|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 4, 2014 14:55:40 GMT -5
Too many guys having bad games for Canada. You can see that they're down and they don't have that little extra to get over the hump. Here's where some leadership can really show, and so far nothing. No spark. Because they're at 80%, their passes aren't on the mark, they're a step behind and they look like hell. C'mon guys.
|
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 4, 2014 15:03:55 GMT -5
The one guy that looks calm and is making good plays is Charles Hudon. Unfortunately there's no question he's hurt and isn't playing much. Once again, his injury (to me) is playing a big role in Canada's fortunes. The kid's a keeper, even though he's not big....if he can avoid injuries.
|
|
|
|
Post by CentreHice on Jan 4, 2014 15:24:17 GMT -5
Had the semi-final on in the background.
0-0 after 1.
Canada's top 2 centres both got 10-minute misconducts in the second period. Down 3-1 after 2.
Canada very ineffective on their PP opportunities.
With about 5:00 to go, Canada had only 2 shots on goal in the third period.
Oh, that big ice.
Congrats to the Finns....but I wonder what people will be saying about the officiating...the misconducts especially.
|
|
|
|
Post by blny on Jan 4, 2014 15:31:44 GMT -5
Finns are a very good team. Canada had no jump, urgency, or legs from the get go. Three straight years of losing in the semis, and I don't expect a win against Russia to be honest. That would be two straight years without a medal.
I think it's time to overhaul the selection process and the coaching staff. Hindsight is what it is, but I was concerned going into the tournament. Too many square pegs put into round holes for my liking. I think they lacked skill and speed up front, and a real puck moving threat on the blue line. The latter had a huge impact on their special teams imo.
|
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 4, 2014 16:38:54 GMT -5
Not sure I'd be that critical of the process, blny. They kept improving through the tourney and basically too many guys had a bad game. Pouliot was excellent last game and horrible today. Mantha made numerous mistakes, Petan was invisible, and I could go on, not to pick on just those guys. They looked like they were too keyed up and not relaxed enough. That is always the most difficult challenge for a coach, to get his players up to a certain point, but not beyond it. Too keyed up and your legs are jelly, your arms are spaghetti and nothing is natural. Drouin beats 4 Finns to carry the puck into the corner, than fans on the pass back to the point and away the Finns go. We made it way too easy for them. Our speed was not there, so they were always on top of us. You can't change the format, but I know deep in my heart that if we played 3 out of 5, we'd win a lot of WJC. We have the best players on earth, but in those one game eliminations, where we put so much pressure on ourselves and every other country has no expectations at all, it's easy to have a bad game...and we did. Even Fucale, who played reasonably well, could be faulted on the key second goal where he didn't smother the puck well (a problem he had all night). Sigh.
|
|
|
|
Post by blny on Jan 4, 2014 17:06:04 GMT -5
Not sure I'd be that critical of the process, blny. They kept improving through the tourney and basically too many guys had a bad game. Pouliot was excellent last game and horrible today. Mantha made numerous mistakes, Petan was invisible, and I could go on, not to pick on just those guys. They looked like they were too keyed up and not relaxed enough. That is always the most difficult challenge for a coach, to get his players up to a certain point, but not beyond it. Too keyed up and your legs are jelly, your arms are spaghetti and nothing is natural. Drouin beats 4 Finns to carry the puck into the corner, than fans on the pass back to the point and away the Finns go. We made it way too easy for them. Our speed was not there, so they were always on top of us. You can't change the format, but I know deep in my heart that if we played 3 out of 5, we'd win a lot of WJC. We have the best players on earth, but in those one game eliminations, where we put so much pressure on ourselves and every other country has no expectations at all, it's easy to have a bad game...and we did. Even Fucale, who played reasonably well, could be faulted on the key second goal where he didn't smother the puck well (a problem he had all night). Sigh. They got better, but I saw significant limitations from the offing. They're not a fast group. Too many plumbers imo. No special teams QB. Three years of diminished results under Sutter. This isn't a quick reaction to the loss today. This is merely seeing my concerns realized. |
|
|
|
Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Jan 4, 2014 17:07:09 GMT -5
I thought Finland wanted it more. They certainly took more advantage of their opportunties than Canada did.
I know the rule is in place, but I've never seen a player replaced on a penalty shot. I saw the replay and I'm not sure where the injury occured. Maybe as he went down, or something.
Arttui Lehkonen scored a nice goal. Saw how he got himself open down low, then he moved to the front of the net for the rebound.
Might have been a different result had Canada stayed out of the box, but I though Fucale was left on his own today.
Cheers.
Edit: How many juniors, who qualify for this tournament, are with their NHL clubs? It's not a loaded question, I simply don't know.
|
|
|
|
Post by Disp on Jan 4, 2014 17:16:42 GMT -5
They just weren't good enough. The lack of speed made it real tough. Losing two centers for beaking at the refs didn't help.
Ekblad reminded me of Quintal. He's physically ahead of most kids, but his hands just aren't there. I'd be scared of picking him too high.
|
|
|
|
Post by CentreHice on Jan 4, 2014 17:41:43 GMT -5
We have the best players on earth, but in those one game eliminations, where we put so much pressure on ourselves and every other country has no expectations at all, it's easy to have a bad game...and we did. I think the U.S., Finland, Russia, and Sweden always have expectations against us in these tournaments. They certainly play us tough and with confidence. So do the Czechs and Slovaks to some degree. |
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 4, 2014 19:00:47 GMT -5
Not sure I'd be that critical of the process, blny. They kept improving through the tourney and basically too many guys had a bad game. Pouliot was excellent last game and horrible today. Mantha made numerous mistakes, Petan was invisible, and I could go on, not to pick on just those guys. They looked like they were too keyed up and not relaxed enough. That is always the most difficult challenge for a coach, to get his players up to a certain point, but not beyond it. Too keyed up and your legs are jelly, your arms are spaghetti and nothing is natural. Drouin beats 4 Finns to carry the puck into the corner, than fans on the pass back to the point and away the Finns go. We made it way too easy for them. Our speed was not there, so they were always on top of us. You can't change the format, but I know deep in my heart that if we played 3 out of 5, we'd win a lot of WJC. We have the best players on earth, but in those one game eliminations, where we put so much pressure on ourselves and every other country has no expectations at all, it's easy to have a bad game...and we did. Even Fucale, who played reasonably well, could be faulted on the key second goal where he didn't smother the puck well (a problem he had all night). Sigh. They got better, but I saw significant limitations from the offing. They're not a fast group. Too many plumbers imo. No special teams QB. Three years of diminished results under Sutter. This isn't a quick reaction to the loss today. This is merely seeing my concerns realized. The weren't as fast as I'd like, either. On that big ice, speed can kill more than in North America, so more speed and more talent especially on the 3rd and 4th lines, would have been very useful. I'm still baffled at the Max Domi exclusion and there's probably a couple more guys that would have helped. What I've learned (I think) over the years of watching it, is that having the talent to beat opponents one on one really puts pressure on the other team and gets them running. Oh well, at least we should have a good crop for next year, at least Ekblad and McDavid. |
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 4, 2014 19:04:22 GMT -5
They just weren't good enough. The lack of speed made it real tough. Losing two centers for beaking at the refs didn't help. Ekblad reminded me of Quintal. He's physically ahead of most kids, but his hands just aren't there. I'd be scared of picking him too high. Wouldn't worry me at all. He's no Quintal, who might have had trouble figuring out how to put the garbage out in the morning. Geeze, I still get nightmares of he and Vladimir Malakhov playing Keystone Cops in the goal crease. Ekblad had a bad game today, but the other games he played were very good. Just thought he and the boys were too keyed up. |
|
|
|
Post by Disp on Jan 4, 2014 20:17:12 GMT -5
They just weren't good enough. The lack of speed made it real tough. Losing two centers for beaking at the refs didn't help. Ekblad reminded me of Quintal. He's physically ahead of most kids, but his hands just aren't there. I'd be scared of picking him too high. Wouldn't worry me at all. He's no Quintal, who might have had trouble figuring out how to put the garbage out in the morning. Geeze, I still get nightmares of he and Vladimir Malakhov playing Keystone Cops in the goal crease. Ekblad had a bad game today, but the other games he played were very good. Just thought he and the boys were too keyed up. At one time, a long time ago, Quintal was a highly touted first rounder. Hard to believe. |
|
|
|
Post by The Habitual Fan on Jan 4, 2014 21:59:26 GMT -5
I blame MT for stifling the offense and changing up the lines when it worked so well in the beginning.  Seriously however I was hoping Montreal would have gotten Fred Gauthier in the draft but after watching the tournament he is good on face offs but a pretty poor skater. I'm surprised he was such a high prospect and dont feel so bad about him being a Leaf. |
|
|
|
Post by blny on Jan 5, 2014 9:39:45 GMT -5
Down 2-0 to Russia with less than 3 mins to play in first. Going about as I expected. Grigorenko with a lucky bounce goal, and Gimatov with a really well place wrister through a screen. With 'nothing going right' Canada's warts show. Their play is almost entirely at the perimeter. They can't move the puck fast enough and don't have the speed to move past/through/around the Russians. They have limited creativity and aren't going to beat the Russians off the rush. Zero net presence. No QB.
|
|
|
|
Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 5, 2014 11:25:16 GMT -5
No medals for us. Much better effort today, but just no finish or ability to beat that good goalie Vasilevski. Hudon buzzed when he was on the ice, too bad he seems to get injured a lot. Fucale did okay except for that second goal, which he should have tracked better and stopped.
Weird team this year. No real identity. It wasn't that skilled or fast, they weren't a big grinding team or stifling defensive team, and their best skilled guys went really quiet in the last two games. I had them pegged as the fourth best team at the start, behind SWE, RUS and USA. Too bad they laid an egg against the Finns yesterday, but you cannot continually try to make individual plays against the trap for sixty minutes and expect good results. The Finns outplayed us top to bottom.
Next up is the gold game. DLR and Collberg against Lehkonen, so at least one of our kids will get gold.
|
|
|
|
Post by CentreHice on Jan 5, 2014 11:38:02 GMT -5
As Cherry always does when he turns out to be "correct", last night he replayed a segment from December 7th in which he criticized Hockey Canada for leaving some top players off the roster. Connor Brown, Max Domi, Darnell Nurse...the only 3 he named. Of course, there's no way of knowing for sure we'd have won GOLD with those three in the lineup....so it's the usual MO for Don...pointing out that he was "right".
He didn't blame Sutter or the players...he blamed Hockey Canada for choosing politically.
As head coach, Sutter is certainly instrumental in the player-selection process, isn't he? Cherry must be insinuating that Sutter's hands are tied by the suits in Hockey Canada. I don't buy that.
Start watching at 1:09....
Of course, he contradicted himself just before that, by starting off last night's show with another "Canadian nationalist" blurt. Just because Mark Stone scored his first NHL goal, Don mockingly berated the Senators for leaving Stone (a Canadian) off their roster in last year's playoffs, using Silfverberg (a Swede) instead, who's now gone.
He just can't stop himself. Talk about political...
I really wish someone was there to challenge his views.
|
|
|
|
Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 5, 2014 12:54:57 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by blny on Jan 5, 2014 13:42:43 GMT -5
No medals for us. Much better effort today, but just no finish or ability to beat that good goalie Vasilevski. Hudon buzzed when he was on the ice, too bad he seems to get injured a lot. Fucale did okay except for that second goal, which he should have tracked better and stopped. Weird team this year. No real identity. It wasn't that skilled or fast, they weren't a big grinding team or stifling defensive team, and their best skilled guys went really quiet in the last two games. I had them pegged as the fourth best team at the start, behind SWE, RUS and USA. Too bad they laid an egg against the Finns yesterday, but you cannot continually try to make individual plays against the trap for sixty minutes and expect good results. The Finns outplayed us top to bottom. Next up is the gold game. DLR and Collberg against Lehkonen, so at least one of our kids will get gold. Middle paragraph sums it up. When the going gets tough, a teams' true identity usually surfaces. The Russians got their two goals, and you got the feeling they were just pedaling enough to keep up and keep our guys to the outside. I didn't see all of the second or any of the third, but I didn't expect a comeback. I'll add that I think our team was built for smaller ice, and a slower game. They were a prime example of why a player's offensive output doesn't necessarily indicate their ability to create offense. They weren't fast enough to dump and chase, and they weren't creative enough to make enough plays. Petan underwhelmed me the whole tournament. I just don't understand how you fill out a roster the way they do. I realize we're taking 25 kids out of 3 leagues and a few NHL teams willing to part with kids, but I keep coming back to the defensive unit. It was utter vanilla. Ekblad and Pouliot played well, but they're a shutdown pair. Griffin Reinhart got in to the lineup part way through and helped. But still, no natural scorers and puck movers from the back end. So much so, Drouin was the power play qb. That's fine, but he's not scoring from the point. He's there to set up a bomb, which we didn't have. One dimensional. Plain and simple. Cherry mentioned the OHL guys, but Mantha's team mates in Val D'or - Gazzola and Gelinas have over 50 points from the blue line. Both more than 10 goals. Even if you bring a smaller defender over as a QB or point shot as a 7th guy, at least you have that option to go to. We didn't have it. Having someone who could go back and skate the puck out would have helped in every aspect - including the PK, which was pathetic for the tournament. I won't be too hard on Fucale for the 2nd goal. It was a very hard and accurate wrist shot through a screen and over a defender's stick. Blocker side too, which is more awkward. There wasn't much of a hole, but he found it. I'm home now and have the gold medal game on just halfway through first. Finns up 1-0. Both these teams can flat out skate. Swedes are deeper, but the Finns always play hard and honest. Swedes were my favorite going in. Size, skill, speed, puck movement. Crowd is great too. |
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 5, 2014 15:10:46 GMT -5
I can't help wondering what would have happened if that freaky bounce off the boards didn't take place, Finland doesn't score first, and don'g get pumped up in the process. It's not as if Canada had a bad team or a team that wasn't capable of winning. Yeah, I've questioned about 4 of their choices because they didn't seem to bring anything to the table. Leier, Anderson, Rychel, Bigras. None of these had anything special about them. They are pluggers, guys who might be valuable on a league team, but not so much in an all-star tournament. Yeah, Team Canada 72 had Clarke, Ellis and Henderson on their checking line, but all three could score and Clarke could score a lot, as well as being a key face-off guy. I could wish for more speed, for sure. Max Domi and Darnell Nurse are two guys who come time mind who have that speed. Is Nurse having a bad year? He's a terrific prospect for Edmonton, but he's a bit like PK in that he's risky too. Big, strong and fast, still a lot of attributes that might have helped.
IN any case, I think our lack of being able to understand International reffing and one really bad bounce haunted us. the reffing part is always going to be there unless they start using CHL refs, which is never going to happen. Perhaps that's why they picked some of the guys they did....discipline? They couldn't leave Drouin off and he's the guy who was perhaps the least disciplined (and unlucky) with that second misconduct.
|
|
|
|
Post by Disp on Jan 5, 2014 15:20:00 GMT -5
On a happier note, DeLarose looks like a player. He's been really good.
|
|
|
|
Post by blny on Jan 5, 2014 15:49:38 GMT -5
Finland wins on a pretty goal by defender Ristolainen who was a name constantly said by TSN during the broadcast - in a good way. Their goalie is likely the best of the tournament. Ice cold blood in his veins.
|
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 5, 2014 16:08:51 GMT -5
Well deserved. The beat Russia, Canada and Sweden.
|
|
|
|
Post by seventeen on Jan 10, 2014 20:05:39 GMT -5
Am watching the London Knights/Guelph Storm game and it really jumps out at you. How the hell did the selection committee choose Josh Anderson for the WJC team? He's not showing anything at all. Big guy who can skate. There are dozens of guys like him in the CHL. I know its easy to be critical in hindsight, but really, Josh Anderson? And we left Max Domi at home? Sure Domi wasn't having a great year so far, but he has more skill in his pinky than Anderson has in his whole body. Wow, was that a bad choice. I could probably lump Leier, Gauthier (if not for his faceoff ability) and maybe even Rychel in that group. That's 4 guys who added very little to the whole tournament. Anderson especially is looking like a very disappointing choice.
|
|
