Final disappointed me a bit. Yes, Germany gave good fight, they were leading twice, but Canada showed who is who in 3rd period where Germany wasn't real threat for them. So many empty seats in arena and no atmosphere made by fans - it didn't looked like final. Canada continue their dominance, while for Germany it's first medal in World Championship since 1953 - finally.
3rd place game was very exciting. Latvia played another very solid game, honestly I never seen such good Latvia team. Game went to overtime and it didn't took long for Latvia to score goal which brings first ever bronze for them. While for USA it's another tournament that they want to forget.
My opinion on IIHF World Championships - we dont see much of an interest and competition here, as players are busy in play-off and focus more on winning gold medals during Olympic games. Countries (those who have strong teams) use such championships to train their rookies, second (not strongest) line ups, or as a testing field in general. Players focus more on Olympic games, as its medals are more precious.
I don't agree fully because in Olympics teams also don't have their best players. In 2022 and 2018 Olympics NHL didn't released their players as they didn't made window for it in regular season. Last time when there was NHL players was 2014 Olympics in Sochi. So, actually in IIHF World Championships teams have better squads than in Olympics because at least some of their NHL players who laready ended their season is available.
Canada reached final 4th year in a row, but they have just few players from previous tournaments. Probably they are able to make 10 different squads who would be contenders to win championship.