World Juniors Preview: Sweden keeping status quo

Death, taxes, and Sweden winning a whole lot of games at the World Juniors. It has become second nature for Tre Kroner to come into the winter junior tournament every single year and end up near perfect in the group stage, and then let it all play out in the knockout and medal round. But as the third fiddle in this triumvirate at the top of junior hockey, the end results aren’t always all that glamorous.

Since 2018, this has been Sweden’s end result: Silver, fifth place, bronze, fifth place, bronze, fourth place, and silver last year. The last time Sweden won gold was all the way back in 2012. Prior to that, it was 1981.

Sweden always ices an exciting team with good NHL prospects and is…