World Juniors 2027 in Alberta: Team Canada's Schedule and How to Watch Every Game

There are two kinds of Canadian holidays. There's Christmas, which belongs to everybody. And then there's the stretch from Boxing Day to January 5, which belongs to nineteen-year-olds wearing the maple leaf, and to every living room in the country that tunes in to watch them.

This year, the World Juniors are coming home. The 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship runs from December 26, 2026, to the gold medal game on January 5, 2027, in Edmonton and Red Deer. It's the 20th time Canada has hosted the tournament, and a home-ice World Juniors has a way of turning an ordinary holiday into something people remember for decades. Ask anyone who watched in 2009 in Ottawa.

We help Canadian families set up their TVs year-round, and the week between Christmas and New Year's is one of our busiest. So here's everything in one place: Canada's schedule, the groups, the arenas, what happened last year, and how to make sure every game is on your screen, whether you're at home, at the in-laws', at the cottage, or soaking up the sun in Arizona.

Team Canada's Group Stage Schedule

Canada is in Group B, playing every group game at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Here's the schedule as published by tournament organizers. The games are listed for 5 p.m. local time in Edmonton, which is 7 p.m. in Toronto and Montréal and 4 p.m. in Vancouver, but always confirm on Hockey Canada's official schedule closer to the date, because times can move.

Game times across the country

Edmonton is on Mountain Time, so a game listed for 5 p.m. there lands at a different time depending on where you are. Here's the conversion for the group games, so nobody in the family shows up for the third period:

That's a friendly schedule for most of the country: early enough for kids to watch the whole game in Ontario and Québec, and right at dinnertime out West. Atlantic Canada gets the late shift, as usual.

The New Year's Eve game: a very Canadian tradition

In almost every year of the tournament, Canada plays its final round-robin game on December 31. It's become one of the most-watched broadcasts of the Canadian year, so much so that it has its own Wikipedia page. For a lot of families, the evening goes: hockey, then dinner, then the countdown, with a lot of yelling at the TV in between. This year, the opponent is Czechia, last year's silver medallist, which should make it one of the best games of the round robin.

Both Groups, Both Arenas

The groups are based on how teams finished at last year's tournament, with Norway promoted in place of Denmark, which was relegated. Organizers kept the groups as seeded rather than swapping teams to boost attendance.

Group A plays at the Marchant Crane Centrium in Red Deer, a 7,111-seat arena that's home to the WHL's Red Deer Rebels and was formerly known as the Peavey Mart Centrium. Red Deer also co-hosted the 1995 tournament with Edmonton and Calgary. Expect a loud, small-town atmosphere that's very different from a big NHL rink.

Group B, including Canada, plays at Rogers Place, the Oilers' home since 2016, with seating for more than 18,000 for hockey. It's the fifth time Edmonton has hosted the World Juniors, most recently in 2022.

One interesting wrinkle: Canada and the United States are in different groups this year, so there's no USA–Canada game in the round robin. If they meet, it'll be in the knockout rounds, with everything on the line.

How the Tournament Works

If you only tune in for the big games, here's the format in a nutshell, so the standings make sense on Boxing Day.

• Two groups of five. Each team plays the other four in its group once. In international hockey, a regulation win is worth three points, an overtime or shootout win two, and an overtime or shootout loss one.
• Ties in the standings are broken by points, then head-to-head points, head-to-head goal difference and head-to-head goals scored, according to the tournament rules.
• Top four from each group advance. The quarterfinals are on January 2, with group winners facing fourth-place teams from the other group.
• Reseeding for the semifinals. The quarterfinal winners are reseeded, and the semifinals are played on January 4 at Rogers Place.
• Medals on January 5. The bronze and gold medal games close the tournament.
• Relegation. The two last-place teams play a relegation round, and the loser drops to Division I for the following year, as Denmark did after 2026.

In other words, the round robin is mostly about seeding. A loss in December rarely ends Canada's tournament. A loss in January always does.

Canada's Home-Ice History

Hosting the World Juniors has produced some of the country's best hockey memories. The 2009 tournament in Ottawa set a World Juniors attendance record of 453,282 fans, and Canada won gold for a record-tying fifth straight year. If you were watching that year, you probably still remember where you were for the semifinal.

Edmonton's most recent turn was unusual. The 2022 tournament began in December 2021 in Edmonton and Red Deer but was cancelled after COVID-19 outbreaks, then replayed from scratch in August 2022, entirely at Rogers Place. Canada won that one, and won again the following January, the first back-to-back gold medals by any country since Canada's own run ended in 2009. So Rogers Place has a happy history for this team, even if it was the strangest World Juniors ever played: hockey in August, in Alberta, with the air conditioning on.

Red Deer, meanwhile, last hosted in 1995, alongside Edmonton and Calgary. Three decades later, the Centrium gets its turn again.

What Happened Last Year

If you missed the 2026 tournament, here's the quick recap. Sweden won gold, beating Czechia 4–2 in the final for its third World Junior title and its first since 2012. Canada took bronze, beating Finland 6–3 on January 5, 2026.

Bronze is a perfectly respectable medal, but this is Canada, and nobody here measures the World Juniors in bronze. A medal on home ice would also be Canada's 37th all time, which would tie Russia for the most in tournament history. That's the sort of storyline that fills living rooms from Victoria to St. John's.

Where to Watch in Canada

The World Juniors have been on TSN in English and RDS in French for many years, including the New Year's Eve game. If you have those channels, you're set. If you've cut the cord, or you're about to, you've got a couple of options, and a few things worth knowing.

The broadcaster's own streaming

The official route is the broadcaster's own streaming service. It works well at home, but it's one more app and one more subscription, and like most Canadian streaming apps it's built for viewers in Canada. If you're spending the holidays in Florida or Arizona, read our snowbird guide before you count on it.

One guide for everything

The other option is a live TV service that carries the Canadian sports channels alongside everything else you watch over the holidays: the NHL, the movie channels, the kids' channels and the news. That's what we offer. You get one guide and one login on every TV in the house, at a price that doesn't need its own line in the household budget. We'll come back to the cost in a moment.

Don't forget the rest of the holiday hockey

The World Juniors aren't the only hockey over the holidays. The Spengler Cup in Davos runs from December 26 to 31, usually with a Canadian team, and its games air in the morning and early afternoon our time, perfect for leftovers in pyjamas. The NHL keeps rolling too, with Sportsnet's Saturday Night Hockey now the home of Saturday games since CBC stopped airing the NHL. Our guide to where to watch the NHL in Canada this season has the full night-by-night map, and our winter TV calendar covers every big date through to the Super Bowl.

Get Your Setup Ready Before Boxing Day

Here's the thing about Boxing Day: it's the worst possible day to discover your Wi-Fi doesn't reach the basement. The whole family is home, every device is streaming, the cousins are on the console, and the puck drops at the same time in every house on the street. A little preparation in early December makes all the difference.

1. Test during a real game, at peak time. Pick a regular-season NHL game on a weeknight in December and watch it on the TV you'll use for the World Juniors. Our trial testing plan lists exactly what to check.
2. Wire the hockey TV. An ethernet cable from the router to the main TV or streaming box is the single best thing you can do for live sports. Wi-Fi gets crowded at the holidays. Our internet and Wi-Fi guide explains why.
3. Check your speed at the TV. About 15 Mbps per HD screen and 25 Mbps per 4K screen is plenty. Test at the couch, not next to the router.
4. Count your holiday screens. The game in the living room, a movie for the kids in the basement, someone watching on a tablet in the kitchen. That's three. Our multi-connection plans go up to five screens at once, and our multi-device guide helps you choose.
5. Build a "World Juniors" favourites list. Put the English and French sports channels in one favourites group. On game night, you press one button instead of scrolling.
6. Fix the device before it's a problem. If you're buying a streaming stick on Black Friday, check the model first. Amazon's newest Fire TV sticks run a system that doesn't support the usual player apps. Our Black Friday buying guide for cord-cutters and device buyer's guide explain what to buy.
7. Bookmark the buffering fixes. If the picture stutters in the third period, it's almost always home Wi-Fi. Our nine buffering fixes solve most cases in minutes.

Hosting a World Juniors Party

A home-ice tournament is a great excuse to have people over. A few ideas from families who've done it right:

• Make the opener an event. Boxing Day, 7 p.m. Eastern. Leftover turkey sliders, a pot of chili, and everyone in a Team Canada jersey, including the dog.
• Run a second screen for the other group. Sweden, Finland and the United States in Red Deer are worth watching too, especially if a USA–Canada knockout game is on the horizon. A second TV or a tablet on the counter keeps the hockey-obsessed happy.
• Do New Year's Eve properly. Canada vs. Czechia, then dinner, then the countdown. If you're hosting a party, put the game on the big screen early and switch to the countdown special at 11:30.
• Plan the gold medal game like a holiday. January 5 is a Tuesday. Book a late afternoon off if you can. If Canada is playing for gold, the country will watch together, and you don't want to be on a bus.
• Keep it bilingual if your crowd is. Switching between the English and French broadcasts is half the fun in a lot of homes. Our guide to French channels for Québec and bilingual families shows how to keep both in your guide.

For minor hockey families

If you've got kids in minor hockey, the World Juniors are the best teaching tool you'll ever get for free. These are players only a few years older than the teenagers in your dressing room, playing on home ice in front of the whole country. A few things families tell us they love doing:

• Pick a player to follow. Let each kid choose one Canadian player and track their shifts, shots and plus-minus through the tournament.
• Watch the other group too. Sweden, Finland and the United States in Red Deer show different styles of hockey, and they're often on at times when younger kids are still awake.
• Make the Boxing Day opener a team event. Plenty of minor hockey teams gather to watch the first game together. If you're hosting, a big TV on a wired connection is the difference between a great party and a frustrating one.

Watching From Somewhere Else This Holiday

The holidays move people around. If you won't be at home for the tournament, here's how to keep the games on.

At the in-laws' or the cottage

Pack your streaming stick, its remote and its power adapter. Plug it into their TV, connect it to their Wi-Fi, and your guide comes with you. Rural internet can be slower, so stick to HD rather than 4K. Our setup tutorial walks through every device in case you need to set it up from scratch.

Down south

Most Canadian streaming apps are licensed for Canada only, so they won't play in the United States. A Digiwave login isn't tied to your address, so it works wherever you have a steady connection. And note the time zones: in Arizona, a 7 p.m. Eastern game starts at 5 p.m., the same as in Edmonton. The full guide is in Canadian TV for snowbirds.

In Alberta, near the action

If you're lucky enough to have tickets, enjoy every second. If you don't, you're still in the best place in the country for the atmosphere. Our Edmonton and Calgary pages have local notes on internet providers and setup for the games you'll watch at home.

What It Costs to Watch the Whole Tournament (and the Rest of Winter)

The World Juniors last eleven days. Your TV setup lasts all winter. Here's what that looks like with our published prices, all in Canadian dollars:

Every plan includes 48,000+ live channels including Canadian and US sports, plus 200,000+ movies and series on demand, in HD and 4K. You pay by Interac e-Transfer, and there's no contract and no auto-renewal. Compare that with a typical cable or telecom TV bill of $100 or more a month once promos end, and the holidays get a little cheaper. Our article on monthly versus annual plans runs the full math.

Before You Pay for Anything This December

Big tournaments bring out sellers promising "every game, guaranteed, lifetime access." Some of them won't answer a message by January. Before you pay any service, including ours, check these things. The full list is in our provider checklist.

• A free trial with no payment details. If they want your card first, walk away.
• It holds up at peak time. Test it during a real game, between 7 and 10 p.m.
• Canadian prices and payment. Canadian dollars, Interac e-Transfer, no auto-renewal.
• Support that answers. Send one question and time the reply. Our support team is there through the holidays.
• Honest answers on the legal side. Our article on whether IPTV is legal in Canada covers the facts plainly.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where are the 2027 World Juniors?

From December 26, 2026, to January 5, 2027, at Rogers Place in Edmonton and the Marchant Crane Centrium in Red Deer, Alberta. It's the 20th time Canada has hosted.

Who does Canada play in the group stage?

Switzerland on December 26, Latvia on December 28, Norway on December 29 and Czechia on December 31, all in Edmonton.

What channel are the World Juniors on?

TSN in English and RDS in French have been the long-time Canadian broadcasters, including the New Year's Eve game. Check the schedule for each game closer to the tournament.

How did Canada do last year?

Bronze, with a 6–3 win over Finland. Sweden won gold, beating Czechia 4–2 in the final.

Can I watch without cable?

Yes, through the broadcaster's own streaming or a live TV service that includes the Canadian sports channels. Either way, set it up and test it before Boxing Day. If you're new to all of this, our guide to watching live TV without cable compares every option.

Will the stream hold up when the whole country is watching?

That depends mostly on your home network. Wire the main TV with ethernet, make sure you have about 15 Mbps per HD screen, and test at peak time beforehand. Most holiday buffering comes from crowded Wi-Fi inside the house.

Eleven days, ten countries, two Alberta arenas and one country that will never, ever be calm about it. Get your setup ready early, put the dates in the family calendar, and save your voice for the third period.