stastny, Anton Stastny, Marian Stastny, Zdeno Chara
5. Germany - Leon Draisaitl, Moritz Seider, Thomas Greiss, Uwe Krupp
6. Switzerland - Roman Josi, Jean-Guy Trudel, Jonas Hiller, Mark Streit
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