When it comes to surprises, the Toronto side of the 2017 world junior hockey championship left them to the Group A games in Montreal where Denmark managed a couple of major upsets.

Down Highway 401 in Toronto, Group B ran to form with Canada and the United States rolling over everyone else to get to a showdown on Saturday afternoon for first place in the tournament's preliminary round. The U.S. defeated Russia 3-2 on Thursday afternoon in a game that was as close to a cliffhanger as anything in Group B came, while Canada took its time getting started but then trounced Latvia 10-2 in the nightcap at the Air Canada Centre.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament is that fans in both Toronto and Montreal were not keena series of major events, from the World Cup of Hockey in September to another Toronto Blue Jays playoff run to the Grey Cup to the Major League Soccer championship game with Toronto FC.

Smith said all of those other events were added to the sports calendar after Toronto and Montreal were awarded the world junior in 2013. He saw choice being the problem rather than hefty prices for a tournament that some fans consider a lesser draw than a professional championship.

But Smith admitted Hockey Canada was disappointed in the crowds for games not involving Canada. "There are some other games quite frankly that we had hoped to have a larger audience at," he said.

However, with the medal round still a few days away and Canada still favoured to