Both Denmark and Slovakia went undefeated in the three-game round-robin tournaments to punch their tickets to the upcoming Olympics. Meanwhile, CBJ forward Alexandre Texier participated in qualifying but the French were edged out by Latvia in Sunday's finale to finish just a win shy of making the big tournament.
Bjorkstrand helped Denmark qualify for the Olympics for the first time ever, as the CBJ forward finished with three goals and two assists in the three-game tournament. The two assists came in a 4-3 win to start the event Thursday vs. Slovenia, then Bjorkstrand had a hat trick in Denmark's 11-1 blowout of Korea on Friday. Finally, the Danes punched their qualification ticket Sunday with a 2-0 blanking of the home Norwegians.
Knazko, meanwhile, dressed and played on the third defensive pair in all three games in Bratislava for Slovakia -- an opening 2-1 victory over Austria, a 5-1 win vs. Poland and then finally a 2-1 triumph against Belarus to finish things off Sunday. The 19-year-old defenseman taken in the third round of the 2020 NHL draft is expected to play this upcoming season for TPS in Finland and previously had represented his home country at the World Juniors as well as the World Championship.
Texier turned in a strong tournament but France was unable to upstage the home Latvians in the end. The 21-year-old CBJ forward had two goals and an assist in France's opening 5-3 victory against Hungary, then added another helper in a 2-0 victory Friday vs. Italy. In the end, though, Latvia advanced with a 2-1 victory Sunday in Riga that pushed the home team to 3-0 in the tournament.
While the current NHL schedule unveiled in July contains a potential Olympic break, no firm deal is yet in place to send NHL players back to the Olympics, where they last played in 2014. Per a league statement made at the time of the schedule release, "Subject to reaching agreement with the NHL Players' Association and the International Ice Hockey Federation on all outstanding issues, including appropriate COVID-19 insurance for NHL Players, the League has agreed, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, to pause from Feb. 7-22, 2022 to accommodate NHL Player participation in the Olympic Games. The NHL and the NHL Players' Association will retain full authority to decide not to participate should COVID-19 conditions worsen or otherwise pose a threat to the health and safety of NHL Players, or for any other reason that may warrant such decision."
Should everything work out and NHL players do return to the Olympics, it will be interesting to see which Blue Jackets players will take part. Bjorkstrand and Knazko could certainly be on the list given their showing in the qualifiers, while Latvia's qualification could open the door for CBJ goalie Elvis Merzlikins to represent his home country as he often has in the past at the World Championships.
Vladislav Gavrikov owns a gold medal from the 2018 Olympics and has been a consistent member of the Russian national team, so it would not be a big surprise to see the defenseman return. CBJ general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, meanwhile, is the assistant GM for Finland's squad, and he could take CBJ forward Patrik Laine and goalie Joonas Korpisalo with him.
Zach Werenski would also be in the mix for Team USA, while winger Jakub Voracek is an experienced member of the Czech Republic national team and took part in the 2014 Olympics. The Swiss team also could feature new CBJ forward Gregory Hofmann as well as defenseman Dean Kukan, while forwards Gus Nyquist and Emil Bemstrom could be under consideration as Sweden builds its roster as well.
