Takin' a T/O With BT: John Tavares vs. Victor Hedman Headline World Junior Final

Tonight, Canadians and Swedes alike will join to watch one of the most highly-anticipated World Junior Hockey Championship finals in recent memory: Canada vs. Sweden (7:30 p.m. ET).

From Ottawa, Ontario, for the second consecutive final, the home of Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg will match up against the perennial producer of first round (and first overall) draft picks to see who comes out on top.

But, as always, so much more is riding on this game.

As much as National Pride means to these kids (especially if Canada were to win it's fifth-straight gold on home ice), NHL scouts will be looking to see how they perform in a big game internationally.

While there's still about 20 games (and playoffs) remaining for most of the Canadian Juniors in the CHL, this is a big-stepping stone with regards to getting your name out there.

As Bob McKenzie wrote for TSN.ca, Canadian goalie Justin Tokarski will be going up against the best goalie in the tournament, Jacob Markstrom.

While neither have to worry about being drafted this season (Both are NHL property: Tokarski to Tampa Bay, and Markstrom to Florida), they both have something to prove to their parent clubs and, with a strange NHL proximity to each other, each will be looking for the upper hand over the other in this rivalry.

As you continue down the Swedish roster, there's 24 other men who want to take home that Championship gold—and 11 of them who want to make an impact in preparation for this June's draft.

Looking at Canada, you know the story: Home town team, home town tournament, and (hopefully) home town heroes. A team full of NHL-owned players looking for one last gasp before they close out their Junior careers and then start out on their jobs—making the NHL.

It's kind of funny hearing "making the NHL" called a job but for these kids, it is.

For Canada, draft statuses have already been determined for the players—only three players don't have NHL-owned rights—and, in a country that takes hockey so seriously, the players will have the opportunity to settle in and concentrate on the job at hand.

Despite the bigger picture of winning a World Championship, there are two players that everyone will key on, no matter who wins this game.

John Tavares and Victor Hedman.

It's no secret that these two are the class of the 2009 NHL Entry draft. As their final seasons as non-NHL players begin, the argument had already begun as to who would go first.

Initially it was the smooth-skating Swedish defender Hedman who was assumed the first overall pick this summer, as his comparisons to popular Swedes such as Nik Lidstrom of the Red Wings had scouts drooling.

As the season wore on though, John Tavares began to chip away at Hedman's lead, and some scouts began placing the talented forward ahead of Hedman in the rankings.

Now, the two get to display their skills head-to-head in the most meaningful game that any top-two picks have in the past 13 seasons.

Going all the way back to 1995 when Bryan Berard of the United States was drafted first overall followed by Canadian Wade Redden. With the rosters being diluted with NHL talent thanks to a lockout, Redden was a bit buried on Canada's defense—a defense which had a little trouble keeping the puck out of the net that tournament.

With Canada's third-straight gold medal, the Americans never faced the Canadians in a meaningful game (although that's not to say the round robin isn't meaningful).

The following year, Chris Phillips went first overall (1996) as Canada's defense allowed eight goals in six games with thanks also going to Marc Denis and Jose Theodore. Canada went on to face Sweden in the final, but they had to get through Russia—home to second overall choice Andrei Zyuzin—to get there.

The next two seasons were dominated by Canadians as in 1997 Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau (Not on WJHC roster) went one and two (Third overall Oli Jokinen's Finnish squad finished fifth) winning gold for the fifth straight year.

The following season, Vincent Lecavalier, David Legwand, Brad Stuart, and Bryan Allen (all Canadians) dominated the first four picks of the NHL draft, but Canada couldn't dominate at the World Juniors, finishing eighth.

In 1999 Patrick Stefan went first overall, but the Czech Republic finished seventh and Sweden—featuring the second and third overall Daniel and Henrik Sedin—lost the bronze medal.

Once the calendar turned to 2000 however, the match-ups got a little bit better. In 2000 Rick DiPietro (first overall) took on Dany Heatley (second overall) and the Canadians. While DiPietro came out on top later that year on the draft board, it was Heatley's Canadians who came out winning Bronze, thanks to a 3-1 shootout victory.

A few years later in 2004, it was another hard-fought USA/Canada match up, and while it didn't feature the top two picks of that draft (Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin of Russia went 1/2) Canadians Cam Barker and Andrew Laad (3/4) took on Blake Wheeler and Al Montoya (5/6) in an American victory.

But this year, the projected top-two picks in the 2009 NHL Entry draft are finally facing off in a match-up that will determine this generations International supremacy, and could go a long ways in determining their draft standing.

Despite Tavares' performance (clutch goals, tournament's leading scorer) and Hedman's lackadaisical approach (one scout asking if he was "on vacation already" and his coach saying "he needs to be better") it could be a teammate that helps Tavares case for being first overall the most though.

After all, only three players have ever led the World Junior Championship in scoring and gone first overall in the draft that same year. Dale McCourt in 1977, Dale Hawerchuk (tied for the scoring lead) in 1981, Joe Murphy (another scoring tie) in 1986.

Eric Lindros nearly did it in 1991, but he was four points behind America's Doug Weight.

To put that into perspective, Sidney Crosby finished fourth in Canadian scoring in 2005 (although the Canadian roster was chock-full of NHL talent thanks to the lockout) and Steven Stamkos also finished fourth (with six points in seven games) last season.

So Cody Hogdson, it's up to you. You trail John Tavares for the lead in WJHC scoring by one point—take the lead in tonight's gold medal game and Tavares goes first overall.

Okay—so that's not how that happens; but wouldn't it be great if it was that easy?

For Hedman, Tavares, and the rest of these guys, even if the easy way was an option, I don't think any of them would be taking it. This means too much.

Bryan Thiel is a Senior Writer and an NHL Community Leader for Bleacher Report. If you want to get in contact with Bryan you can do so through his profile, and you can also check out all of his previous work in his archives.

All World Junior information acquired (with many thanks) from TSN.ca