The Mastercard Memorial Cup begins tonight in Shawinigan, Quebec as the host squad, the Cataractes, entertain the Western Hockey League Champion Edmonton Oil Kings.
The other two entries in the 4 team North American Junior Hockey Championship are the Ontario Champion London Knights and the St John Sea Dogs who are back as both Quebec champions and as defending Memorial Cup champions.
From the outside, there’s very little to choose between the 3 league champions and the host- none of these teams lose very often in regulation.
St John & Edmonton both won 50 times this season, London won 49 games and even Shawinigan, whose league playoff was severed earlier than expected, won 45 regular season games.
If you’re handicapping, you’d have to take St John as # 1, returning with most of their key players in place for a shot at repeating.
After that, I’d put Edmonton in the # 2 slot followed by London and then the host.
I’m sure another handicapping would alter the top 3, but the greater point is the rankings mean little and all bets are off once the puck is dropped.
This is a short tournament where everything can swing in a moment. Anything can happen.
Furthermore, as we’re all too well aware here, an injury can be devastating to a team; a couple of injuries, especially to key players, and your chances of winning are shot.
Cataractes & Oil Kings tonight. Knights and Sea Dogs tomorrow. For the next 10 days Junior Hockey gets center stage at the 2012 Memorial Cup in Shawinigan.
I’m Fred Wallace