Montreal Canadiens: Jan Mysak’s Czechia Team Off to Disappointing Start at World Juniors

The Montreal Canadiens have sent three prospects to the World Juniors this year.

While two of their players, Kaiden Guhle of Canada and Oliver Kapanen of Finland are on teams with gold medal hopes, Jan Mysak’s Czechia team was more of an underdog when it comes to making the podium.

The same four powerhouses are in contention for gold every year with Canada, USA, Sweden and Russia always icing a competitive team. Finland has really joined that group as a more consistent gold medal threat at this tournament as well.

After that, the field seems to drop off dramatically. The last time a country other than those five won gold a this tournament was over 20 years ago when Czech Republic won two in a row in 2000 and 2001. The last time Czech Republic won a medal was in 2005 when they took home a bronze. Slovakia won a bronze in 2015, but over the past 20 years it has almost always been the same five teams taking home all the medals.

Still, Mysak’s squad had high expectations for themselves at this year’s tournament. They have a handful of scorers from the CHL in Mysak, Michal Gut, Pavel Novak and Ivan Ivan as well as a top five prospect for the 2022 NHL Draft in David Jiricek to lead the way from the blue line. They just appeared to have a deeper team than in recent years.

Things looked great early on as they stormed out to a 3-1 lead over Canada in the first period of their opening game. It has been all down hill from there for Mysak’s team.

They would allow five unanswered goals to Canada and eventually lose that opening game 6-3. It isn’t the worst thing for Czechia to lose to Canada, and they had a chance for a big win over Germany on day two.

However, they would be without Jiricek as he was injured when delivering a body check in the opening game. They also lost defenceman Michal Hradek to a one game suspension for cross checking Canada’s Kent Johnson in the opening game.

With just five defenders, Czechia took on Germany. They struggled to produce offence and would end up losing the game 2-1 in overtime. Their only goal was scored by Mysak but it was on an odd bounce in front of the net as he tried to pass the puck across the crease.

The loss puts Czechia in a tough spot. Had they beaten Germany, they still would have had a chance at second place in their group, although it would have required a win over Finland. Now, they are looking at probably finishing fourth place and will need to beat Austria to avoid dropping all the way to 5th and missing the quarterfinals altogether.

They play Finland tomorrow, and it will be a difficult game. If they lose, they will face Austria on the following day in a must win game to make it to the quarterfinals.

Things happen quickly at the World Juniors. In just two days Mysak’s team has gone from medal hopeful at the start of the tournament to a team that needs a win soon or they will finish 9th or 10th in the ten team tournament.