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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 20, 2017 8:39:11 GMT -5
Victor Mete and Team Canada will be taking on the Czech Republic in a WJC warm up game tonight. You can catch it on TSN at 7:00 ET.
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Post by seventeen on Dec 20, 2017 12:19:06 GMT -5
Thanks NWT. Will do that. The Czechs are a dark horse. They've won a few tournaments in lower age groups with this collection of guys, so there's been a resurgence in Czech hockey. Should be fun!
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 20, 2017 19:25:50 GMT -5
It is official. More prospects on tv over the holiday season between the WJC and the Spengler Cup.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 20, 2017 19:44:25 GMT -5
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 22, 2017 11:01:10 GMT -5
Team Canada's last warm up game before the start of the WJC is tonight against the Swiss. TSN network. 5:00 ET watch Mete and the boys.
Fill the fridge full of holiday beverages, tune into TSN at 5:00 ET and then switch over at 7:00 to watch the Habs take on the Flames in that doomed old Saddledome that Bettman wants torched in his latest dalliance into municipal politics (shame, shame Buttman). A full night in the man cave awaits!!
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Post by seventeen on Dec 22, 2017 13:00:28 GMT -5
Imagine if these billionaires actually had to make things happen on their own without constant subsidies from the rest of us. They might have to work for a living! If there's a more entitled class, I don't know of it.
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 22, 2017 19:49:48 GMT -5
Imagine if these billionaires actually had to make things happen on their own without constant subsidies from the rest of us. They might have to work for a living! If there's a more entitled class, I don't know of it. At least some of those Billionaires paid their own freight... afaik Jerry Jones paid for Cowboys stadium out of his own pocket Bettman is a knob... The NBA was glad to be rid of him. |
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 22, 2017 19:51:35 GMT -5
Bob McKenzie complimenting Mete saying he could be this year's Thomas Chabot and said he's the fastest skater on the team.
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Post by seventeen on Dec 22, 2017 21:52:22 GMT -5
At least some of those Billionaires paid their own freight... afaik Jerry Jones paid for Cowboys stadium out of his own pocket I think there are too many examples of companies holding cities, states/provinces, countries hostage by offering to 'locate' there. Amazon is an example. Look at the auction they've got going to put a warehouse in a particular city. The carrot is jobs...which will probably be replaced by robots in a year or two, negating any benefit to the city (if there's any benefit to warehouse stocking jobs). Meanwhile, Amazon gets cheap land, low taxes, etc. Nice. I'd tell them to take a hike and locate wherever the hell they want, with no concessions. |
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 22, 2017 22:01:19 GMT -5
At least some of those Billionaires paid their own freight... afaik Jerry Jones paid for Cowboys stadium out of his own pocket I think there are too many examples of companies holding cities, states/provinces, countries hostage by offering to 'locate' there. Amazon is an example. Look at the auction they've got going to put a warehouse in a particular city. The carrot is jobs...which will probably be replaced by robots in a year or two, negating any benefit to the city (if there's any benefit to warehouse stocking jobs). Meanwhile, Amazon gets cheap land, low taxes, etc. Nice. I'd tell them to take a hike and locate wherever the hell they want, with no concessions. Yep... if they set up a manufacturing plant that would be reason to give concessions... Amazon is all about automation... they say 50k jobs but i find that highly unlikely. |
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Post by GNick99 on Dec 23, 2017 10:48:31 GMT -5
Bob McKenzie complimenting Mete saying he could be this year's Thomas Chabot and said he's the fastest skater on the team. Last 2 drafts been decent for us. FAinally straightened out our scouting? Bitten from '16 draft I see his stats recently have improved to over point a game where earlier he was under a PPG. Even faceoff percentage improving. Brook from '17 draft also looks solid. I always thought he was first round talent. Like the Fleury pick also. Poehling looking like a top-15 pick now. |
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Post by blny on Dec 23, 2017 13:27:46 GMT -5
Bob McKenzie complimenting Mete saying he could be this year's Thomas Chabot and said he's the fastest skater on the team. They used an example where he started behind his net with the puck and a checker hot on his trail. By the time he hit his own blue line he had ten feet on his check. I don't think it's translated to much offense in these first two games - I can't recall if he got any points in them. This may be the fastest team we've sent to the tournament. There are a bunch of guys that can flat out fly. Ferraro was talking during one of the two tune up games about the style of play. I can't recall the exact quote, but basically it was about how having fast forwards with skill doesn't mean much if you can't get them the puck at speed. You need defense that can skate and move the puck on their own. All I could think of was how that flies in the face of what Berg has been trying to assemble at the pro level. Mete is a good fore shadow though. All the defenders we've drafted the last couple of years are guys that can skate and pass. |
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Post by seventeen on Dec 23, 2017 13:50:10 GMT -5
I watched the first part of the Canada/Swiss game yesterday and Mete's most impressive move to me was going back into the corner to the goalie's right with a Swiss forechecker literally right on top of him. He faked skating behind the net and made as tight a turn to the left as any player I've ever seen. He left the Swiss guy two paces back with just that turn alone, and led the breakout. Really impressive.
The scouts seem to have gotten the message about good skating defensemen. Bergevin OTOH, trades Pateryn, a better skater, for Benn; signs Alzner; trades Subban for Weber, signs a 40 year old Streit in desperation and waives Davidson (19 minutes in his last game playing with Larsson to shut down the Blues #1 line) instead of Morrow. Is there something wrong with this picture?
But yes, the last couple of drafts have indeed focused on good skating, good passing Dmen. Fleury, Brook, Walford and even Tyszka are built along those lines. These guys, also, are a bit bigger than Mete, so that's a key point too. Brook and Fleury have been known to throw punishing body checks as well.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 24, 2017 3:39:35 GMT -5
The weirdest thing is our amateur scouts have been picking defenders of late that play into what the league is looking for. Our pro scouts, probably not.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 24, 2017 11:28:40 GMT -5
Habs Prospects on TV alert.
Stock your beer fridge. Stock your booze cupboards. Boxing Day is a hockey treat.
Jake Evans and Canada play in the Spengler at 2:00 ET on TSN2. Mete vs Ikonen is on cue as Canada and Finland open the WJC on the rest of the TSN channels at 4:00 ET. Poehling and the USA debut on TSN at 8:00 ET.
Hot turkey sandwiches and big screens await!
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Post by GNick99 on Dec 25, 2017 6:10:27 GMT -5
Habs Prospects on TV alert. Stock your beer fridge. Stock your booze cupboards. Boxing Day is a hockey treat. Jake Evans and Canada play in the Spengler at 2:00 ET on TSN2. Mete vs Ikonen is on cue as Canada and Finland open the WJC on the rest of the TSN channels at 4:00 ET. Poehling and the USA debut on TSN at 8:00 ET. Hot turkey sandwiches and big screens await! Pulling for Ikonen....he's got a good shot |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 26, 2017 18:39:56 GMT -5
4-2 Canada over Finland. Mete with two assists and player of the game for Canada. Good start for him.
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Post by blny on Dec 26, 2017 19:43:49 GMT -5
Mete looked very good. At this level his speed and ability to rush the puck is elite. Once he gets some confidence at the nhl level I think he will be a real asset.
Ikonen was not that visible. In fact I I thought the score and shot count flattered Finland.
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Post by franko on Dec 26, 2017 21:56:13 GMT -5
Mete looked very good. At this level his speed and ability to rush the puck is elite. Once he gets some confidence at the nhl level I think he will be a real asset. ah, but for who? if he's that good, and he has speed and rushes the puck he's no more than trade bait for this GM. definitely not his type of quality stay at home character player. with New year's coming up, I may have to resolve not to be so cynical |
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Post by drkcloud on Dec 27, 2017 0:30:16 GMT -5
Missed the American game but looking at the scoresheet i see Poehling got shutout on the 9 american goals. I thought he would be playing on ine of the offensive lines. Anyone see how he played or how he was used?
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Post by blny on Dec 27, 2017 2:31:24 GMT -5
Missed the American game but looking at the scoresheet i see Poehling got shutout on the 9 american goals. I thought he would be playing on ine of the offensive lines. Anyone see how he played or how he was used? Definitely a 3rd line center role. Logan Brown and Casey Middlestadt were slotted ahead I believe. USA has a lot of firepower. A lot. Bellows, Yamamoto, Brown and Middlestadt, etc. It's not a slight against Poehling. It's merely the depth the USA have on this team. USA head coach is his head coach at St. Cloud. Button thinks he's a Jordan Staal-esque player. He's certainly faster. It remains to be seen if he has more offense to his game. I think he does, but we'll see. Button is high on him. Thinks he's very smart, and that Montreal got a good player with a late first round pick. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 27, 2017 11:20:35 GMT -5
Ikonen definitely was not that visible. I think being the RW on the second line with Heponiemi has promise, but they looked out of synch yesterday. Ikonen took a number of draws, but I found that line likely still needs time to find some better chemistry and positioning with each other. In fairness to Ikonen, even the top line did not generate much five on five either. It will be more relevant to see how these lines do against a team that does not have such an aggressive forecheck and fast transition game like Canada.
The US Denmark game was actually really boring. I find these blowouts that are decided in the first ten minutes to be hard to judge players based on their one game performances. It is clear that Poehling’s NCAA coach, who is also the US head coach here, would like to see Ryan in the shut down third pairing role. As blny mentioned, they have Brown (11 the overall in 2016 draft, and did start the season in the NHL) and Mittlestadt (8th overall in 2017) as top two centres already, so Ryan’s versatility means the team has the luxury of playing him in a more defensive role. I found Poehling’s line did not seem to have the same chemistry or effectiveness as the other lines last night. There is a lot of talent on those top two lines, and they looked good. His line was pretty blah overall. He had a couple of decent rushes, but he was almost always on his own in the offensive zone on those rushes.
Both Ikonen and Poehling have more to offer than we saw yesterday. It is a compact schedule, so we will see lots of them this week. Both get the day off today, but Mete and Canada are back at it tonight again.
Team Canada vs Slovakia, tonight on TSN at 7:00pm ET.
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Post by drkcloud on Dec 27, 2017 13:00:48 GMT -5
According to the Spector site via TVA, the Habs tried to trade Zach Fucale last week and found no takers. Spector comments that it is looking unlikely Fucale makes the bigs. www.spectorshockey.net/2017/12/nhl-rumor-mill-december-27-2017/If true, both our 2nd rounders drafted that year, De la Rose and Fucale, seem like big whiffs |
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Post by seventeen on Dec 27, 2017 16:51:58 GMT -5
According to the Spector site via TVA, the Habs tried to trade Zach Fucale last week and found no takers. Spector comments that it is looking unlikely Fucale makes the bigs. www.spectorshockey.net/2017/12/nhl-rumor-mill-december-27-2017/If true, both our 2nd rounders drafted that year, De la Rose and Fucale, seem like big whiffs Yeah, though in fairness, there were a lot of whiffs in that draft after #15. The quality took a huge drop after that pick. |
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Post by seventeen on Dec 27, 2017 16:54:57 GMT -5
The US Denmark game was actually really boring. I find these blowouts that are decided in the first ten minutes to be hard to judge players based on their one game performances. It is clear that Poehling’s NCAA coach, who is also the US head coach here, would like to see Ryan in the shut down third pairing role. As blny mentioned, they have Brown (11 the overall in 2016 draft, and did start the season in the NHL) and Mittlestadt (8th overall in 2017) as top two centres already, so Ryan’s versatility means the team has the luxury of playing him in a more defensive role. I found Poehling’s line did not seem to have the same chemistry or effectiveness as the other lines last night. There is a lot of talent on those top two lines, and they looked good. His line was pretty blah overall. He had a couple of decent rushes, but he was almost always on his own in the offensive zone on those rushes. Agree. Sometimes, a skill set for a certain guy puts him in a role that isn't where we'd like to see him. Patrice Bergeron is the shut down centre for Canada, but we know he's so much more than that on the Bruins. I have much higher hopes for Poehling than being a Danault clone. I want to see him as our #1 centre and I think he can be. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 27, 2017 19:20:13 GMT -5
Agree. Sometimes, a skill set for a certain guy puts him in a role that isn't where we'd like to see him. Patrice Bergeron is the shut down centre for Canada, but we know he's so much more than that on the Bruins. I have much higher hopes for Poehling than being a Danault clone. I want to see him as our #1 centre and I think he can be. His coach thinks lots of him, including his improved offensive play. He is playing less safe. Keep doing that Ryan! www.nhl.com/canadiens/video/habs-prospects-poehling/t-277437414/c-56021403 |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 27, 2017 20:07:17 GMT -5
Mete with an assist on Kyrou’s PP goal. Down to five D, so Mete will play a lot.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 27, 2017 21:54:51 GMT -5
Mete led the way with 25:36 in ice time. Very composed game in both ends. He has become Canada’s top defender with his solid play in the first two games.
Canada 6-0 over Slovakia. Next stop USA outdoors on Friday.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Dec 27, 2017 22:12:58 GMT -5
Lots of prospects to watch on Thursday.
Noon ET. Finland (Ikonen). TSN.
2:00pm ET. Canada vs Davos at Spengler (Evans). TSN2.
8:00pm ET. USA (Poehling) vs Slovakia. TSN.
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Post by jkr on Dec 27, 2017 22:19:09 GMT -5
Not sure if this is the place for this. I have been watching the WJC off and on & attendance looks pretty spotty. I know there was some discussion here about ticket problems in Montreal for this tournament but, from what I've seen, Buffalo doesn't look much better.
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