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Hockey Now Blogskip to main skip to sidebar Thursday December 24 2009Could this have been the best World Juniors team ever By Andrew Chong Editor With a little help from an NHL lockout this years Canadian Junior team might have been even better than the dominant 2005 team which is widely regarded as the best World Juniors team everIn 200405 the NHL lockout meant fans were deprived of the best hockey league in the world and many minor pro players were pushed out of jobs by NHLersAt the same time many leagues benefited from the influx of stray NHL players looking for a temporary homeAttendance records were being broken in all sorts of nonNHL arenas NHL players were winning league MVP awards and scoring titles in nonNHL leagues and television ratings were higher than ever for events like the Memorial CupThe 2005 IIHF World Junior Championship was perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the work stoppage because there was no threat of eligible World Junior players being held onto by their NHL teamsPractically all of the top eligible U20 players were available for the tournamentAnd Canada cashed in on the opportunityPatrice Bergeron Dion Phaneuf Sidney Crosby Ryan Getzlaf Corey Perry Andrew Ladd Braydon Coburn Cam Barker Shea Weber Brent Seabrook Jeff Carter and Mike Richards made up the core of a team that wouldnt have had so many weapons had the NHL been activeAfter a sevenyear gold medal drought Canada obliterated their competition with six straight wins en route to a gold medalThey toppled Alex Ovechkin Evgeni Malkin and Team Russia by a score of 61 in the gold medal championship finalThe star power on the 2010 Canadian Junior team is not nearly as illustrious but imagine if all of Canadas eligible U20s were made available for the 2010 tournament like they were in 2005John Tavares Matt Duchene Evander Kane Ryan OReilly Tyler Myers Michael Del Zotto and Jamie Benn are among the 18 and 19yearolds making significant contributions at the NHL levelOn top of that Steven Stamkos who is going in to his second NHL season is amazingly still just 19yearsold and is ageeligible for this years teamEven with 2009 top scorer Cody Hodgson sitting out with a back injury Canada could fill out this hypothetical roster with some very highend U20s from the current roster Brayden Schenn Nazem Kadri Alex Pietrangelo Ryan Ellis Colten Teubert Jordan Eberle and Taylor HallSo which team is better the lockoutbolstered 2005 group or this hypothetical 2010 teamI suppose the only place where they could actually play each other is within the digital realm of an EA Sports NHL 10 simulationMy vote is for the 2005 team because of the near impossibility of any team ever achieving a better goalsfor to goalsagainst ratio After a 73 opening game win Team Canada 2005 outscored their opponents 404 in the remaining five gameste...