Russia returns as a champion

The Ice Hockey World Championship tournament is starting tomorrow in Czech Republic. The games are played in Prague – the capital city in the western part of the country and in Ostrava, close to Polish border in the east. National teams are divided in two groups of eight and play against other teams in their groups once, adding up to seven games in total. Four best teams from each group then progress to quarter-finals. From there its sudden death playoff hockey – make or break!

With the help of AccuScore super computer we have simulated each and every game for 10 000 times to predict the outcome of the tournament, from the first face-off to the eventual raising of the champions banner. As is usual with the simulations, there are no major upsets expected in the tournament. The usual suspects Canada, Russia, Sweden and Czech Republic are all up there in the early predictions – especially with several world class NHL players such as Sidney Crosby and Jakub Voracek joining ranks.

The reigning World Champions Russia is predicted to have a chance to defend their title in a final vs Canada, who haven’t won the championship since 2007. This time the AccuScore supercomputer predicts an extremely even matchup with Russia winning 50.7% of the 10 000 simulations. Tiny margins at the top. The intriguing question this year is if any of the teams outside of big six will surprise and make a push to the top four. Russia, Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland and USA are the regulars, but the insurgence of Switzerland and France has been ongoing for a while. Not to count out “almost hosts” Slovakia or always feisty Belarus and Latvia.

AccuScore simulations don’t give much of a chance for the outside challenge, but it only takes a couple of lucky bounces or shootout wins rather than losses to mix the group standings.

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