My World Junior Championship All Tournament Team

The Hockey Woodstock know as the World Junior Championship is over and the United States took home the biggest prize of them all: the gold medal. This marks the second time in four years that the red, white and blue took home the gold.

Here is the OTWT All Tournament Team:
Goalie: John Gibson, USA
Defense man: Jacob Trouba, USA
Defense man: Jake McCabe, USA
Forward: Mikhail Grigorenko, Russia
Forward: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Canada
Forward: John Gaudreau, USA

Top draft eligible player: Seth Jones, D, USA
Most impressive player, that I had not heard about before the tournament: Leon Draisaitl, Forward, Germany.

An Epic Shootout

In honor of the World Junior Championships starting, I take you back to the 2007 shootout between the United States and Canada in the semifinals. Just a classic as Canada won on the way to the gold medal. The interesting thing about the shootout was that players that were involved. 

World Juniors Championship's in Newspapers

In Canada the start of the World Junior Championships is a big deal from Toronto to Calgary its a huge event no matter its location. Across the country, front pages were dedicated to the event. Here are some: 

Windsor: The Real Home of American Hockey

Cam Fowler

Most American hockey fans view Detroit as "Hockeytown," but maybe the true home of hockey is right across the border in Windsor. During the course of the last couple of years more and more young American hockey players have spurned college hockey and turned to the Windsor Spitfires.

Austin Czarnik

This year the roster features a bunch of American players including a possible top five American pick. Cam Fowler turned down the Gold Dome to play for the defending Memorial Cup Champions. The move has appeared to pay off for Fowler. He is joined on the roster by fellow Americans: Kenny Ryan, Craig Duininck, Saverio Posa. The roster also featured another another American earlier this year in Austin Watson, who was traded to Peterborough. Watson turned down the University of Maine to play for the Spitfires.

Next year, American World Junior Championship hero goaltender Jack Campbell has signed on to part of the American revolution in Windsor. Rumors are flying around that fellow U-18 team member

Austin Czarnik will take his shot in the OHL.

Both Windsor and the USA Hockey have benefited from the influx of Americans. For the Spitfires it gives them depth and an influx of quality players like Fowler. For USA Hockey it gives players great experience at the highest level in their age group. This experienced showed for Fowler during the WJC when he was the best players on the United States roster. If this continues maybe we should just remain Windsor, Canada "Hockeytown USA.""

WJC guys like the outdoors

In January the United States World Junior team shocked the world and beat Canada for the title, but since then they have all gone their separate ways. Cam Fowler head back to Windsor, AJ Jenks headed Plymouth, and the college kids headed back to campus to finish their season.

But one thing strange has happened over the month since the players have been back at their teams. Five of the players that were on the team have played in a variety of outdoor games. Boston College's Chris Kreider and Boston University's David Warsofsky played in the Frozen Fenway Classic (pictured above) at Fenway Park, while the University of Wisconsin trio of Jake Gardiner, John Ramage, and Derek Stephan played in the Camp Randall Classic game against Michigan.

The NHL Winter Classic has been a huge success and many colleges with big football stadiums are doing similar games now. Next year Michigan State will play Michigan at the Big House on my birthday Dec. 11.