In the midst of a pandemic that has ravaged national teams and played hell with international travel, it’s a kind of a miracle that the 2021 World Junior Championships will happen at all.
Pulling together the world’s most prestigious junior tournament is a big challenge even in a good year. In late 2020, with COVID-19 raging largely uncontrolled in several of its constituent nations, the hurdles are even higher.
It helps, no doubt, that Edmonton is this year’s co-host, along with Red Deer. The province of Alberta provided the Western Conference bubble that gave the NHL an improbably successful Stanley Cup Playoffs stage earlier this year.