Team Canada vs. Team Czech Republic Postgame

Watching today's tournament opener, I felt there were a few different story lines at play.

In the first period, (as Pierre Maguire was oft to point out), it was all about Canadian goaltender Jonathan Bernier. Team Canada was outplayed for many portions of the first but every time Bernier was more than up to the task. Several first period Czech Republic powerplay chances were turned aside due to Bernier's excellent positioning and rebound control, and he was just an all around steady presence in the net all night, ending up with 44(!) saves and a big goose egg. He was named Canada's player of the game.

Secondly, it was all about Canada's underage players. Steven Stamkos was absolutely tremendous with the puck, making several very nice 1-1 plays; not to mention the fact he assisted on every Team Canada goal. John Tavares, Canada's 13th man, also made a couple key contributions with two power play goals. The first goal was a gift, set up by pointman Josh Godfrey, the second was an absolute snipe from a bad angle. After his first goal, Tavares launched himself onto the shorter european glass and held on ala a UFC celebration.

One has to mention the outstanding play of native Calgary Thomas Hickey. While the pre-tournament talk/hype has followed Doughty and Alzner around, it was Hickey who dominated the Czechs with his smart puck movement and positioning. Alzner looked fine and his efficient but unflashy playing style was effective - Doughty however looked extremely nervous throughout the game and made several bad plays, including a cross ice breakaway pass to the Czechs, and several fumbles of the puck.

Finally, you can't talk about this win without mentioning special teams play. Canada was tested early and often on the PK, (the Czechs spent 16:48 on the PP, nearly a period of 5-4 action) but held strong. Meanwhile the Canadians converted 2 on the PP thanks to some smart plays (Godfrey to Tavares) and some skill plays (Tavares). The officiating, for what's its worth, was terrific.

It has to be said that this was not a dominating performance by Team Canada. They looked uneasy throughout the first and without Bernier it was a potential loss. It is not the type of performance that one would expect to be good enough to win the big cheese. The bad news for Team Canada (in my opinion) is that they are not going to be adequately tested in the preliminary/round robin round. In my opinion the gold medal favorites, (Russia, USA,) are in the other division; the Czechs were beat in a lackluster effort, the Slovaks have one won medal in history, and the Swedes haven't been particularly competitive since about 1994. Of course, anything can (and has) happened, so I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

Canada plays Slovakia tommorow at 8am MST.

Notes: It was not a good day for the natives of Pardubice CZ, as they watched Team Czech Republic lose to the Canadians in the World Junior Tournament, then they watched their local Paradubice team fall to Team Canada in the Spengler Cup. Curtis Joseph(!) got the win for Canada.

A Look Back: World Junior Championships 2006

Besides being a world class tournament in terms of entertainment, I've always felt the World Junior Championships gives a nice peak into the future in terms of the type and usefulness of particular players. As someone who follows Junior hockey about as closely as I follow soap operas, most of the names in the tournament are new to me, besides of course the guys that have hype follow them around like a lost puppy. This year I think we can safely say that the hype is primarily following John Tavares, the phenom who was drafted into the OHL at age 14 after being granted 'exceptional player status,' allowing him to bypass the usual minimum age of 16. He was cut from last year's junior team, the first time in his life he had been cut by a team. Last March he bested Gretzky's record of goals by a 16 year old in the OHL, scoring 71 in a season. This December he was named to the team. Despite this, the scouting reports have been a little bit mixed about Tavares; most agree that his vision and playmaking is very good, but there are a few questions about his skating, ala Brad Richards or Jason Spezza. Despite this, Tavares would probably go number one in this year's NHL Entry Draft, if he were eligible.

In the 2006 edition of the World Juniors I would have to say the hype really surrounded a couple of American kids, Eric and Jack Johnson (no relation). On Team Canada though, there was a lot of hoopla around a kid named Steve Downie, but for all the wrong reasons.

Direct from Wikipedia:

Downie was suspended for 5 games early in the 2005-06 OHL season for on-ice altercations with a teammate during practice. Downie blindly cross-checked and then fought teammate Akim Aliu during practice on September 28, knocking out 3 of Aliu's teeth. ^[1] The incident stemmed from 16 year old Aliu's refusal to take part in a hazing incident, which involved rookies being forced to stand naked in a cramped bus bathroom. The team suspended Downie for five games and Aliu for one, and Downie was told to undergo professional counselling. (Wikipedia)

The part of the story that Wikipedia didn't mention was how Downie was in a car accident when he was 8. His dad, the driver, was killed driving Downie to a hockey practice. In addition, Downie lost a lot of his hearing in one ear due to an unrelated condition. He was my favorite story that year.

He was a real pest to the opposition, drawing many many penalties. In the Gold medal game against the Russians he simply dominated Evgeni Malkin, both in terms of production (scoring the opener, also the winner) and in terms of the mental game. No one would ever accuse Downie of having more talent than Malkin, but his will to win that day was unmatched by anyone on either team. It was a real beauty to watch.

The 2006 edition of team Canada also brought in a couple of revelations for the Alberta teams, Calgary and Edmonton.

The 2004/2005 teams had featured Calgary's great white hope, Dion Phaneuf, doing his best Al MacInnis/Scott Stevens impressions. In the middle of the 2004 season, before the Flames glorious run to the final, a friend asked me if Phaneuf would be better than Leopold - better, I told him. He had so many tools to work with it was hard to see how Dion wouldn't be a force. I think Dion has got a little ways to go before he's truly one of the greats, but he still shows something every night that is impressive.

The 2006 edition didn't have a heralded prospect like Phaneuf for the Flames or Oilers, but as the tournament progressed, a skilled, speedy center stood out for Team Canada. Dustin Boyd was a guy I was pretty unfamiliar with, but a guy that constantly suprised me with his skill and thinking ability. He was not the prototypical Calgary draft pick - he wasn't that big, and he wasn't that strong - (to give you an idea of who the Flames were looking for, Chris Chucko was picked first for the Flames, then Brandon Prust, then Dustin Boyd).

There were some question marks about Boyd early in this season, he didn't have much of a chance to make the team with the overload of centers in the Calgary lineup. He was eventually called up, probably to shake things up, and he has not looked out of place. He has 2G and 1A in 13 games, including a real beauty against Carolina the other night, a real goal scorers goal, composure and all. He's playing over 10 minutes a game, more than Nilson, Yelle, Primeau, Smith and Godard. Boyd has a ways to go before being a real difference maker or even a regular NHLer, but he's certainly showing small flashes of brilliance at the NHL similar to what he showed at the World Juniors.

The Oilers, for their part, haven't really had a key player for Team Canada for a while. JD Deslauriers and Devan Dubnyk were invited to tryout camps but were non factors. Robbie Schremp never really made an impact with Team USA, except for causing some controversy. There was some reason to be optimistic about a speedy college player name Andrew Cogliano. Don Cherry lamented the fact the Leafs did not snatch Andrew Cogliano, choosing Tuukka Rask instead (then trading him away for Andrew Raycroft).

Cogliano was a guy I really liked as a player. Very hard working, very speedy - but one thing that he has shown in the NHL that he never showed in the World Juniors, was his finish. Cogliano in many ways reminded me of another speedy (ex) Edmonton Oiler - Todd Marchant. He was very defensively responsible, got a lot of breakaways, and rarely scored. He had 5 points in 6 games, scoring only 1 goal. Goals or not though, there was enough to like about Cogliano to think he could at least be a solid role player in the NHL.

As Edmonton fans now know, Cogliano is the real deal. He's a solid NHLer in many ways - 6G and 10A in 34 games, good enough for 4th on the team, despite being 18th in terms of icetime, playing only about 14 minutes a game. He's ranked 14th in terms of PP time, far behind the other three players ahead of him in points. He is however ranked about 14th in terms of quality of competition on the team, so the his points may be slightly inflated due to some softer minutes. The fact he has 2 SHG is extremely impressive.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Flames and Oilers fans have much to scout at this years World Junior Championships, however, if you want a head start in watching tommorow's stars, tune in, December 26th, as Canada takes on the Czech Republic noon MST.

2007 Team Canada IIHF World Championships - Eric Staal is Alive and Kicking

Historically speaking, Canada has had a lot of trouble with the Czech Republic over the past 10-15 years. I think I heard Randorf say that Canada's record is 4-11 against the Czech Republic over that span, and I think if you only examined World Championship games, Canada would be 0-for. Therefore, it came as no particular surprise to me that Canada was down 3-2 with just over 10 minutes left to play in the third. What was a surprise is that going into the game, the Czechs still needed a point to guarantee admission into the medal rounds. If they lost this game in regulation, then they would have to await the outcome of the Germany-Belarus matchup, while a win, tie or OT loss would give them the needed point.

In fact, in many ways, Canada was lucky to still be in the game, going down 1-0, then 2-1, and finally, 3-2. Canada's first goal, scored by Jason Chimera, was on a really wacky play in which every player on the ice, except for Chimera, let up on the play due to a blown whistle. Unfortunately for the Czech team, the whistle was blown in the crowd, and before anyone knew what was happening, Chimera had it buried behind Roman Cechmanek.

Canada was really outplayed for two or so of the three periods, but I think a turning point arrived when Jason Williams was taken off the top line and replaced by Jordan Staal, creating a Cammaleri, E. Staal, J. Staal line. On their very first shift Eric Staal took a pass from Cammaleri to go in alone against Cechmanek, who he beat with an absolutely beautiful deke. Although the Czechs got the go ahead goal about three minutes later, the tone of the game changed.

All of a sudden, Canada seemed to gain momentum. The Toews-Armstrong-Williams line came alive for the first time in the tournament, the McClement-Mayers-Chimera line continued to press, the Cammaleri-Staal-Staal line looked great, and Doan-Lombardi-Nash continued to be the best. Canada got the tying goal and a lost offensive zone faceoff, when Doan stole the puck and fired it from the hash marks, fooling Cechmanek.

The last 10 minutes of the game was all Team Canada. Shift after shift the Czechs had absolutely no answer for the cycle. Canada had a PP for the last two minutes of the game, but the Czechs held it and got their needed point.

OT was a very short affair. Right off the draw, Rick Nash grabbed the puck and tapdanced over two stunned Czech defenders. Meanwhile, the Czechs elected to pull Cechmanek and place Marek Pinc in net for OT. Pinc makes the initial save on Nash's attempt, but a Czech defenceman takes a delayed penalty for the hook on Nash, and Cory Murphy, in a beautiful display of composure, scoops up the puck near the hash marks and brings it back to the blueline and then to Brewer. Brewer slaps the puck on net, and Eric Staal, coming off the bench, bangs home the rebound. The entire process took 22 seconds, unfortunately, it was 23 seconds too late to eliminate the Czechs. I couldn't help but think that this was another example of Canada doing just enough to win, but again, hard to complain about the win.

Hockey Canada Box Score

Roloson got the start, but I think it had less to do with Roloson playing well than it did with Ward playing very average. In my opinion, neither goalie has been stellar, and unfortunately it looks like both goalies are playing themselves out of a number 1 position, rather than either playing themselves into that position. Roloson might have grabbed the edge with his performance today though. Although he had 3 goals against, all 3 were PP goals, and given the pressure the Czechs' had, Roloson did a very good job by keeping Canada within one goal the whole game. There was a key point in the game, near the end of the second where it looked like Rostislav Olesz scored on a wraparound. Roloson, for his part, either kept the puck out, or kept the cameras from seeing whether the puck went in, or both. The goal was put under video review and ruled a no goal, keeping Canada within reach of the victory in the third.

One more game for Canada in the qualifying round, against Team USA, and then off to the quarterfinals.

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Before I comment again about NHL disciplinary inconsistency, remind me of the IIHF. Shea Weber gets 3 games for a clothesline type head hit. Alexander Ovechkin steps out of the penalty box and levels someone with a similar hit and gets a 1 game suspension.

Russian player in a Russian hosted tournament. Figure it out Cuje.