The NHL Network will air every game of the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden.
It includes comprehensive coverage of the United States National Junior Team, which will play the first of four preliminary-round games in Group B against Norway at Frolundaborg on Tuesday (11 a.m. ET). The United States also will play Switzerland (Dec. 28), Czechia (Dec. 29) and Slovakia (Dec. 31). The playoff round begins Jan. 2.
Longtime NCAA hockey analyst Dave Starman, who will handle the broadcasts along with E.J. Hradek, Jon Rosen and Jon Morosi, will give his three keys to victory for the United States before each of its games during the 11-day tournament.
"After two pre-tournament games against two medal-contending teams [Sweden and Canada], which I think is brilliant scheduling on the part of the United States, it starts for real on Tuesday," Starman said. "The two games against Sweden and Canada don't matter points-wise, but they certainly did for the coaching staff. This highly skilled group faced some adversity, looked great at times, but also had some things exposed.
"It's the perfect tune-up for what should be a six-game run to the gold-medal game on Jan 5."
Here are Starman's 3 keys to victory for the United States against Norway:
1. Lessons in chemistry
"Catching lightning in a bottle is a major component, and chemistry was the word every player I talked to during selection camp in Michigan mentioned. It wasn't used as a cliche, and each defined it differently, so you got the feeling that it wasn't a party line expression; rather, a collective effort by the core group to bring the bunch together based on their experience in these type of tournaments. The collective has a ton of experience together and assistant David Lassonde, as assistant with USA Hockey's National Team Development Program, has coached most of these kids in a team setting. This should be an area of strength."
2. Defining roles
"Game 1 and Game 2 [against Switzerland on Thursday] should be games in which the entire bench will see minutes, and if it goes according to how it should, these games will give a lot of players a chance to find and entrench in a role they are given. Always the adjustment, guys seeing little minutes a night on their NCAA or major-junior team might see bigger minutes. Those top-six guys might be bottom-six shut-down guys. There is a lot of skill, diversity on this team and the reality is the U.S. has four first lines. The match against Norway is a good game for the U.S. to start defining some roles and jobs throughout the lineup."
3. Face-off success
"My favorite talking point is face-offs. When Thomas Bordeleau (San Jose Sharks) played for the U.S. at the 2022 World Juniors, he'd 'switch it,' meaning he turned his hands over on his weak side to always be on his strong side on the dot. United States assistant Brett Larson is a high-detail faceoff guy as a coach at St. Cloud State University and coach David Carle and his University of Denver teams have face-off plays running on every drop. Two pre-tournament games in, they have learned a lot about who they want on the dot. In the tournament opener, the viewing public will learn who will be the go-to guys on each dot, especially in the defensive zone."
