Prospects at the WJC - Update

[NWTHabsFan]

Christmas Day saw three of the 4 Habs' prospects at the WJC in action. Jaroslav Halak was in net and gave up 7 goals in Slovakia's 7-3 loss to Canada. Andrei Kostitsyn had one assist and a team leading 6 shots on net in Belarus' 7-2 loss to the Czech Republic. Alexei Emelin was playing D and had no points, one shot on net, and two minutes for high sticking in Russia's 5-4 loss to the US.

[HabbaDasher]

NWT,

Did you see the games in their entirety?
Any more details/impressions on our prospects' performances?

[blaise]

Emelin wasn't very good in that game. Maybe a C-. He made mistakes and did nothing to applaud him for.

[NWTHabsFan]

HabbaDasher said:

NWT,

Did you see the games in their entirety?
Any more details/impressions on our prospects' performances?

I watched both of the games shown on TSN (CAN-SVK and RUS-USA). I didn't see the Belarus game but can note that Andrei Kostitsyn was Belarusian player of the game.

As for Halak, I am sure most folks have now caught that game on TSN, so not much to add from others must have seen. Last year he stole a tie with a very talented Russian squad, but he wasn't able to handle the incredible offense that Canada took to him. The Bergeron wrap around should have been stopped, as he had bad position of the near post. He was beaten far post a lot due to great Canadian set-ups, so not much chance on those goals. Decent game, considering he kept his team in until late, after getting shelled early on.

The Russia-US game was a great game, and it was my first glance at Emelin. This guy keeps it simple, and it is a good thing as the Russian D looked truly brutal as a group in this game. He doesn't chase the puck and keeps with his man, often mixing it up or tying up his man. He will have to watch that stick, as he got it up high on Pineau that led to his penalty. I saw two defensive blunders, one on a goal where he was nowhere to be seen, and the US turned it over and scored without much opposition. His D partner Panin left his man alone, but Emelin should have been somewhere closer to cover. On another break down his side, Bourque pressured him and coughed up a chance on net that Emelin likely should have prevented. He played a decent game overall other than that. Had some regular shifts on the PK, played "forward" on one PP and crashed the net where Ovechkin played the point. He had a couple of decent outlet passes, but looked a little uncomfortable at times as a left hand shot playing RD. On the point he has a decent wrister when he has time, but tends to backhand off the boards when under pressure since it is his off wing. In this game he didn't pinch and get out of position at all, and wasn't turning over the puck like most of the Russian D. He didn't really show off his skating at all, so not much to comment on that front.

[NWTHabsFan]

Boxing Day at the WJC saw two prospects in action, each on the opposite side of a shut-out. Goalie Christopher Heino-Lindberg stopped all shots he faced in Sweden's 6-0 trouncing of Germany. Andrei Kostitsyn saw his team drop its second game in two days, 5-0 at the hands of Switzerland. As you can imagine, he had no points today.

[seventeen]

Heino-Lindberg has had his moments against Canada. He kept Sweden in the game in the first 20 minutes. Had a little lapse on Crosby's goal as he didn't even try to move when he was down to the right. Yes, it didn't look like Crosby had a hope in hell of corralling the puck and then putting it in from that angle, but you gotta assume the worst. I didn't think Halak had that bad a game against Canada either...it's just an awfully strong team. How many games in a row is that, that they've scored 5 goals by the half way mark of the game. Very, very strong. Let's hope they can retain this stability and keep up their defense. Glass just has not had to face much. Heck, to go 3+ minutes two men short and I don't think Sweden even got a shot on goal. Amazing.

[NWTHabsFan]

Heino-Linberg named Swedish player of the game despite giving up 6 goals and being yanked early in the third. As 17 mentioned, Canada is a machine and will make goalies look bad.

Some notes from Russian Prospects about Emelin's play against Czech Republic on the 27th: "Average sized, but physical defenseman...skates well...missed on a couple of checking attempts on the boards...doesn't hesitate to skate through traffic...played reliably, but did not really stand out in this game."

[NWTHabsFan]

Jaroslav Halak survives his shellshocking at the hands of Canada and posts a shutout in his second game against Finland as Slovakia won 2-0 last night. Good recovery!!

[NWTHabsFan]

Two prospects went head to head tonight as Emelin's Russian team manhandled Belarus and Andrei Kostitsyn 7-2. Emelin had no points and Kosty had one assist and three shots on net in the loss. Belarus gets to play the US tomorrow (it's on TSN) to round out the round robin that will see them relegated down to Division 1 next year. Kosty gets to return to the AHL soon I would imagine after a less than inspiring WJC.

[NWTHabsFan]

AK and Belarus get the upset of the tourney...if not the decade!! He gets a goal and two assists, and player of game as Belarus beats the US 5-3. If I hadn't seen it for myself...

Meanwhile, Heino-Linberg and his Swedish team-mates see a 4-1 lead evaporate against arch rivals Finland, giving up 4 straight to lose 5-4.

Halak solid in net as Slovakia smacks Germany 5-0. Halak stops all 11 shots for the SO, his second of the tourney.

[roke]

I only caught the Belarus-USA game so I'll give a mini-update of that.

Andrea Kostitsyn had a goal and 2 assists for Belarus in their 5-3 win over the USA (Belarus had led by 5-2 at one point). The play he scored on was definitely not the best chance he had (a fairly weak shot through Montoya's 5-hole) and in my oppinion he had plenty of chances. One of his assists was a set-up for a breakaway goal and another was when he was battling for the puck along the boards behind the net (to the right of immediatly behind it). Kostistyn was creating chances all game long however I thought he had trouble hitting the net as he had a lot of missed shots in my oppinion (likely trying to hit the corners).

The most impressive play by Kostitsyn in my oppinion was during a penalty kill where he was in position covering the point/half boards while his 3 team-mates seemed to be following the puck.

[blaise]

Belarus goalie Stepan Goryachevskikh and forward Andrei Kostitsyn stood out as Team USA's defensive weaknesses were exposed. Kostitsyn showed how dangerous he could be when he isn't effectively checked.

[blny]

I don't think the lack of effective checking was what "allowed" Andrei to have such a strong game. Andrei, along with the rest of the team, came to play. Andrei was dominant in most situations. He won battles, and engaged opposition forwards and defencemen (sometimes two at a time). While the US didn't bring their A game, one guy shouldn't be able to run rough shot over them. Andrei did everytime he was on the ice. He was clearly the best player on either team last night.

I was impressed with Andrei's overall game. He played in every situation and didn't look out of place. While he obviously has a lot of work to do on his overall game at the pro level, I think it speaks well for his versatility in the future. I would agree with scouting reports from the past that, while Andrei doesn't necessarily have blinding speed, he's not slowed down by the puck. He's also very strong on his skates. Miller and MacGuire made no secret of the fact that Andrei is a physical specimen. They were impressed not only by his skill, but his physique as well.

Andrei's younger brother, Sergei, looked good too. I would say that Sergei is smaller at this point. Sergei was a creator out on the ice. He worked the boards, and generated scoring chances for his linemates regularly. I think he's someone to keep an eye on at least.

[NWTHabsFan]

BLNY said:

Andrei's younger brother, Sergei, looked good too. I would say that Sergei is smaller at this point. Sergei was a creator out on the ice. He worked the boards, and generated scoring chances for his linemates regularly. I think he's someone to keep an eye on at least.

Me too. I will be completing a post-tourney summary of some players that I think stood out, are undrafted, and the Habs should be keeping an eye on for the next draft (whenever that is). I have now caught at least one game with every team, and have seen all of the Canadian and US games (incuding the 2 Canuck exhibition games). In all those games, I have seen some of these undrafted guys against known drafted guys, so have some notes that I want to share once the tourney is over.

[NWTHabsFan]

BLNY said:

I was impressed with Andrei's overall game. He played in every situation and didn't look out of place. While he obviously has a lot of work to do on his overall game at the pro level, I think it speaks well for his versatility in the future. I would agree with scouting reports from the past that, while Andrei doesn't necessarily have blinding speed, he's not slowed down by the puck. He's also very strong on his skates. Miller and MacGuire made no secret of the fact that Andrei is a physical specimen. They were impressed not only by his skill, but his physique as well.

The other part of Andrei's game that seems to be getting much better is his on-ice vision and his hockey sense. After playing against the AHL opponents all year, this tournament must seem like the world has slowed down around him. He seems to be reading plays well, seeing team-mates very well (some of those passes were wonderful, and most set up goals or good scoring chances), and he seems to be able to take the play to the opposition. Gone are the early season solo stickhandling efforts and one-trick pony routines (shoot, shoot, and shoot again). That can only bode well for a solid second half in Hamilton once he returns.

[blny]

Sounds like a good read NWT.

[mic]

Finally some good news in a tough season. Great to see Kostitsyn playing great in big games and against a good opponent (even if that ain't last year's USA team). And it's also good to see him getting success against the best young players in the world ; some don't give the WJC much importance, but I think it's a good way to measure a player's progress. Hopefully he adapts at a fast pace in north America, as the Dogs need help.

Thanks NWT for the infos !

[NWTHabsFan]

Last night was the final day/night of the preliminary rounds, and two of our four prospects saw action.

Jaroslav Halak was in net for a 3-0 loss to Sweden that through complicated tie breaking procedures actually dropped Slovakia out of the medal round. After watching Sweden disintegrate against Finland the day before and give up 4 straight goals for the loss, the Swedish coach made a goaltending change and put Rautio in net instead of Hab prospect Chris Heino-Lindberg. Good move considering Rautio threw a shut-out. My guess would be that young Chris' tourney is done, as the Swedes will likely go with the hot hand against the US in Saturday's quarter final.

Alexei Emelin was part of the third D pairing and had his customary no points, no shots game as Russia beat the Swiss 6-1. Emelin and his team-mates now enjoy a few days rest as they prepare for their Sunday semi-final matchup against the winner of the US-Sweden game.

Edit: I should update some of the upcoming games for our prospects in the relegation round, as both Kostitsyn and Halak's teams will see two more games in this tourney.

Belarus plays Slovakia on Sunday Jan 2nd and Germany on Monday Jan 3rd.

Slovakia plays Belarus on Sunday Jan 2nd and Switzerland on Monday Jan 3rd.

[blaise]

Anyone notice how Patrice Bergeron is tearing up the WJC? I wonder which line he'd center if he were a Hab. I wouldn't mind seeing him in the bleu-blanc-rouge playing against the Bruins or Leafs. And to think he's eligible to play in an under-20 tournament!

[NWTHabsFan]

Blaise said:

Anyone notice how Patrice Bergeron is tearing up the WJC? I wonder which line he'd center if he were a Hab. I wouldn't mind seeing him in the bleu-blanc-rouge playing against the Bruins or Leafs. And to think he's eligible to play in an under-20 tournament!

Yes, but we picked Cory Urquhart instead while Bergeron was still available. I have to credit the Boston scouting team on this one, they found an absolute gem in the second round. He actually leads all 2003 draft picks with 17 NHL goals so far. That will change over time once the NHL resumes, but a pretty great start for a guy who already has a Mens World Championship title under his belt, all before his first WJC game.

[Goldthorpe]

I too saw Kostitsyn play during the USA-Belarus game and we was really good. He looked bigger than I though on the ice. Not a overly physical player but great balance and puck control: he can cross the opposition blue line with one or two defencemens on his back and keep the puck a few seconds more than other players, enough to make a play. Very persistant and effective. He created a few turnovers in the US zone by checking aggressively the puck carrier. He's not exceptionnaly speedy but he has great acceleration. Obviously good lower-body strength. Skills are good, good puckhandler, good wristler and slapshot, played part of the PP at the point and played some PK too (but maybe just because he was clearly Belarus best player).

In many ways, he reminds me of Kovalev. Has that "russian powerforward" playing style. NOTA: No, I'm not saying he'll be as good as Kovy

Definitively a nice pickup.

[seventeen]

Goldthorpe said:

In many ways, he reminds me of Kovalev. Has that "russian powerforward" playing style. NOTA: No, I'm not saying he'll be as good as Kovy

Ok, let me say it. He could very well be as good, or better, than Kovy. After all, despite Kovalev's obvious skills, he really doesn't have stats that measure up to his skills. There's nothing wrong with a guy who puts up points without being as 'flashy' as Kovalev. Kovalev certainly scores some of the prettiest goals, though.

One thing that keeps standing out, is the overall quality of the 2003 draft. Most of these guys are progressing pretty well as expected, and are standouts compared to those from 02 and 04.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

Goldthorpe said:

I too saw Kostitsyn play during the USA-Belarus game and we was really good. He looked bigger than I though on the ice. Not a overly physical player but great balance and puck control: he can cross the opposition blue line with one or two defencemens on his back and keep the puck a few seconds more than other players, enough to make a play. Very persistant and effective. He created a few turnovers in the US zone by checking aggressively the puck carrier. He's not exceptionnaly speedy but he has great acceleration. Obviously good lower-body strength. Skills are good, good puckhandler, good wristler and slapshot, played part of the PP at the point and played some PK too (but maybe just because he was clearly Belarus best player).

In many ways, he reminds me of Kovalev. Has that "russian powerforward" playing style. NOTA: No, I'm not saying he'll be as good as Kovy

Definitively a nice pickup.

Watched the game too and I saw a few things worthy of mentioning.

Kostitsyn is a wide body and reminds me a little of Don Awrey, Tim Horton. Although they are defensemen, they all take up a lot of space on the ice and force opponents to a perimeter game as they own the ice they are on.
Kosty likes to use the slapshot, hard and often. He is more of a determined driving singleminded scoring forward than a creative playmaker. A poor mans Rocket Richard?
He is a good player and the best on the Belarus team, but I was more impressed with a couple of the US forwards in a losing effort.

[MadRookie]

Goldthorpe said:

I too saw Kostitsyn play during the USA-Belarus game and we was really good. He looked bigger than I though on the ice. Not a overly physical player but great balance and puck control: he can cross the opposition blue line with one or two defencemens on his back and keep the puck a few seconds more than other players, enough to make a play. Very persistant and effective. He created a few turnovers in the US zone by checking aggressively the puck carrier. He's not exceptionnaly speedy but he has great acceleration. Obviously good lower-body strength. Skills are good, good puckhandler, good wristler and slapshot, played part of the PP at the point and played some PK too (but maybe just because he was clearly Belarus best player).

In many ways, he reminds me of Kovalev. Has that "russian powerforward" playing style. NOTA: No, I'm not saying he'll be as good as Kovy

Definitively a nice pickup.

Definitely a nice pickup, but I wonder if Zach Parisé or Jeff Carter would have been better ones (not to mention Bergeron over Urquart).

[Bob]

NWTHabsFan said:

Yes, but we picked Cory Urquhart instead while Bergeron was still available. I have to credit the Boston scouting team on this one, they found an absolute gem in the second round. He actually leads all 2003 draft picks with 17 NHL goals so far. That will change over time once the NHL resumes, but a pretty great start for a guy who already has a Mens World Championship title under his belt, all before his first WJC game.

Boston actually passed over Bergeron once and chose Mark Stuart of Colorado College in the first round. Fourteen players were chosen in the second round before Bergeron was picked.

If the Bruins knew Bergeron was that good there is no way they would have waited until the second round.

The truth is that hidden gems come out of every draft and Urquhart could still turn out to be a good choice.

Boston's top forward and top defenseman to come out of that draft could be Bergeron and Stuart while ours could be Kostsitsyn and O'Byrne. It might be a good comparison for the future.

Our other draft choices in the first three rounds were Urquhart and Lapierre while Boston's other pick was Masi Marjamaki who has 25 points for Moose Jaw in the WHL this year.

I like Bergeron. He is fun to watch because of his offensive skills and his all around game. It is even better when he is playing for Canada. But the Canadien's staff did a good job at the draft table, too.

[NWTHabsFan]

Bob said:

The truth is that hidden gems come out of every draft and Urquhart could still turn out to be a good choice.


But the Canadien's staff did a good job at the draft table, too.

I agree, and it is far too early to start handing out the "If Only" awards for the 2003 draft. Urquhart has scored in his last two games with Long Beach, so if he can also develop a more physical element to his game, a big skilled centreman is always a good thing to have. I reserve judgement for a few years yet.

[NWTHabsFan]

Jaroslav Halak makes 25 saves on 26 shots as Slovakia beat AK's Belarus 2-1 in a close one today in the relegation round. Kostitsyn gets no points but does end up with 7 shots on net in the loss...Halak gets the best of him today!!

We will get to see Alexei Emelin in Tuesday night's final as Russia plays Canada for the gold.

Chris Heino-Lindberg won't play tomorrow as he hurt his shoulder and is out for a wee while. Here is a report from Carl from Pori over at HF:

Heino-lindberg can´t play against finland tomorrow he is injured.
His shoulder went broke just in the situation just before the fifth us goal.
He said that he couldn´t move his arm to catch the rebound.
He is out for at least a couple of weeks.This was not my tournament,he said.
He said that he will never forget about this championship,he said that though he played well he could not stop the other teams from scoring on him.
he let 12 goals in three games and that never happened before.He was disappointed in himself, in his defence and that he never got the chance to play US
and that the swedish coach appologized that he did not start him verses US.
He is very determined to play in canada next year, if montreal want him to,
and to get qualified goalietraining from canada.But now he looks forward to go into the play-offs with hammarby to reach the swedish ES(First tier).He is also happy to see Theodore who will be playing in djurgården.(Actually hammarbys lockingroom is next door to djurgårdens) And that he will studie him for his own developing.
He also says happy new year to all hab fans and looking forward to the montreal summer training-camp.

[seventeen]

The back-up (Rautio ?) did not inspire confidence in me at all. Too bad Heino-Lindberg couldn't play against the US. I thought he played well, despite the GA. Schwarz had to stand on his head and get a lot of blocks from his teammates to keep Canada to 3 goals.

[NWTHabsFan]

seventeen said:

The back-up (Rautio ?) did not inspire confidence in me at all. Too bad Heino-Lindberg couldn't play against the US. I thought he played well, despite the GA.

Heino-Lindberg is exceptionally quick, as you would expect from a smaller goalie. His reflexes are fast and he has good lateral movement. Sometimes he tends to flop and gets caught out of position on rebounds, etc., but get him over here with a regular goalie coach (something that is a bit of a rarity in Sweden) and we could see some nice improvements in his game.

The overall goaltending in the tournament has been a disappointment for me. Canada has made all goalies look bad, Swartz being the exception...he was great yesterday. The US "goaltending strength" turned out to be a goat-tending weakness as neither Montoya or Schneider did anything to impress. Pierre McGuire sure loves ragging on Montoya's poor play and lack of work ethic...but it shows.

This was supposed to be a coming out party for Tuuka Rask from Finland who is the top ranked Euro goalie going into the next draft, but a young, average team in front of him did nothing for his consistency. IMO the best goalie in the whole tourney was Rejean Beauchemin, who played in only one game for Canada but was solid throughout the game. Jeff Glass would be next, but he has his moments every now and then. When you have that level of talent in front of you, there is definite room for error.

Halak put up some great numbers when he wasn't facing Canada, with 2 shut outs and a one goal game against Belarus. He tends to play deep in his net and could use some quicker post to post lateral movement, but he has some potential as well. He ended up third in save percentage (behind Schwartz and Glass) and second in goals against (behind Glass). Pretty good considering he gave up 7 against Canada.

[seventeen]

Personally, while I have a soft spot for Jeff Glass, he really has not made me feel comfortable the entire tournament. I made the same point last year about Fleury and asked the question, "Would you put (was it Josh?) Harding in goal instead of Fleury?" A coach can't really do that without hurting the pulled goalie's confidence big time. But Fleury just didn't do the job in the final and I'm not convinced Glass can do it either. Beauchemin, on the other hand, looked very comfortable in his one game. Much more so than Glass against equally weak competition. If I'm Sutter, I pay very close attention to Glass in the final and if I see any sign of nervousness or uncertainty, I'd pull him. (I'm such a cold hearted. mean SOB...I must be taking HA lessons).