The best ice hockey players in the world will gather in Slovakia in May to determine the world’s best team in the 83rd edition of this globally-popular event.

This year’s tournament looks like being a particularly close one, if the implied probabilities on the Bigbetbookmakers.com site are anything to go by. Last year’s winners Sweden are highly rated as they bid for a twelfth title and their third in a row, but at this early stage, it is hard to separate them from 26-time winner Canada when it comes to predicting which country will take home gold.

Sweden, who are currently ranked second in the world, appear to have the tougher draw, being placed in a section that includes Russia, the dangerous Czech Republic team and Switzerland. Canada’s Group will pit them against the United States and Finland, but they will be confident of beating the remainder of the teams in that section, and with the top four nations qualifying for the quarter-finals, they should have an easy route to the last eight.

Of the other major nations, Russia look a serious threat to both Sweden and Canada. The Russians were beaten by the Canadians in last year’s quarter-finals but so far on the Euro Hockey Tour, they’ve been the dominant team, winning both the Karjala Cup in Finland and the Channel One Cup on home soil. The record 71,000 crowd who turned out for the Channel One Cup final between Russia and Finland showed that the sport is in rude health domestically, and the victory of the Russia B team in the Lucerne Cup against Switzerland, Austria and Slovakia bodes well for the future.

Swedish fans will be particularly concerned that their side twice surrendered two-goal leads in the tournament, and at the moment, it could be argued that they are the continent’s third-best team behind the Russians and Finland, who will be aiming to improve on their quarter-final loss last year.

Finland are likely to provide the main opposition for Canada in Group A. Although the scrap with the United States will be as competitive as ever, the US have not won this competition since 1960 and reaching the semi-finals, as they did last year, will represent a solid achievement.

Outside the top six, none of the other nations are expected to make much of an impression, but qualification for the quarter-finals would represent a significant achievement for Germany and their new head coach Tony Soderhelm, though Slovakia, with home advantage, are likely to be strong challengers for the fourth quarter-final place. And in Group B, both Norway and Latvia will hope to take advantage of the deterioration in form of last year’s finalists Switzerland.

And it will be fascinating to see how the two newly promoted teams, the UK and Italy cope with the higher level of competition. Neither are predicted to make the last eight, but they will both add flavour to what promises to be an absorbing World Championships.

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