WJC 2021

[Cranky]

Best result....Caufield a good game and a goal...US losses.

[NWTHabsFan]

Boxing Day 2020. A day Habs prospect watchers can sit in their man cave or den all day, eating leftovers and sipping cold ones, since all three WJC participants are in action today.

SWE vs CZE (Mysak) 2:00pm ET TSN1

GER vs CAN (Guhle) 6:00pm ET TSN1

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

[folatre]

NW, sounds like a good plan.

Ponomaryev looked confident and opportunistic last night. Pre-draft, I felt relatively sure that he would be gone before Montreal picked at #47 and 48. I like Mysak and Tuch so I am happy with the Habs second round, but it certainly appears that Carolina may have gotten themselves a steal at #53. Not saying a deal was there to be made, but given the quality of the second round in 2020, keeping that pick at #55 and adding a couple fourth rounders to it in order to move up may have been a good play.

[seventeen]

Dec 26, 2020 12:32:47 GMT -5 folatre said:

NW, sounds like a good plan.

Ponomaryev looked confident and opportunistic last night. Pre-draft, I felt relatively sure that he would be gone before Montreal picked at #47 and 48. I like Mysak and Tuch so I am happy with the Habs second round, but it certainly appears that Carolina may have gotten themselves a steal at #53. Not saying a deal was there to be made, but given the quality of the second round in 2020, keeping that pick at #55 and adding a couple fourth rounders to it in order to move up may have been a good play.

Ssssshhhh....a pick from the Q.  Don't let PTH know. 

Yeah, I was curious about Carolinas scouting as they seemed to get some pretty good players.  Ron Francis was hired as director of hockey operations in June 2011.  He was promoted to gm in 2014.

Drafting:

2011 #42 - Victor Rask

2012 #120 Jaccob Slavin

2013 #5 Elis Lindholm, #66 Brett Pesce

2014 #7 Haydn Fleury, #67 Warren Foegele

2015 #5 Noah Hanifin, #35 Sebastian Aho, $96 Nicolas Roy

2016 #13, Jake Bean

2017 #12 Martin Necas

After that, it's uncertain except to note that Svechnikov is going to be great, but that was pure luck, getting that lottery bump. 

What seems obvious from the above is that some picks were very good, others not so much.  Slavin, Pesce and Aho were the very good later picks, but Lindholm, Fleury, Hanifin and Bean were taken ahead of some pretty good players

Lindholm - Monohan, Nurse, Horvat, Morrisey, and Mantha

Fleury - William Nylander, Dylan Larkin, Alex Tuch, Pasternak

Hanifin - (a slew of guys) Provorov, Werenski, Meier, Rantanen, Debrusk, Barzal, Connor, Chabot, Boeser, Beauvilier

Bean - McAvoy taken right after him.  But this wasn;'t the greatest draft, either, despite Matthews or 5 pretty good picks in the top 9. 

The main lesson from the above is that it's really nice to have a lot of high picks. 

[folatre]

Jeje, I have been right with PTH on that issue.

For sure, it helps to have high picks and Carolina is by no means batting 1.000, but then again there are teams like Buffalo who have had a boatload of top 15 picks in the last 10 years and they somehow managed to miss on a bunch of them.

[Willie Dog]

Dec 26, 2020 9:30:37 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Boxing Day 2020. A day Habs prospect watchers can sit in their man cave or den all day, eating leftovers and sipping cold ones, since all three WJC participants are in action today.

SWE vs CZE (Mysak) 2:00pm ET TSN1

GER vs CAN (Guhle) 6:00pm ET TSN1

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

Mysak scores a nice goal on the PP

[NWTHabsFan]

Here is the Mysak goal. He had a nice drive along the left wall in an earlier shift. He almost had an assist on a play that was reviewed but declared a non goal.

[Willie Dog]

Guhle scores for canada nice goal short side
..

[NWTHabsFan]

Guhle just opened the scoring for Canada. Great pinch and moves.

Caufield needs to score tonight to keep up with his fellow prospects.

[Willie Dog]

Dec 26, 2020 18:17:49 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Guhle just opened the scoring for Canada. Great pinch and moves.

Caufield needs to score tonight to keep up with his fellow prospects.

Caufield is such a slacker😂... really like watching him control the play, great hand eye coordination

[NWTHabsFan]

Dec 26, 2020 18:24:33 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Dec 26, 2020 18:17:49 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Guhle just opened the scoring for Canada. Great pinch and moves.

Caufield needs to score tonight to keep up with his fellow prospects.

Caufield is such a slacker😂... really like watching him control the play, great hand eye coordination

He has played really well with the puck in his two games here, including the pre tourney game. I expect he will find the back of the net later tonight against Austria. Hardly a bold prediction, I know!

[Willie Dog]

Dec 26, 2020 19:03:06 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Dec 26, 2020 18:24:33 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Caufield is such a slacker😂... really like watching him control the play, great hand eye coordination

He has played really well with the puck in his two games here, including the pre tourney game. I expect he will find the back of the net later tonight against Austria. Hardly a bold prediction, I know!

He's pretty crafty with the puck, I can see him and KK doing really well together, both are good passers, caufield is a better shooter and KK drive the net

[NWTHabsFan]

Tough game for Caufield. Everybody scores, but him.

Zegras was the bomb tonight. Excellent game.

[Willie Dog]

I only watched the 1st and part of the second... he was trying but he doesn't seem to have a lot of help from his linemates

[NWTHabsFan]

Dec 27, 2020 9:20:06 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

I only watched the 1st and part of the second... he was trying but he doesn't seem to have a lot of help from his linemates

Nope. And it likely got worse as the blowout progressed as most of the team started to just shoot on the net to score and get their name on the scoresheet. He likes to play without the puck and find the quiet spots on the ice, but most of their forwards were more shoot first last night. The one exception was Zegras, who had a great game. He scored some nice goals and also set some beauties as well. I have scratched my head this tourney why Leaman has gone with Kaliev on Zegras’ right wing instead of Caufield. It likely is to spread the scoring around on the top six, but it did not really work out that was last night.

In the end, CC played over 17 minutes and had 6 SOG. He looked decent on a number of shifts, but he was also whiffing on shots a number of times or not quite getting his shots in their usual precise spots for goals. In the end, for a goal scorer to shoot blanks in a blowout, I am sure he is not happy with his game.

Short tournament...time to park it and get ready for his next action.

[NWTHabsFan]

Two of the three games today feature Habs’ prospects.

SVK vs CAN (Guhle) 6:00pm ET TSN1

RUS vs CZE (Mysak) 9:30pm ET TSN1

[NWTHabsFan]

Dec 27, 2020 9:20:06 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

I only watched the 1st and part of the second... he was trying but he doesn't seem to have a lot of help from his linemates

A graphical way of showing he was generating chances, but they just were not going in for him.

[NWTHabsFan]

Still not sure why Samuel Hlavaj (the SVK goalie) has passed through two drafts. I had him and Levi on my goalie list this year’s draft from mid rounds onwards. Levi was superb at the WJAC and in Junior A as the circuit’s MVP. The Habs had him as an invite to development camp a year and a half ago. He looks like a great 7th round pick this year.

[Willie Dog]

The Czechs shut out the Russians... amazing team game and great goaltending... they blocked 20+ shots...

[NWTHabsFan]

No games today involving any Habs prospects. All three will be in action tomorrow (Tuesday) though including a first head to head game.

[NWTHabsFan]

Dec 27, 2020 23:56:40 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

The Czechs shut out the Russians... amazing team game and great goaltending... they blocked 20+ shots...

Indeed. Here is one such play by Mysak.

[Cranky]

Dec 27, 2020 18:42:39 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Still not sure why Samuel Hlavaj (the SVK goalie) has passed through two drafts. I had him and Levi on my goalie list this year’s draft from mid rounds onwards. Levi was superb at the WJAC and in Junior A as the circuit’s MVP. The Habs had him as an invite to development camp a year and a half ago. He looks like a great 7th round pick this year.

When can he be signed as a FA? He's playing in the Que, so it's not like a far away alien presence for the Habs.

On the other hand, there has to be a real potential for an NHL career, otherwise it's just a waste of time. That's probably what they don't see in him....or at least, not yet.

[NWTHabsFan]

A nice double header for prospects today.

USA (Caufield) vs CZE (Mysak) 2:00pm ET TSN1

SUI vs CAN (Guhle) 6:00pm ET TSN1

[drkcloud]

USA leads Czechs 3-0 at the end of the second period. Caufield continues to play a perimeter game and has been a nonfactor. The players who have been successful are those willing and able to go to the dirty area around the net and I'm not sure Caulfield can be one of those guys, talented as he may be.

[drkcloud]

Caufield finally breaks through with a goal and an assist in the third

[NWTHabsFan]

Caufield’s goal today.

[NWTHabsFan]

Guhle with a nice one timer to vault into the Habs prospects WJC scoring lead with two goals.

[NWTHabsFan]

And a bit of this. KaBoom.

[NWTHabsFan]

No games today involving Habs prospects, but the late game between RUS and SWE should be a doozie. Sweden has only played twice so far so they finish up the preliminary round with marquee matches against Russia and the USA back to back. Will their crazy amazing 53 game winning streak in preliminary round play finally end this week?

[Cranky]

Guhle has NHL size.....and I love to see him in the AHL.

Right now, we all got Romanov pegged for LHD greatness, but someone like Guhle can zip right by him.

Terrible...terrible problem to have! LOL