FIFA is huge with ranking and now its the IIHF is its turn to show their Ranking.
Canada is your #1 team after the last World Championship where they beat their arch rival Russia. Canada has been up and down but has awesome players.
Finland had been ranked 2nd for 5 years running, they have been most consistent.
Sweden is finally replaced from the top after a 3 year stint there.
3 years prior to that Russia had the #1 spot for 3 years.
Finally Team USA has finally taken over Czech Republic after languishing in the 6th spot for 5 of the last 6 years.
Switzerland Slovenia and Latvia have all improved but are not a threat to the #1 spot.
The next chance USA will get to improve their standing is May 2016- as always this is in the middle of NHL playoffs. The NHL does not want to take anything away from the NHL playoffs. It seems only the teams that don't make the playoffs have the players. these players are usually the younger players when want and need the playing time.
The last 7 championships have been played in Europe. Canada hosted in 2008. The next 22 all have been hosted in Europe. This is a big disadvantage to keep playing away from home....but the NHL nor the owners want to take away from the revenue the NHL playoffs has.
