By Scott Lowe – MYHockeyRankings.com

This game means everything, even when it doesn’t.

Whether it’s a preliminary-round game in a major international tournament, a Thursday afternoon contest in a summer showcase or two teams playing for an Olympic gold medal doesn’t matter. It can be men, women, 18-year-old kids, military veterans or 10-year National Hockey League vets.

None of that matters either. Not when hockey players from North America suit up in the red white and blue or don the red maple leaf to represent their countries against their most bitter on-ice rivals.

When that happens, for three hours or longer, friends who may be teammates the other 11 months of the year become bitter enemies. Neighbors and co-workers don’t speak to each other all day, all week or maybe all month, depending on how the game goes. And arenas fill up with frenzied fans looking to give their team any advantage their yelling and screaming might provide.

That’s what we have here, tonight.

Tonight, we cheer for them. We live, breathe and die for them. And we will pull for them with all our might. Because it’s hockey. And it’s the United States vs. Canada. At the World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

This most definitely is not some throwaway game in Rochester.

No, it’s a revival of what used to be somewhat of a New Year’s Eve tradition as two of the world’s hockey behemoths slug it out in their final game of pool play in the 2025 International Ice Hockey World Junior Championship at Canadian Tire Centre. The puck will drop on the latest installment of this rivalry just after 8 p.m. EST, and the game can be viewed on NHL Network in the U.S. and TSN in Canada.

Even though it isn’t for a gold medal, this WJC clash between the United States and Canada on New Year’s Eve in front of a packed barn will mean everything to the fans in attendance, those watching on television and the 42 players wearing their nation’s colors.

The casual sports or hockey fan might see the game being advertised and say to themselves, “What’s the big deal? It’s the last game of pool play and both teams are going to advance to the playoff round, anyway. Surely they will meet again later in the semifinals or for the gold medal.”

Not so fast.

While that sentiment may seem accurate on the surface, real fans of the world’s fastest sport who live in North America know there’s way more to it than that. As the kids say, if you know, you know.

First and foremost, the game likely will have huge implications on how the rest of the tournament plays out. Yes, both teams are going to advance to the quarterfinals, but with Canada already having had its world turned upside down by a 3-2 shootout loss to Latvia and the U.S. falling to Finland in overtime, tonight’s loser could drop to third place in Group A.

Finland takes on Latvia at 2:30 p.m. EST, and a regulation win by the Finns would move them temporarily into first place in Group A with eight standings points. The U.S. and Canada enter tonight’s tilt with seven points apiece.

If Finland surges to eight points with a regulation victory, both Canada and the U.S. would earn the top Group A seed with any type of win since whichever team is victorious would finish the preliminary round with nine or 10 points.

The situation becomes cloudier if the Finns beat Latvia in overtime or a shootout or if Latvia wins in regulation.

Since an overtime or shootout win is worth two points, Finland would have seven points with an OT or shootout victory, which means the Americans would need at least one point via an overtime or shootout loss or any type of win to finish ahead of the Finns in the final Group A standings. The Canadians would win a tiebreaker with Finland by virtue of their 4-0 head-to-head victory against the Finns, but Finland would get the nod over the U.S. if those two teams end up deadlocked.

Meanwhile, if Latvia pulls off its second miracle upset by recording a regulation win against Finland, the Latvians would move into a temporary tie with the U.S. and Canada with seven points. In that scenario, the Canadians would need to muster at least a point vs. the Americans to finish ahead of Latvia by virtue of their shocking loss to the Latvians Dec. 27.

So, entering the final day of pool play at the 2025 WJC, the United States and Canada can finish anywhere from first to third in Group A, while Finland and Latvia can finish anywhere from second to fourth. Just the way the IIHF scripted it.

The second reason that tonight’s Canada-U.S. cage match shouldn’t be taken for granted or ignored is that these two teams aren’t guaranteed to meet again in the playoff round and did not face each other at all in 2022 or 2024. A WJC without a matchup between the two North American powerhouses just never seems the same.

In the absence of Russia, which has been suspended from most international athletic competitions because of its military invasion of Ukraine, hockey-playing nations such as Latvia and Czechia have emerged as legitimate threats to beat anyone in the world on any given day while Slovakia has proven to be a tough out many times over the years. Latvia has beaten Canada and provided a stiff challenge to the U.S. at this year’s WJC, and Czechia finished second at the 2023 WJC, third last year and fourth in 2022. The Czechs knocked the U.S. out of gold-medal contention with a semifinal victory in 2023 and upset Canada in last year’s quarterfinals.

Of course, bitter rivals Sweden and Finland have proven over time to be able to compete with anyone in the world consistently. In 15 tournaments since 2010, Canada, the U.S. and Finland have accounted for 13 WJC gold medals, six silver and six bronze. Sweden has earned one gold, four silver and three bronze medals in that span, while Canada and the United States have captured gold five times.

Finland was the only team other than Canada and the U.S. to claim gold between 2010 and 2019 and has placed first three times, including twice in a three-year span from 2014 to 2016. But after medaling in four straight tourneys from 2019-22, the Finns have not appeared on the podium at the past two WJCs.

The steady play of the Swedes and recent emergence of the Czechs makes seeding even more critical than usual this year. That, in turn, makes tonight’s USA-Canada showdown much more important than most people realize.

Over in Group B, Czechia and Sweden, who play each other at 5 p.m. EST, both are undefeated. The outcome of that game will determine Group B’s top two seeds, meaning that whoever places third in Group A will have to play one of them instead of Slovakia, Kazakhstan or Switzerland. The Czechs and Swedes have rolled up a staggering combined scoring differential of 43-13 playing those lesser teams, providing an indication of how much harder the road will be for Group A’s third and fourth seeds.

That’s all great, but there is never any need for extra incentive when these two nations square off.

For many players, tonight’s game will be the most important of their lives to this point. For some, it may be their first U.S.-Canada tilt, while for others it might be their last chance to participate in the rivalry as U20 players. While some of the players will go on to rank among sport’s biggest professional stars in the future, many others may never represent their countries or play on this type of stage ever again.

That’s a lot for kids between the ages of 17 and 20 to deal with, even if they are the best at what they do for their age group.

Add to the equation a hungry, ornery and boisterous Canadian crowd that wants nothing more than to see its boys to avenge last year’s disappointing WJC showing by knocking off the defending champs and emotions will be running high throughout the evening once the inevitable early jitters wear off. The cherry on top is the importance of this matchup in terms of the winning team carving out a path with the best odds of producing a gold medal.

All the ingredients are there for another USA vs. Canda instant classic like so many New Year’s Eve past matchups. This will be the 13^th time that the Canadians and Americans face off on the last day of the year. Over time, as the popularity of the WJC grew thanks to increased television exposure, this New Year’s Eve rivalry clash turned into an almost-annual holiday tradition that became must-see TV for North American hockey fans.

Before the College Football Playoff decided to schedule New Year’s Eve games – when the WJC only had a bad college bowl game competing for television viewers that night – the two nations met on Dec. 31 almost annually for a 10-year stretch. The teams faced off seven times between 2006 and 2016 but have not played on New Year’s Eve since.

Canada has won eight of the previous 12 Dec. 31 meetings all time, with the U.S. skating to a 3-1 victory in the most recent tilt at the 2017 WJC.  Jordan Greenway had a goal and two assists in that victory, while current Toronto Maple Leaf Joseph Woll made 25 saves.

That game preceded one of the all-time classic gold-medal contests between the two nations, a game won by the Americans in a shootout, 5-4, at Montreal’s Bell Centre. The Canadians hold a 34-15 all-time advantage over the U.S. in WJC games, but the Americans are 4-1 in gold-medal matchups. Canada won the most recent meeting, 6-2, in the 2023 semifinals, while the U.S. is 4-2 in the last six games dating to the last New Year’s Eve matchup.

The Americans are looking to capture their sixth WJC gold medal and first back-to-back U20 world championships. They enter tonight’s contest with a pair of wins and one overtime loss in Ottawa, having outscored their opponents, 18-9. Canada also has two victories to go along with a shootout loss. There were questions about the team’s defensive depth and goaltending entering the tournament, but the Canadians have allowed just three goals while scoring nine.

USA forward James Hagens and defenseman Cole Hutson lead all Group A players with six points apiece. They are tied for fifth in overall tournament scoring, one point behind the leaders. Canada has no players among the top 30 in scoring, but goalie George Carter has a perfect save percentage and 0.00 goals-against average thanks to a pair of shutout wins.

The United States returned 10 players from its 2024 championship group. Six American players were first-round NHL draft picks, eight were chosen in the second round and eight were selected in the later rounds. Of the 25 players on the roster, 22 currently play at the NCAA Division I level and three are on teams in the Ontario Hockey League. American netminder Trey Augustine, who plays for Michigan State, came back for his third WJC after posting a .929 save percentage and a 1.89 goals-against average in Sweden last year.

Canada’s fifth-place finish after falling to Czechia in the 2024 quarterfinals caused the hosts to be placed in the same group as the Americans. That disappointing showing came on the heels of back-to-back gold medals, so of course Canada’s performance was considered unacceptable by the home fans.

Five players from last year’s team returned, but most of the Canadian pre-tournament buzz focused on forward Gavin McKenna, who just turned 17 on Dec. 20. The youngest player on Canada’s roster, McKenna leads the Western Hockey League with 60 points in 30 games. He is joined by 10 first-round NHL draft picks and two players – defenseman Matthew Schaefer and forward Porter Martone – who are “A”-rated prospects, according to NHL Central Scouting.