The World Juniors are here to mess with your patriotism

International competitions are always good for building a bit of national unity. When the Olympics come around, if you are Canadian, you cheer for Canada, if you are America, you cheer for Team USA. It's one of the rare things that are still untouched by the eroding state of international and domestic politics.

And then the World Juniors tournament comes around, and it's totally different. If you look around any team specific hockey blogs through the offseason, especially in August, the dead zone between free agency and the open of training camp, it's all about the Juniors tournament. There are no links to the American or Canadian teams like there may be during the regular international events, but rather to the box scores for games involving top prospects.

Patriotism is dead, and it's back to team loyalty. Naturally, the team specific sites are focused on their own prospects, but there isn't any mention of how Team USA is doing if there are no American prospects within that team's roster. It's interesting to see a Panthers blog covered in Team Finland pictures. 
If there is one immediate conclusion, it's that the World Juniors are pretty low stakes. There aren't many competitions in other sports like this, where prospect rights are held by teams for many years, but there are still international competitions for youth, so it makes for some unique interests. You can look at the development of future members of your team against similarly skilled and aged players, all while getting a feel for the international game, and perhaps a preview of National Team competitions.
Conveniently, the Wild have a couple of American prospects to keep an eye on, but I guess I'm also cheering for Team Sweden?