Tip: Can the Czech Republic start the World Championship with a win?

Slovakia and the Czech Republic play each other on Friday in the first group stage of the 2023 World Cup. The venue is Arena Riga in the Latvian capital and face off is at 9:20 PM ET.

Slovakia-Czech Republic

Slovakia

For Slovakia, last year's world championship ended with an exit in the quarterfinals as Finland was a far too difficult opponent to defeat, and the Finns won 4-2. As I mentioned in the World Championship guide, I think that the Slovakian team is weaker this year compared to last year, and it's not as Craig Ramsey missing several of the nation’s star players. Last year, the Slovaks had players like Juraj Slafkovsky, Simon Nemec and Tomas Tatar available, but who are not in this year's edition of the Slovakian WC team. During the warm ups in April and May ahead of to the World Championship, Slovakia also has had a tough time as they only have won three of the eight games played, as they have lost to the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria.

Czech Republic

The reigning bronze medalists, the Czech Republic, are looking to defend their medal from last year's Championship and are once again one of the big medal contenders. During the warm ups ahead of the Championship, that has taken place during the months of April and May, the Czechs have played well and have taken seven victories in nine games and where the losses came in the Czech Hockey Games against Switzerland and Finland, who won with the odd goal and in overtime, respectively. The Czech team puts, in my opinion, a strong team on the ice where the top point scorer from last year's Championship, Roman Cervenka, is available along with strong names such as New York Ranger’s Filip Chytil, Detroit Red Wing’s Dominik Kubalik and the eminent scorer Michael Spacek, who plays in Swiss Ambri-Piotta. The Czech team has both width and quality on the forward side and besides that, the defense and the goaltending side are of European top class and contain a lot of NHL routine.

Conclusion and prediction

In my opinion, the Czech team has a good chance to start the 2023 World Championship with a victory. The Czech Republic, who took bronze last year, comes to this year's Championship with a strong roster with several players of European top class and with players who deliver in the NHL. Slovakia, for its part, comes with a weaker squad than last year and is missing several of the nation's biggest stars. During the months of April and May, the Czech Republic has also shown clearly better form than Slovakia, as they won seven of the nine matches they played, while Slovakia won three of eight. In addition, two of these Czech victories have been taken against Slovakia.

My betting tip for this game is therefore:

Czech Republic to win by two goals or more @ -110 at Unibet