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.

Team Canada World Junior Championships Roster Announced

Early this morning TSN leaked the news there had been some surprise cuts at the Team Canada training;

Firstly, Angelo Esposito, the man who helped lead his team to the Memorial Cup in his rookie season (playing on a line with Alexander Radulov), putting up 98 points in 57 games. He also captained the U-17 Hockey Challenge for Team Canada and won gold. But last season his stock fell steadily, and his training camp performance was underwhelming. He was cut from camp, and for the year only managed 79 points in 60 games. In his rookie year in the Q he was rated as the potential number 1 pick in the 07 draft, but by the time the actual draft day rolled around his rank had dropped to about 8th, (depending on the scouting service). He ended up being drafted 20th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He was chosen to represent Canada at the Super Series this summer, but when the time came to head off to Moscow, Esposito bailed because of a groin pull. Whether he had a groin pull or not, I will never know. Whether it was due to being out of shape or just fluke I'll never know. But I knew the impression it would make on a coach Brent Sutter - the truth didn't matter, the optics were just too bad. That same day I predicted he would never play for team Canada again. His cut comes as no surprise to me, even though I had hoped with his talent level he would be able to make a contribution.

The second cut was Flames prospect Leland Irving, which again, was no surprise to me (I'm great at claiming this after the fact of course). It's not because Irving isn't an alright goalie (god help Flames fans, we sure hope he's alright). I just felt, watching the Super Series, that he was the third best goaltender, behind Jonathan Bernier and then Steve Mason.

In a weird twist, the roster was announced about a day earlier than expected, and so I missed out on tonight's intersqaud game, which was cancelled. Dammit.

Here is the 22 man roster:

FORWARDS

• John Tavares (Oshawa Generals, OHL)
• Steve Stamkos (Sarnia Sting, OHL)
• Zach Boychuk (Lethbridge Hurricanes, WHL)
• Colton Gillies (Saskatoon Blades, WHL)
• Brandon Sutter (Red Deer Rebels, WHL)
• Kyle Turris (University of Wisconsin, NCAA)
• Brad Marchand (Val-d'Or Foreurs, QMJHL)
• Claude Giroux (Gatineau Olympiques, QMJHL)
• Matt Halischuk (Kitchener Rangers, OHL)
• Riley Holzapfel (Moose Jaw Warriors, WHL)
• Stefan Legein (Niagara IceDogs, OHL)
• Shawn Matthias (Belleville Bulls, OHL)
• Wayne Simmonds (Owen Sound Attack, OHL)

DEFENCE

• Thomas Hickey (Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL)
• PK Subban (Belleville Bulls, OHL)
• Luke Schenn (Kelowna Rockets, WHL)
• Drew Doughty (Guelph Storm, OHL)
• Karl Alzner (Calgary Hitmen, WHL)
• Josh Godfrey (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, OHL)
• Logan Pyett (Regina Pats, WHL)

GOALTENDERS

• Jonathan Bernier (Lewiston Maineiacs, QMJHL)
• Steve Mason (London Knights, OHL)
  

Let the fun begin.

The Sidney Show

Well, I have to say I was pretty pleased to get to see Sidney Crosby's debut game in Calgary. While the media put a strong emphasis on the matchup between Crosby and Phaneuf, it should have been on Crosby and Iginla - after all, both are far and away their team's best players.

Crosby didn't get any points but he did a lot of the things he has become famous for, crisp passes, quick feet, great hussle and domination along the boards, which I think is the major reason he isn't like Gretzky or Lemieux.

Malkin is very much an individual talent and is not a great puck distributor, but boy was that a snipe. No chance for poor Kipper.

The guy though I was most impressed with throughout the night was former Team Canada World Junior Championship double gold medalist and captain, Kris Letang. He's still an undersized guy, but his positioning was outstanding and his play with the puck was very very good. He got beat by Lombardi in OT while trying to compensate for Lombardi's speed, it lead to that great set-up for Aucoin. Later on of course, Letang scored the shootout winner.

Nothing new to report on the Calgary Flames end of things except to say that I thought Nystrom played a pretty good game both against Pittsburgh and against St. Louis, lots of energy and lots of smart plays.

Anyway, here's a selection of shots I took from Crosby's first time in town.

Forechecking

Crosby watches as Iginla gets his first of the night

Laraque vs. Godard - Laraque had a lot of shifts alongside Crosby

Captain vs. Captain

Defensive zone OT Faceoff

Another battle with Iginla, in OT

Crosby leaves the ice on his last shift, he is replaced by Malkin

Will Sam Gagner Suit Up for Team Canada?

No.

Although here is a great explanation from Gord Miller as to why that could be a good thing.

Trigonomics

Danny Syvret likes math. If there's no other single thing I will ever remember about Danny Syvret, its that he likes math. I know this because TSN does a feature on a lot of Canadian players at the World Juniors, and Syvret was one of them. TSN then runs these features about 100 times during the course of the tournament, so you get to know the players pretty well. Anyway, Syvret's feature starts off and the first words out of his mouth are 'I like math,' which, coming from a hockey player is relatively shocking. As I recall the basic point was that Syvret liked trigonomics and was a bit of a nerd, but despite that was the Captain of the London Knights, which at the time were about the hottest thing in Major Junior, arguably in all of hockey, since the NHL was 'on a break' that year. (Hockeygirl: Dion's feature was about how he liked woodworking).

Anyway, Danny had a real good tournament. He's the kind of defenceman you never really notice - there's nothing fancy about his game, but his positional play is very strong, and he's got good on ice sense. Of course he was on an awesome team, maybe the greatest ever seen at the World Juniors, but he managed to score Canada's gold medal winning goal, and then helped lead his Knight's team to a Memorial Cup victory. (Oh, and Pierre just mentioned he was Canadian Major Junior Defenceman of the Year.)

So it was with a little suprise from me that Syvret wasn't drafted until the 3rd round in his second year of eligibility. That's just the way it is I guess with small defenceman, but I still feel that if I was a drafting team I would have chanced it on Syvret a little earlier than 81st overall.

He didn't crack the Oiler's lineup at the beginning of the season, but did play for Canada in a silver medal effort at the Spengler Cup in December. But thanks to MA Bergeron being traded, and injuries to Tjarnqvist, Gilbert, Roy, Syvret is finally playing in the bigs.

And I have to say, I'm impressesd.

He hasn't delivered any thunderous body checks yet, but he's been playing a regular 3rd pairing shift, and he has been the better half of said pair. He's bailed out Greene several times in the past few games (which I guess is a pre-requisite for the position). Syvret has virtually never been out of position defensively, and has had several nifty plays.

One that comes to mind came against Calgary last Saturday night. With the puck dumped in to about the hash marks in the Edmonton zone, there was a race between Syvret and Lombardi for the puck. Now, obviously Syvret started out closer, but I've seen many defenceman beat by Lombardi for long end loose pucks this year, and if there's one type of player I would expect Lombardi to beat, it'd be a 3rd pairing defenceman in about his third NHL game. However, Syvret calmly identified his threat, and with his back turned, played a little interference, effectively blocking any chance Lombardi had to take the puck. I think thats a pretty good illustration of Syvret hockey.

If that's the kind of defensive effort the Oilers can look forward to in the future, then the future looks good.

"Tonight was a battle from start to finish, and we did a fucking great job!"

Jonathan Toews, I couldn't have said it any better myself. Congratulations to Team Canada for defeating Team Russia 4-2 in the Gold final of the U-20 World Jr. Hockey Championships. This is Team Canada's 3rd Gold Medal in a row!


The Tournament Awards break down as follows:
Most Valuable Player - Carey Price, G, Canada
All-star team
Goaltender: Carey Price, Canada
Defencemen: Erik Johnson, U.S., Kristopher Letang, Canada.
Forward: Alexei Cherepanov, Russia; Patrick Kane, U.S.; Jonathan Toews, Canada.
IIHF Best Player Awards
Goaltender: Carey Price, Canada
Defenceman: Erik Johnson, U.S.
Forward: Alexei Cherepanov, Russia

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Two games into this tournament and Canada is 2-0, and while there is still a long ways to go, a lot of questions have been answered.

Game one was a clinic by the Swedes on how to play on the big ice surface, using their forecheck and positioning to really difuse the Canadian attack most of the time. I thought that if the Swedes didn't actually outchance the Canadians, it was damn close. The difference was that Canada buried its chances, while the Swedes managed to find a way not to score on every occasion. This game was proof that the Canadians are not going to run over the competition ala the Dream Team in 2005, and that the Swedes are true Medal contenders.

The number one question answered by game 1 was that of goaltending. Carey Price was outstanding all game long, stifling the skilled Swedish attackers, including what Pierre Maguire has dubbed 'the killer b line,' consisting one of the most skilled players in the tournament, Niklas Backstrom. While I did say earlier that the game was close, I never felt (one the Canadians were up 2-0 especially) that it was particularily in doubt. Carey Price was simply playing too well.

Game 2 verse the Americans today was a much more exciting, North American style game, and it was also notable for several bizarre events.

The Good? Canada wins 6-3 on the strength of 2 goals in the last 2 minutes, and Jonathan Toews (pronounced 'Tayvs') emerged as one of the tournament's best. He had several impressive shifts including a dominating cycle shift in the first, a great rebound goal (also in the first) and a breakaway in the third which led to a converted penalty shot goal, killing whatever momentum the Americans were playing.

In addition, Canada faced some adversity with the Americans scoring two quick goals in the second, and coming within one in the third, but played smart hockey and never altered from the gameplan. In addition, the coaching staff has to be commended for keeping cool under the pressure from both the Americans and the poor reffereeing.

Although Skille got the player of the game award for the Americans, I thought Bill Sweat deserved it as he had a goal and rushed the puck into the Canadian zone for an assist on another goal. One of the better American players on the night.

The Bad? The officiating. From the start of the puck there were several bizarre calls and non calls. A slashing call from a poke check, a cross-checking from a push, several phantom slashes, culminating into a Claude Lemieux on Mike Vernon Stanley Cup finals type play, in which and American player blatantly ran Carey Price, which directly led to a goal for the Americans. The officials could have called the play on either the goalie interferece, OR man in the crease without the puck, but blew both calls, cutting Canada's lead in half.

The American's duo of Jack and Eric Johnson were impressive at times, but also got caught several times for goals against. On Toews' third period breakaway Jack Johnson actually threw his stick at Toews to try and stop him. Eric Johnson took a badly timed penalty (can't remember what the actual call was, but the penalty was an elbow) to give the Canadians an extended 5-3 when the Americans only trailed by one in the score.

To be fair though, the duo played fairly well all night, with Eric scoring a goal, and both at times controlling the play in the Canadian end especially.

The Ugly? The poor state of Team USA Hockey's program. The team is year after year living on the edge of mediocrity but they refuse to change their outdated development system or their strange player selection process. Bobby Ryan not on the team?

Bah Humbug!

The most reason Flames road trip went exactly how every other road trip in the past year has gone. Manhandling the basement dwellers and folding against the difficult teams. Of course the Flames still have the potential to even this trip to .500 when they get their make up game against Colorado (whenever that will be), but it really is exasperating watching this group flourish at home and flounder on the road. Like the early part of the season, this team really needs to look within itself and figure out a way to win.

The Oilers are following their southern neighbour's consistency (of sucking on the road) by consistently playing dreadfully inconsistent. If there seems to be one thing that Oilers fans can expect, its that you never have any idea what team will show up on any given night. While it hasn't been mentioned a lot in the media, the Oilers are also dreadful away from Rexall place, winning only 6 games on the road, losing 11. Sure Smyth and Moreau are out, but this team should have enough veterans and skilled players to win a few hockey games without those two. Some players that really need to step it up in my opinion are Sykora (who was next to useless without Hemsky spoon feeding him) and Joffry Lupul, who seems to refuse to get his nose dirty. Lupul especially (whether fairly or not) is expected to be a contributor on this team, and he's simply not a very complete player right now.

Over the next couple weeks the focus of this blog will be shifting to the annual U-20 World Junior Championship. After dropping their game vs the CIS 'All Star' Squad, and now their second pre tournament exhibition game, i am a little worried about team Canada. Apparently first day in Sweden head coach Craig Hartsburg had to tear a strip off the team because of their general unpreparedness, and Pierre Maguire said the veterans in that game looked 'dopey.' This is not the attitude of a winning team.

One of three things will happen in my opinion:

(1) The team gets a wake up call from that exhibition loss, gets refocused and wins the tournamet

(2) The team has lacksadaisical attitude, experiences some early in tournament trouble, re-focuses and wins the tournament

(3) The team has a lackadaisical attitude, runs over the competition early and when they hit adversity in the elimination round they fold and are done until next year.

I for one, am hoping for option (1) or (2).

First game December 26th, 12:30 pm ET / 9:30 am PT on TSN, Canada faces host team Sweden. Carey Price will be starting for Canada in net.

Team Canada U-20 Final Roster Announced

You can find the full roster here.

I would say the biggest non-member of note is Brendan Mikkelson whom I touted as being a top defender the other night. Obviously there were only two defensive spots open and his chances were slim, but I thought he had a step over both Franson and Alzner (assuming all the returnees would make it). While Pierre Maguire agreed with me, the Team Canada coaching staff clearly did not.

Team Canada U-20 Intrasquad Game Roundup

I attended the Team Canada U-20 intra-squad game tonight so I thought I'd quickly post my thoughts.

The shots may have been close after the first period, but team White dominated team Red with their forecheck and cycle. Red had absolutely no counter when team White gained the zone, and the chances for White were about 8-1.

In the second period team Red decided to show up and held zone control for long periods of time. They actually managed to tie it up 2-2 at one point. However, the 2nd half of period 2 saw White adapt and mostly keep Red to the outside, and in fact they pulled ahead later on.

The third period was more domination for Red. They scored two (including a highlight reel 3-1 goal) to put the game away, then scored a 6th to really put an exclamation point on the win.

Of particular interest to Flames fans is goaltender Leland Irving who played the 2nd half of the game. I was impressed with him, he seemed very composed and had excellent rebound control. Hard to say a lot more about him as he didn't have to make very many saves, but he only let in 1 goal, the least of any goalie in the game. I would say he's the front runner for the number 1 position. Price didn't look very impressive, and Cann really didn't make the saves when he needed to either. Bernier let in a couple but he was being bombarded so he looks like the possible backup.

Of interest to Oilers fans was Andrew Cogliano. I thought he played a real sharp game. He made an excellent defensive play in the 2nd period to check a man in front with the puck, he used his speed to create room for his teammates, including a dominating shift in the third where he simply owned the ice which resulted in a goal. He had one breakaway in which he went glove side on Price, but was denied. I thought he got better as the game went on. He ended with an assist and a tip in goal.

Therealdeals of the night had to be Sam Gagner and Steve Downie for team white, Brendan Mikkelson and James Neal for red. The 17 year old Gagner had an 'encouter' with Bourdon in the first after the whistle, and as he skated off the ice he kept his eye on Bourdon. On his next shift he challenged Bourdon a second time, proving that he wasn't going to back down from the returnee. From then on he dominated in the offensive zone and transition for the rest of the game, getting a goal and two assists, including a shorthanded highlight reel marker (seriously, its on TSN's highlights of the night) on a 3-1 from Downie.

Downie had 3 assists and was nasty all game. He took two penalties in the first and went after Bourdonwith a slash in the offensive zone in the third, resulting in Bourdon retaliating with a roughing penalty. I really respect Downie a lot and he reminds me of Messier the way he retaliates to get room for himself. He's proven that he can hold back when he needs to as well.

James Neal created a few of the few offensive zone chances for team Red all night and got one of their 3 goals. He did have some neutral zone giveaways though.

Brendan Mikkleson in my opinon was Team Red's best defenseman. He provided good outlet passes all night, made good defensive decisions and he skated well. He got Red's first goal as well, not a bad night for a new fish in a sea of returning defenseman. I would say he's got a very good chance of being the 6th or 7th defenceman based on tonight's performance.

Also of note was 17 year old Drew Doughty on defence for team White. He looked extremely composed with the puck, making several very good outlet passes and dominating on the point in the offensive zone. Cogliano's tip in was shot by Doughty, and in tonight's game he was one of the top 4 defenceman.