Another heartbreaking result for Team Canada at the 2026 World Junior Championship as Czechia stunned Canada once again with a 6-4 victory.

Czechia plays Sweden in the gold medal game. Sweden has had one gold medal in the past 44 years.

I won my WJC pool last year with this roster:

But a year later, I'm going to come up short as I went with some players who just couldn't get on the scoresheet enough, and have just the one player (Victor Eklund) heading to the final. It's always a fun experience joining a pool where you are not overly familiar with most of the players and then watching them for a few weeks.

We will do the same for the Olympics next month. It should be fun and give some bragging rights to the winner.

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On to NHL action. Tyler Bertuzzi scored his hat trick in OT to give Chicago a 3-2 win over Vegas to give him 22 goals in 39 games. He had 23 goals in 82 games last year and has a career-high of 30 goals back in 2021-22 when he was a member of the Detroit Red Wings. Bertuzzi has had six goals in his past six games. He had a rough start to the team being without Connor Bedard, going pointless and being minus-9 in the first six games, but he and the Blackhawks have found their groove lately without him with three wins in a row.

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Matthew Tkachuk could be back in the next week or two to help boost the 22-16-3 Florida Panthers. They beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Sunday, ending a 10-game winning streak for Colorado in the process.

Tkachuk was named to the US Olympic Roster last week, so will look to get into as many games as he can before then.

Colorado has had some key players go down with injuries in the past two games. Devon Toews and Gabriel Landeskog are going to miss some games – maybe a few weeks. This might put a dent in the 31-3-7 record that Colorado boasts at the moment.

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Alex Wennberg signed a three-year extension with the San Jose Sharks, which will pay him $6 million AAV. Here are the details according to PuckPedia:

I'm surprised by the average cap hit, as I had a player like Wennberg playing at around a $4 million level in 2024-25. He has certainly raised his game with the Sharks, but 40-something games into 2025-26 doesn't justify a $2 million bump for three years in my mind. Add in the two years of NTC and the M-NTC in year three, and this deal screams regret in year two or three.

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Montreal beat Dallas 4-3 in OT on Sunday with Lane Hutson scoring in the extra frame. Sam Montembeault got the win in goal, stopping 24 pucks on 27 shots on goal.

Hutson added an assist and now has 42 points in 42 games. The goal was his seventh and is now his career-high.

Phillip Danault added two assists and got his first two points in his second turn as a member of the Canadiens.

Wyatt Johnston had two goals for Dallas and now has 22 goals in 42 games. The Stars were handed just their ninth loss of the season in 42 games.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins came from a 4-1 deficit to the Columbus Blue Jackets and pushed the game to overtime, where Sidney Crosby scored his 24th goal in 41 games and 649th of his career.

18-year-old Ben Kindel added two assists, which brings his point total to 18 in 38 games.

Zach Werenski added a goal and an assist in a losing cause, and in the two games since returning from his injury has four points. He now has 15 goals and 44 points in 37 games. He has to be in Norris Trophy consideration once again.

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Brandon Bussi improved his record to 14-2-1 with the Carolina Hurricanes beating the New Jersey Devils 3-1. Bussi made 28 saves on 29 shots on goal. Bussi has had 12 quality starts in 17 games, but the undrafted goalie has been a great story for the Hurricanes in 2025-26, especially now that they rely on his continued success with the injury to Pyotr Kochetkov and the struggles of Frederik Andersen.

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Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at, please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.