What to know for the world juniors' playoff rounds

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This year's world junior hockey championship has been a strange one, to say the least. Originally set in its traditional Christmas time slot, the tournament was scrapped after just a few games due to a slew of COVID-19 cases at the height of the Omicron variant's wrath. Organizers later decided to give it another shot Aug. 9-20 in Edmonton (Red Deer was dropped as co-host), and to kick out perennial contender Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.

Junior hockey in the dog days of summer was always going to be a tough sell, and it got tougher when Hockey Canada's callous handling of sexual assault allegations became public a few weeks ago. As a result, fan support of the tournament has been tepid, at best. Only 5,200 people attended Canada's round-robin finale vs. Finland last night at 18,500-seat Rogers Place, while just 350 took in Switzerland vs. Austria. And with corporate sponsors having "paused" their relationships with Hockey Canada in the wake of the sexual assault scandal, the action on the ice is taking place against a backdrop of ad-free boards. Pretty much everything about this tournament has felt a little off since the first puck dropped.

There might, though, be an uptick in interest now that a typically lacklustre group stage is over and the knockout rounds are set to begin Wednesday. Here's what to know:

Canada is still the favourite to win gold. The original roster back in December had the makings of a juggernaut, with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft (Owen Power) anchoring the defence and the presumptive top choice in this year's draft