Hockey's future stars will be in Edmonton for the holidays as they compete in the 2021World Junior Championship. And the hockey world will begin celebratinga day earlier than usual.

The tournament will begin on Christmas Day; it will bethe first Dec. 25 opener since 2005, Hockey Canada noted Monday night. The tournament has been starting on Dec. 26, Boxing Day.

The marquee matchup of Day 1 will bea Group B game between the United States and 2020 runner-up Ru sia. The first two contests of the day will be Switzerland vs. Slovakia and Germany vs. Finland.

The next day,host Canada will begin defense of its Ernest Jones Jerseys 2020 title when it takes the ice against Germany.The team will be wearing these jerseys:

ONE LEAF. ALL HEART.Presenting our NEW Limited Edition Heritage Jersey:

Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada)

NHL players in line to wear the Maple Leafinclude Alberta native Kirby Dach, who played in 64 regular-season games and nine postseason games as a rookie for the Blackhawks in 2019-20. Dach, a 19-year-old center, was the third overall pick in the 2019 draft, taken by Chicagofrom the WHL's Saskatoon Blades.

The top two selections in the A'Shawn Robinson Jerseys 2020 NHL Draft, Alexis Lafreniere and Quinton Byfield, could alsoskate for Canada as well. The WJC will be played before the NHL's 2020-21 season gets underway.

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The tournament was originally slated to take place in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., but the COVID-19 outbreak changed those plans. The tournament will now be played entirely atRogers Place in Edmonton, the arenathe NHL used for much of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. No spectators will be allowed inside the arena for any of the 28 games. Edmonton and Red Deer will host games in the 2022 tournament.

"A tremendous amount of planning has been underway for almost two years and announcing the schedule signifies Jared Hocker Jerseys how close we are to puck drop," Riley Wiwchar, executive director of the WJC, said in a statement.

World Juniors 2021: Schedule, dates, times

The 2020-21 WJC is scheduled to begin Dec. 25 and end Jan. 5. Games will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

The 10 Troy Reeder Jerseys teams in the tournament will be split into two groups of five teams: GroupA and Group B. Canada, Finland, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland are in Group A; Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ru sia, Sweden and the United States are in Group B. The teams will play a round-robin in their respective groups. That will be followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals, third-place game and final.

Preliminary roundDATETEAMS (GROUP)TIME (ET)Dec. 25Switzerland vs. Slovakia (Group A)2 p.m.Dec. 25Germany vs. Finland (Group A)6 p.m.Dec. 25Ru sia vs. United States (Group B)9:30 p.m.Dec. 26Sweden vs. Czech Republic (Group B)2 p.m.Dec. 26Germany vs. Canada (Group A)6 p.m.Dec. 26United States vs. Austria (Group B)9:30 p.m.Dec. 27Finland vs. Switzerland (Group A)2 p.m.Dec. 27Slovakia Jonah Williams Jerseys vs. Canada (Group A)6 p.m.Dec. 27Czech Republic vs. Ru sia (Group B)9:30 p.m.Dec. 28Austria vs. Sweden (Group B)6 p.m.Dec. 28Slovakia vs. Germany (Group A)9:30 p.m.Dec. 29USA vs. Czech Republic (Group B)2 p.m.Dec. 29Canada vs. Switzerland (Group A)6 p.m.Dec. 29Austria vs. Ru sia (Group B)9:30 p.m.Dec. 30Finland vs. Slovakia (Group A)2 p.m.Dec. 30Switzerland vs. Germany (Group A)6 p.m.Dec. 30Ru sia vs. Sweden (Group B)9:30 p.m.Dec. 31Czech Republic vs. Austria (Group B)2 p.m.Dec. 31Canada vs. Finland (Group A)6 p.m.Dec. 31Sweden vs. United States (Group B)9:30 p.m.QuarterfinalsJan. 2at Los Angeles Rams Jerseys EdmontonNoonJan. 2at Edmonton3:30 p.m.Jan. 2at Edmonton7 p.m.Jan. 2at Edmonton10:30 p.m.SemifinalsJan. 4at Edmonton6 p.m.Jan. 4at Edmonton9:30 p.m.Third-place game and finalJan. 5at Edmonton5:30 p.m.Jan. 5at Edmonton9:30 p.m.

This article has been updated to correctthe tournament year, when the Team Canada jersey was released, the status of Lafreniere and Byfield, the WJC being played before the start of theNHL season andthe sites for the 2022 tournament.