WJC 2021

[GNick99]

Scheduled to be played in Edmonton from Dec 25th to Jan. 5th. Should be a good tourney as one of few times we get to see many of the top eligible players.

Montreal, I think have 5 prospects who should make the cut. Caufield, Struble and Tuch has a chance for USA. Guhle for Canada. Mysak for Czech. Farrell may have a slim chance for USA. But can't see him cracking top 6.

[GNick99]

Nov 22, 2020 23:49:34 GMT -5 GNick99 said:

Scheduled to be played in Edmonton from Dec 25th to Jan. 5th. Should be a good tourney as one of few times we get to see many of the top eligible players.

Montreal, I think have 5 prospects who should make the cut. Caufield, Struble and Tuch has a chance for USA. Guhle for Canada. Mysak for Czech. Farrell may have a slim chance for USA. But can't see him cracking top 6.

If covid gets worse in Alberta will we have a WJC?

[drkcloud]

teamusa.usahockey.com/2021wjcroster

Caufield gets invite to final USA camp.
Struble Tuch and Farrell were not invited. I'm a little disappointed to see Struble not get an invite as he is a 2019 draft, particularly not making it among the final cuts. Always next year for Tuch and Farrell

[NWTHabsFan]

[NWTHabsFan]

[NWTHabsFan]

[NWTHabsFan]

The German team had 8 players test positive, so of course the whole team is in lockdown. It will be interesting to see if they can field a team by next Saturday when they are scheduled to open again Canada.

The pre-tourney games start tomorrow (Sunday, December 20) and both Caufield and Mysak will be action. Both games will be on, but buried a bit on TSN3 for those who have that channel. The USA are on at 6:00 pm ET and Czech at 9:30 pm ET.

[NWTHabsFan]

Due to the 8 positive cases on the German team and two Swedish staff members, the IIHF have cancelled the pre-tournament games scheduled on Sunday and Monday. The games scheduled from Tuesday onwards remain in play.

No Caufield and Mysak on TV on Sunday now. Will have to wait to see our three guys starting on Tuesday if there are no other changes.

[BadCompany]

There's that "mean" word again... 

[seventeen]

Dec 20, 2020 10:49:49 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

There's that "mean" word again... 

Big Bad Habs?

CHC Avenue Bullies?

I like a team that doesn't back down, but it seems we're going further down that road than I like. The SC winning teams weren't bullies, but no one was pushing them around. We've seen Bergie go overboard on whatever his latest 'fad' is and it's never worked out well.

[NWTHabsFan]

The pre-tourney games start tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd). We have one prospect in action tomorrow:

USA (Caufield) vs Finland 9:30pm ET TSN1

[NWTHabsFan]

Holy crap. Two in 35 seconds.

[NWTHabsFan]

[BadCompany]

Dec 22, 2020 22:33:54 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Holy crap. Two in 35 seconds.

And he almost scored two more on his very next shift.

Wow!

[NWTHabsFan]

[NWTHabsFan]

Filthy backhand.

[BadCompany]

Caufield named American player of the game. Here he is late in the third going for a skate:

[PTH]

Dec 23, 2020 0:00:42 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

Caufield named American player of the game. Here he is late in the third going for a skate:

Best way not to cause a turnover: skate all over with the puck.

[NWTHabsFan]

Caufield seemed to be in constant motion last night. His skating (and his intensity) seem to have improved nicely since last year.

Our other two guys get their pre-tourney game in today.

Guhle and Canada are up against Russia at 6:00pm ET.

Captain Mysak and Czech Republic battle Slovakia at 9:30pm ET.

Both games are on TSN3/5, for those who have the full TSN lineup.

[BadCompany]

I watched most of Caufield's two games earlier this year against Notre Dame, I saw a couple Wisconsin games last year, and I watched him at the World Juniors last Christmas. To say he was underwhelming in every game I have seen him play would be an understatement.

This was by far the best game I've ever seen him play, albeit in my limited viewings of him. Which isn't to say that he was McDavid-dominant - indeed, I'm not even sure he was the best player on his team, as Trevor Zegras was really good - but Caufield played a very strong game. Perhaps even more importantly, he played a varied game. He's been quoted as saying that he plays better when he doesn't have the puck, and while that may true, when he did have the puck he was very good with it. And not in a "just shoot from anywhere" kind of way. In fact, he missed a pretty good chance at a hat trick because he went for a back door pass instead. He still circles the play a lot, but he uses his hockey sense to cut off clearing attempts up the boards, and his skating seemed to be VASTLY improved. He's still no Paul Byron, but he almost had three break-aways because he flew the zone so quickly. Not sure an NHL coach is going to like that, but it does speak to his anticipation and first step quickness. As soon as there was a turnover he was gone, looking for the homerun. Hard to tell from the TV of course, but I didn't see any instances where he was gone before his team had full control, so that too was good. As the clip above showed, he's also not afraid to hold onto the puck until he sees an opening he likes. I actually really like that play, because it showed his mobility, his patience, smarts, and shot on in one brief skate-around. He didn't immediately shovel the puck towards the net in a low-percentage play (goalie would have just frozen it), nor did he make a blind pass to a covered teammate. Instead, he held onto the puck circled the zone, and still kept his stick and body facing the net (while skating backwards). He kept his head up the whole time looking for a shooting or passing lane, and still managed to stickhandle around a couple of poke-checks while doing so. Finally, he saw a small opening to the right of the goalie's ear, and he took the shot. Didn't go in, but it was best play to make in that situation, a situation he himself created.

The US had him playing the bumper position on the power-play, which I think is a total waste, but there was one play that impressed me anyways. He got the puck in that bumper position, and of course the PK box immediately closed on him. Even though his stick was tied up by much larger players he still managed to fight through the check and snap off a shot that went wide. He shouldn't be in that position - he needs the space to shoot - but he still displayed some pretty remarkable stick strength to get that shot off.

Defensively he's still not great in my opinion, but the effort was certainly there. He backchecked hard, and while I wouldn't say he prevented any goals against, he was trying. I don't think it will ever be his strong suit, but you don't want him to be a complete liability either. He still has work to do on that end, but it was definitely an improvement over every other time I've seen him.

One game, yada, yada, yada. But even though it was a warmup game the intensity and speed was there, and it's not like Finland is a pushover. They're a quality team with high hopes for this tournament. So it was a good test for Caufield and the US. A test that I think he more than passed.

More please.

[Cranky]

Dec 23, 2020 0:00:42 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

Caufield named American player of the game. Here he is late in the third going for a skate:

If number 8 had some smarts and stayed high while Caufield went for a skate, which is where he SHOULD BE, there was a legitimate scoring chance to be had. Actually, #8 pooched his position pretty badly. He should of never crossed over to the right because if Caufield lost the puck....it would be a breakaway.

#8.....Jake Sanderson. Drafted 5th overall and the "best" defenseman of 2020 class.

As for Caufield, banner night. He looked like the real deal in this game.

[BadCompany]

Watched Team Canada and Kaiden Guhle last night. First impressions... meh.

(insert usual caveat about one game, 18 year old, etcetera, etcetera)

THE GOOD: He skates very well. Forwards and backwards he has very good speed, and his lateral mobility isn't bad either. And unlike a lot of "Big Men Who Can Skate" he doesn't need a lot of track to get going. This isn't a lumbering freight train that needs 50 feet to get up to top speed. I wouldn't say he has a great first step, but it's more than good enough.

THE BAD: It looks like he has the dreaded Big Man Stride. In other words, even though he's moving pretty quickly he looks more like Jarred Tinordi than Vladimir Malakhov. That ain't going to help him pass a lot of eye tests.

THE GOOD: Unlike what I had been led to believe, he does in fact know where the offensive zone is. I was expecting Hal Gill Redux, but instead he pushed the pace a lot, jumped into the rush fairly frequently, and I even saw him try to sneak down the far wing when his partner had the puck inside the defensive zone - Guhle was looking for the homerun outlet pass. I don't know if that was by coach's design, or simply what Guhle decided to do, but he was definitely thinking offensive.

THE BAD: Unlike what I had been led to believe, he wasn't very good defensively. He was frequently beat to the outside, his puck retrieval in the corner seemed mediocre at best, and his own outlet passes were terrible. He would fit in well with the Rick Green Hey, Ho, Off-The-Glass-You-Go approach to hockey, but that's not the style anymore.

THE GOOD: Head coach André Tourigny clearly believes in him, as he had him out there in the last minute of play, defending a one-goal lead. Hopefully that means Guhle will be given time to work out what I hope was simply rust from a 10 month layoff.

We shall see. I hope he gets stronger as the tournament goes on, but given how stacked Team Canada's blue line is I don't see Tourigny having a lot of patience if we get into the medal round and Guhle is still struggling. There are a lot of way better players ahead of him on the depth chart, so shortening the bench will be an easy decision if it comes to that.

[frozone]

Dec 24, 2020 14:11:01 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

Watched Team Canada and Kaiden Guhle last night. First impressions... meh.

(insert usual caveat about one game, 18 year old, etcetera, etcetera)

THE GOOD: He skates very well. Forwards and backwards he has very good speed, and hit lateral mobility isn't bad either. And unlike a lot of "Big Men Who Can Skate" he doesn't need a lot of track to get going. This isn't a lumbering freight train that needs 50 feet to get up to top speed. I wouldn't say he has a great first step, but it's more than good enough.

THE BAD: It looks like he has the dreaded Big Man Stride. In other words, even though he's moving pretty quickly he looks more like Jarred Tinordi than Vladimir Malakhov. That ain't going to help him pass a lot of eye tests.

THE GOOD: Unlike what I had been led to believe, he does in fact know where the offensive zone is. I was expecting Hall Gill Redux, but instead he pushed the pace a lot, jumped into the rush fairly frequently, and I even saw him try to sneak down the far wing when his partner had the puck inside the defensive zone - Guhle was looking for the homerun outlet pass. I don't know if that was by coach's design, or simply Guhle decided to do, but he was definitely thinking offensive.

THE BAD: Unlike what I had been led to believe, he wasn't very good defensively. He was frequently beat to the outside, his puck retrieval in the corner seemed mediocre at best, and his own outlet passes were terrible. He would fit in well with the Rick Green Hey, Ho, Off-The-Glass-You-Go approach to hockey, but that's not the style anymore.

THE GOOD: Head coach André Tourigny clearly believes in him, as he had him out there in the last minute of play, defending a one-goal lead. Hopefully that means Guhle will be given time to work out what I hope was simply rust from a 10 month layoff.

We shall see. I hope he gets stronger as the tournament goes on, but given how stacked Team Canada's blue line is I don't see Tourigny having a lot of patience if we get into the medal round and Guhle is still struggling. There are a lot of way better players ahead of him on the depth chart, so shortening the bench will be an easy decision if it comes to that.

Similar takeaways on my end yesterday. I particularly liked one sequence in the offensive end where a teammate was circling back towards the blueline and Guhle didn't hesitate to straddle the blue line in shooting position, ready to be tee'd up for the one-timer the entire time. Good mobility and good reading of the play. No idea why the teammate didn't make that pass. Those are high percentage opportunities that you want to take. In the NHL, he would have gotten that pass.

Guhle also went into the boards hard on one shift after he got tangled up with an opponent. It was early in the third frame iirc, but the play went on. Commentators didn't make mention I guess because it was almost out of frame, but Guhle definitely got up slowly. Stayed on, and even delivered a hit 20 seconds later, so I'm assuming he just got bruised up.

I'm pretty sure he'll be able to polish off the rust on the defensive side. I don't know when his last game was for most of these guys, but I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the D-men on the defensive side of the puck.

As for Dach, that injury did not look good. The way he headed off the ice was a little reminiscent of the Gallagher hand injury injuries.

[Cranky]

I didn't see the game but given who they are, I don't expect polished NHL positioning.

One of my pet concerns for all defenseman is handling outside speed. Kokisarek had monster strength, but it was it was useless when he was routinely beaten on the outside like a rented mule.

As much as the ability to read the player, the defenseman needs the physical strength in his legs and balance to make those quick directional changes. An NHL player coming down the wing goes about 35 feet per second. There is only 10 feet of "read" to react. Less then 1/3 of a second.

Is Ghule that quick? If he isn't now, he better be tomorrow or he's Komisarek V2.

[seventeen]

Dec 24, 2020 15:38:52 GMT -5 frozone said:

Dec 24, 2020 14:11:01 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

Watched Team Canada and Kaiden Guhle last night. First impressions... meh.

(insert usual caveat about one game, 18 year old, etcetera, etcetera)

THE GOOD: He skates very well. Forwards and backwards he has very good speed, and hit lateral mobility isn't bad either. And unlike a lot of "Big Men Who Can Skate" he doesn't need a lot of track to get going. This isn't a lumbering freight train that needs 50 feet to get up to top speed. I wouldn't say he has a great first step, but it's more than good enough.

THE BAD: It looks like he has the dreaded Big Man Stride. In other words, even though he's moving pretty quickly he looks more like Jarred Tinordi than Vladimir Malakhov. That ain't going to help him pass a lot of eye tests.

THE GOOD: Unlike what I had been led to believe, he does in fact know where the offensive zone is. I was expecting Hall Gill Redux, but instead he pushed the pace a lot, jumped into the rush fairly frequently, and I even saw him try to sneak down the far wing when his partner had the puck inside the defensive zone - Guhle was looking for the homerun outlet pass. I don't know if that was by coach's design, or simply Guhle decided to do, but he was definitely thinking offensive.

THE BAD: Unlike what I had been led to believe, he wasn't very good defensively. He was frequently beat to the outside, his puck retrieval in the corner seemed mediocre at best, and his own outlet passes were terrible. He would fit in well with the Rick Green Hey, Ho, Off-The-Glass-You-Go approach to hockey, but that's not the style anymore.

THE GOOD: Head coach André Tourigny clearly believes in him, as he had him out there in the last minute of play, defending a one-goal lead. Hopefully that means Guhle will be given time to work out what I hope was simply rust from a 10 month layoff.

We shall see. I hope he gets stronger as the tournament goes on, but given how stacked Team Canada's blue line is I don't see Tourigny having a lot of patience if we get into the medal round and Guhle is still struggling. There are a lot of way better players ahead of him on the depth chart, so shortening the bench will be an easy decision if it comes to that.

Similar takeaways on my end yesterday. I particularly liked one sequence in the offensive end where a teammate was circling back towards the blueline and Guhle didn't hesitate to straddle the blue line in shooting position, ready to be tee'd up for the one-timer the entire time. Good mobility and good reading of the play. No idea why the teammate didn't make that pass. Those are high percentage opportunities that you want to take. In the NHL, he would have gotten that pass.

Guhle also went into the boards hard on one shift after he got tangled up with an opponent. It was early in the third frame iirc, but the play went on. Commentators didn't make mention I guess because it was almost out of frame, but Guhle definitely got up slowly. Stayed on, and even delivered a hit 20 seconds later, so I'm assuming he just got bruised up.

I'm pretty sure he'll be able to polish off the rust on the defensive side. I don't know when his last game was for most of these guys, but I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the D-men on the defensive side of the puck.

As for Dach, that injury did not look good. The way he headed off the ice was a little reminiscent of the Gallagher hand injury injuries.

Good: Guhle was out there late in the game to preserve the 1-0 win.

Bad: He fumbled the puck a few times in one sequence along the boards, failing to make a good pass to his partner behind the net to allow a zone clearance, and more time was spent in the Canada end during that late span.

There were some zone exit and entry data posted after the game. Guhle had 7 zone exit attempts and missed on all of them. He had one offensive zone entry and that failed as well.

Yup...18 year old, one game, blah, blah, blah.

Anyone notice that lovely breakaway pass from the alphabet man...Mukhamadullin who was drafted 5 spots after Guhle? I didn't mind his game. A few errors, but he looked better than Guhle to me.

[NWTHabsFan]

Merry Christmas. The games start for real today. Habs fans are most interested in the late game, so the turkey will have lots of time to digest before puck drop.

SVK vs SUI 2:00pm ET TSN3/5

FIN vs GER 6:00pm ET TSN3/5

RUS vs USA (Caufield) 9:30pm ET TSN1

[NWTHabsFan]

Caufield will get an assist on that first USA goal. Nice pass from behind the goal line to York. Bad goal by Askarov though.

[Willie Dog]

Caufield has nhl vision and skill... the problem is his teammates are struggling against the quicker russians... the US D are really struggling... the Russian forwards are on top of them as soon as they touch the puck

[BadCompany]

Caufield goes for a skate.

[NWTHabsFan]

I figured US defence would be in tough against a good offence. It sure looks like it tonight. Caufield doing something every shift, but he seems alone tonight.