Currently in Toronto, the World Cup of Hockey is occurring for the first time since 2004. It involves eight different teams: Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Team Europe, Czech Republic and last (but certainly not least) Team North America. For those of you who don't follow hockey as close as I do and are confused by Team Europe and North America, Team Europe is composed of various European players whose country is not represented at the World Cup Of Hockey - the list includes: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Norwaym Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
As for Team North America, it is composed of the youngest talent from Canada and the US that are 23 years old or younger. Having the youngest team in the tournament, people began to doubt the young stars; however, after a very productive pre-tournament, they were able to eventually gain the respect of not only many hockey fans, but the other teams as well. This is a major topic of interest for me due to the fact that this is the first time in 12 years that the tournament has occurred; and that most of the players on the North American team are close in age to myself. Above is a clip of the Buffalo Sabres' second-overall pick in 2015, Jack Eichel, scoring the first powerplay goal of the game for North America. Fortunately, I was actually at the game last night and was able to witness the goal live. Seeing as they already took down the powerhouse that is Team Finland, I can only imagine the success that this group of young talent is able to capture this tournament.
Great post Brandon! I have also noticed that team North America has been getting a lot of media coverage. I think this has a lot to do with the age of these players and their willingness to use social media.
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