Canada vs. Russia Prediction: IIHF World Championship Odds

What, you think the only major hockey going on right now in the world is the Stanley Cup playoffs? Team Canada faces Russia on Thursday morning at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen in the IIHF World Championship quarter-finals.

Team Canada opened as a -206 favourite against Team Russia.

Canada vs. Russia IIHF World Championship Betting Analysis

One bright spot for NHL players whose teams either didn’t make the playoffs or were eliminated in them early is the chance to potentially play for their country in the annual IIHF World Championship, held this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

All four quarterfinal games are Thursday. They are: Canada vs Russia, the Czech Republic vs. the United States (both starting at 10:15 a.m. ET), Latvia vs. Sweden and Switzerland vs. Finland (both at 2:15 p.m. ET). The Canada-Russia winner faces either the Swiss or Finns in Saturday’s semi-final round, with the final and third-place game on Sunday. All Team Canada games are broadcast live on TSN and streamed on TSN.ca

On the IIHF World Championship odds, the Americans are -223 vs. the Czechs (+175), the Finns are -424 vs. the Swiss (+288), and the Swedes are massive -2532 favourites against the Latvians (+703). Sweden won Group A with 20 points, followed by Russia (16 points), the Czech Republic (15) and Switzerland (12). Finland took Group B with 16 points in a tiebreaker over the USA. Canada (15 points) was third and Latvia (13) fourth.

The Swedes are defending champions of this tournament, beating Canada 2-1 in a penalty shootout last year in Germany. Nicklas Backstrom and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored shootout goals and Henrik Lundqvist stopped all four shots he faced. The only other World Championship gold-medal game to reach a shootout was in 1994, when Canada beat Finland. The Canadians were trying for a third straight gold medal in the event in 2017.

Team Canada

The 2017-18 NHL season was a huge disappointment for the Edmonton Oilers as they missed the playoffs, but superstar Connor McDavid led the NHL in points for the second straight year – this time with 108. McDavid also has carried Team Canada in this tournament with five goals and eight assists in the seven group-stage games. Those 13 points are fourth in the event. The Islanders’ Mathew Barzal (7A), likely to win the Calder Trophy, and Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (4G, 3A) are second on Team Canada with seven points each.

The goaltending duties have largely been split by the Leafs’ Curtis McElhinney (1.30 GAA) and Coyotes’ Darcy Kuemper (1.99 GAA). The Canadians rank first in the tournament on the penalty kill (92 percent) but 12^th on the power play (5-for-27). Both Canada and Russia scored 32 goals in seven group-stage games.

Team Russia

The Russians lost to Canada 4-2 in last year’s semi-finals. Russia led 2-0 entering the third period, but Ryan O’Reilly scored the winning goal with 3:02 remaining. Nathan MacKinnon had tied the game two minutes earlier. Sean Couturier added an empty-netter. Team Russia ranks fifth on the power play (6-for-21) and sixth on the penalty kill (81.25 per cent) this year.

Pavel Datsyuk, the long-time former Red Wing, leads Russia with 10 points (2G, 8A). Most of the roster is comprised of players from the KHL not NHL. Igor Shestyorkin (0.00 GAA) and Vasili Koshechkin (1.91 GAA) have split time in net. Shestyorkin, one of the top goaltending prospects in the world (New York Rangers hold his rights), has set a Russian/Soviet record for consecutive shutout minutes in one World Championship at 140:00.