2023 World Junior Hockey Championship: Canada vs. Czechia Odds, Prediction
The 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship officially kicks off in Moncton, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia as usual on Boxing Day. Canada begins it’s gold medal defence with a matchup against Czechia at 6:30 p.m. ET on Monday at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. In the 47th edition of the World Juniors tournament, Canada is looking to be the first country to win 20 gold medals, while Czechia is looking to finish with gold for the first time since winning back-to-back tournaments in 2000 and 2001.
Canada is favoured to win by 3.5 goals on the IIHF odds, while the total sits at 7.0.
2023 World Junior Championship Betting Odds
Canada has won this tournament a record 19 times and is the last country to win back-to-back tournaments following their streak of five straight gold medals from 2005-09. They’ve had more tournament success than any other country, medalling in 34 of 46 events since 1977.
The Seattle Kraken’s Shane Wright is a +381 favourite to lead the tournament in scoring, while Connor Bedard, the projected first overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft, is second at +435. Canada defeated Czechia twice at the 2022 tournament in August, winning 5-1 in the preliminary round and 5-2 in the semi-finals.
Czechia has medalled three times in this tournament. As mentioned, they won back-to-back golds in 2000 and 2001, but they haven’t collected any hardware since winning bronze in 2005. They lost to Sweden in the bronze medal game of the 2022 tournament in August.
Team Canada
This is expected to be one of Canada’s strongest World Junior teams ever, with eight returning players from the gold medal winning squad in August. Bedard, who leads the Western Hockey League in goals (27), assists (37) and points (64) in 28 games, headlines a strong group of returning players. Also back from the 2022 gold medal winning team are forwards Logan Stankoven, Brennan Othmann, Joshua Roy, Nathan Gaucher and Zack Ostapchuk as well as defencemen Olen Zellweger and Ethan Del Mastro.
New faces on the team that didn’t play in the 2022 tournament include two players with NHL experience this season, Wright and Dylan Guenther. Wright has played eight games for the Seattle Kraken while Guenther has played 21 for the Arizona Coyotes. Benjamin Gaudreau is expected to be the starter in net for the tournament opener. The San Jose Sharks draft pick has a 9-8-3 record with an .868 save percentage for the OHL’s Sarnia String this season.
Team Czechia
Czechia will be returning 16 players from the 2022 World Junior team. They finished the preliminary round of the 2022 tournament with a win, an overtime loss and two regulation losses. Czechia upset the United States with a 4-2 win in the quarter-finals before falling 3-1 to Sweden in the bronze medal game. Returning players include goalie Tomas Suchanek who made 28 saves against the U.S. in the quarter-finals. Suchanek, who is 2023 draft eligible, has two seasons of experience on smaller North American ice surfaces as he plays for Tri-City of the WHL.
Buffalo Sabres prospect Jiri Kulich is also returning after leading Czechia with seven points (2G, 5A) in the 2022 tournament. The blue line is anchored by returning defencemen David Jiricek and Stanislav Svozil, both Columbus Blue Jackets prospects. Jiricek is the top scoring rookie defenceman in the American Hockey League this season with 20 points (5G, 15A) in 19 games.
Canada vs. Czechia WJC Score Prediction
Canada 5, Czechia 1