What to know for the world junior hockey championship

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Last year's world junior hockey championship was as good as it gets. A record-breaking Canadian superstar put on a show for the ages, the Halifax arena that hosted the big games was packed to the gills with boisterous, joyful fans, and the gold-medal match ended in a thrilling overtime victory by the home team.

It will be a tough act to follow. This year's world juniors are happening overseas, far away from their core fanbase, the Canadian team does not look as strong and, of course, there's no Connor Bedard.

But there are still some interesting angles to follow when the tournament opens on Boxing Day in Gothenburg, Sweden, including another 17-year-old Canadian star who's expected to go No. 1 in the NHL draft. Here's what to know:

Canada is going for a rare threepeat.

These days, even a repeat is unusual. Before Bedard helped Canada capture back-to-back titles, no country had won consecutive world juniors since Canada took five straight from 2005-09. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, the '05 tournament featured Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, and Canada's top two scorers were Patrice Bergeron and Ryan Getzlaf, who are now retired.

Like last year, Canada's road to gold will be smoother than normal with Russia still banned from international hockey due to the invasion of Ukraine. But, with the Canadian roster almost completely turned over from the one we saw in Halifax, the title looks very much up for grabs. The betting markets see it as essentially a three-way tossup between Canada, the United States and host Sweden, while also giving