WJC 2022

[NWTHabsFan]

Well, fingers crossed that the event goes ahead and suffers no more speed bumps other than the reduction in attendance to 50% that was announced this week.

I know Cranky has a thread on the main board for Guhle, but there are three Habs prospects to watch and a bunch of high profile draft eligible kids that should make this a great showcase of young talent. The draft eligible kids are real standouts in both quality and quantity.

First, the obvious Habs participants:

Canada Kaiden Guhle, LD, Captain
Czechia Jan Myšák, C/W, Captain
Finland Oliver Kapanen, C

Now for some of the draft kids to watch. A sneak peak into some of the many kids I will eventually talk about in the draft 2022 thread in the new year.

🇨🇦
When you have potential back to back top picks in a lineup normally reserved for 19 year olds based on Canada’s depth, you take notice. Centres Shane Wright and Connor Bedard (2023) are well deserving of their selections over older players. They were dynamic at the U18s and should both be real fun to watch this year as underagers. And with Owen Power on the team, could this be a team with top picks from three straight drafts? Time will tell.

🇺🇸
They went with an older more experienced team with the exception of centre Logan Cooley. He is one of a very good crop of forwards that play for the USDP U18 team. He is dynamic and is likely the top American in the draft, even in the top 5 talk.

🇨🇿
The big mean RD David Jiríček will have many scouts watching as the country’s top draft eligible player. Very offensive in his game with a booming shot and mean disposition, he is another in the conversation for a top ten pick. Up front, centre Jirí Kulich will be the guy to watch.

🇸🇰
This is a truly exciting Slovak draft class. I was amazed in their talent at the Hlinka Gretzky where the lost in the final to Russia. Hulking winger Juraj Slafkovsky, stud RD Simon Nemec (the top defender for this draft or will it be Jiríček?) and skilled forwards Filip Mešár and Dalibor Dvorsky (2023) will make this the most exciting Slovak junior team in ages. A true resurgence of young talent. And in Dvorsky, you likely have the top three 2023 prospects (give or take) in Bedard, Michkov and him.

🇷🇺
RW Danila Yurov plans on making the most of his top line ice time that he sure does not get in the KHL ( he only plays a few minutes a game there). He was dynamic at the Hlinka alongside wunderkid Matvei Michkov (2023) who should be ripping it up at his young age again. Undersized LD Vladimir Grudinin is a mobile defender who should go in the first two rounds next summer.

🇫🇮
With Räty missing due to COVID, the plucky Finns will be looking to two draft eligible forwards to lead their offence. RW Joakim Kemell has been rocketing up draft lists with his great Liiga start, although he was then derailed by injury. He is a scorer for sure. C Brad Lambert was one of the most touted 2022 prospects a year ago, but is off to a slow start this Liiga season and has slipped a bit on lists. He is a very projectable pro player though.

🇦🇹
Skilled centre Marco Kasper plays in Sweden and is the key player for this underdog nation.

🇨🇭
Big defender Lian Bichel is the guy to watch on this squad.

I am off to watch the pre tourney game between CAN and RUS later today. Guhle, Wright, Bedard, Michkov, Yurov, etc. can’t wait!

[folatre]

Enjoy the game and thanks for the summary here, NW. I am looking forward to watching it on NHL Network and enjoying a couple of cold pops.

[seventeen]

Pre tournament game on right now. CNada Russia. Tsn 5.

[seventeen]

Canada up 4-1. Michkov and Bedard playing. Yeehaaa!

[NWTHabsFan]

Myšák and Czechia had their game cancelled vs SUI as one player involved in the game tested positive. It was precautionary to avoid any outbreak. They will go into the tourney without the benefit of a warm up game. Their first game is Boxing Day versus Canada.

Guhle had a solid game defensively and had a secondary assist on McTavish’s sweet second goal. Canada beat Russia 6-4 despite a nice two goal effort from Michkov.

Kapanen was actually Finland’s second line centre. He was on a line with Kemell, which could be fun to watch if they keep that line together. He had an assist on a late Finnish PP goal (he was also on the second PP unit). The Finns came from behind to beat the Americans 4-3 in OT thanks to a late major penalty to the USA player.

[NWTHabsFan]

I have watched at least 15 of Michkov’s games over the last two seasons (he was on the same MHL team as Gordin until the latter’s trade recently, at the U18s, Hlinka). Last night was the first time live and it was a treat.

I think Matvei has figured out a few things about this good old hockey game 😝.

I am hoping Coach Cameron moves Bedard up from the 13th forward spot and gives him more ice time, as he looked decent with his limited ice time. And don’t get me started on the next to no ice time the Russians gave Yurov last night. The kid plays next to nothing on his KHL team. Let him shine here. He was a stud at the Hlinka.

I think Garand locked up the starter job for 🇨🇦 last night. Cossa is a stud, but looked shaky on a few plays last night. He is a better goalie than he showed, but it is a short tourney and you go with the hotter hand. Cossa will win the Memorial Cup later this season anyway 😉.

[NWTHabsFan]

Boxing Day. Let the games begin! A great time to be a hockey fan and eating leftovers.

Games of interest today featuring Hab prospects:

🇩🇪 vs 🇫🇮 (Kapanen) 2:00pm ET

🇨🇿 (Myšák) vs 🇨🇦 (Guhle) 7:00pm ET

And another game that should be a treat to watch is:

🇺🇸 vs 🇸🇰 9:30pm ET

All the above games on the main TSN. The 🇷🇺 vs 🇸🇪 tilt is only on TSN4 today, so not everyone can get that game. Speaking of Sweden, I did not profile any draft eligible players to watch in the OP (original post) as they have gone with a veteran team and have no draft eligible players on their team. Too bad, as they have a few fun 17 year olds that would have been great to see, but they have great depth from the last two drafts and this is a solid team again.

Enjoy!!

[NWTHabsFan]

A piece about the three Habs prospects playing at the WJC.

[Willie Dog]

Dec 26, 2021 8:42:59 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Boxing Day. Let the games begin! A great time to be a hockey fan and eating leftovers.

Games of interest today featuring Hab prospects:

🇩🇪 vs 🇫🇮 (Kapanen) 2:00pm ET

🇨🇿 (Myšák) vs 🇨🇦 (Guhle) 7:00pm ET

And another game that should be a treat to watch is:

🇺🇸 vs 🇸🇰 9:30pm ET

All the above games on the main TSN. The 🇷🇺 vs 🇸🇪 tilt is only on TSN4 today, so not everyone can get that game. Speaking of Sweden, I did not profile any draft eligible players to watch in the OP (original post) as they have gone with a veteran team and have no draft eligible players on their team. Too bad, as they have a few fun 17 year olds that would have been great to see, but they have great depth from the last two drafts and this is a solid team again.

Enjoy!!

So looking forward to the game
.. was at my sons for 3 days, no tv, no internet...

[Willie Dog]

What a goal by mctavish

[Willie Dog]

Garand and the D are playing like like crap... down 3-1

[folatre]

The Czechs are indeed rather limited in terms of high end forwards and overall team depth. So between their penalty madness and the Jiricek injury, this game should be a total walk at this stage.

[Willie Dog]

The 5 on 3 ended the game for the Czechia... the cross checking was a selfish thing to do...

[Willie Dog]

I find Garland dropping g a lot... the D has tightened up... their not wandering as much in the 2nd half of the game like they were in the 1st

[NWTHabsFan]

This Guhle dude sure knows how to make you pay for coming down his side.

[seventeen]

Dec 27, 2021 0:56:51 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

This Guhle dude sure knows how to make you pay for coming down his side.

You have to be careful to not be overly impressed by hitting. It's a nice 'added feature' but it shouldn't be why you buy the car. No one admired Lidstrom'ss htting and it didn't seem to hurt him at all. PK, for example threw some hard hits at times, but they were targeted ones (ask Brad Marchand). Most of the time it was just rubbing out guys along the boards, taking pucks away and moving the puck up the ice. For all of the hype, Shea Weber didn't destroy guys much of the time. It's impressive, but it's distracting too. I'd be more impressed with good stick work, gap control, zone exits and zone entries. Guhle is really good at some of those and ok at others. The support of offense is what he has to work at most.

[NWTHabsFan]

Today:

🇦🇹 vs 🇫🇮 (Kapanen) 2:00pm ET TSN3/4

🇩🇪 vs 🇨🇿 (Myšák) 7:00pm ET TSN4

[CentreHice]

I saw Guhle make a couple of "Markov" vision plays at the offensive blue line--saw some open ice ahead, made a move to get there, then spotted an open man in front for a re-direct. Didn't just fire away from the point or shoot into the corner.

[drkcloud]

Oliver Kapanen has been virtually invisible in his first two games against the Germans and Austrians. The team has scored 10 goals total against the two weak teams in the pool, and Kapanen has been in on exactly 0 of them. Don't know why I expect more from our 2nd round draft picks. Hope we get a shot at Brad Lambert at the upcoming draft, he has 7 points thus far

[NWTHabsFan]

Myšák with Czechia’s only goal in a 2-1 OT loss to Germany.

[folatre]

Man, Sweden is hard to watch. Boring neutral zone trap. Wellstadt is great, yes, but even he is rather anti-sporting knocking his own net off its moorings clear as day to get a whistle as Slovakia pressured on the power play. And the lame international refs collectively look at each other like 'huh, what happened.'

Hopefully Montreal's infatuation in the second round with rangy, offensively challenged Swedish forwards (Olofsson, Vejdemo, De la Rose, Collberg) is a thing of the past now that Timmins got fired.

I hope the Americans and the Russians dance around the Swedes.

[NWTHabsFan]

Quiet day today with only two games. One Hab prospect in action in what should be a very lopsided game. The one fun thing to watch for Austria is how Kasper looks.

🇦🇹 vs 🇨🇦 (Guhle) 7:00pm ET TSN

[NWTHabsFan]

Dec 27, 2021 23:00:12 GMT -5 folatre said:

Man, Sweden is hard to watch. Boring neutral zone trap. Wellstadt is great, yes, but even he is rather anti-sporting knocking his own net off its moorings clear as day to get a whistle as Slovakia pressured on the power play. And the lame international refs collectively look at each other like 'huh, what happened.'

Hopefully Montreal's infatuation in the second round with rangy, offensively challenged Swedish forwards (Olofsson, Vejdemo, De la Rose, Collberg) is a thing of the past now that Timmins got fired.

I hope the Americans and the Russians dance around the Swedes.

Yeah, Sweden has the talent up and down the lineup to play a lot more aggressive and entertaining style of hockey. Their decision to play that trap game is effective (during the preliminary round as seen by their record over the years - just don’t ask them about playoff round success), but does take away some of the value of watching their games to see fun hockey.

They already beat the Russians 6-3, so their upcoming game against the Americans will be for top spot in the Group of Death.

[NWTHabsFan]

Oh boy.

[NWTHabsFan]

Always fun to see some “surprises” in this event. Czechia losing highly regarded RD David Jiríček for the tournament part way through their first game with Canada sucks for them and draft watchers as he is highly regarded and ranked (Habs scouts no doubt are paying a lot of attention to him).

[NWTHabsFan]

Holy Bedard. Hat trick already. Fourth line stud lol.

[Andrew]

Dec 28, 2021 20:14:32 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Holy Bedard. Hat trick already. Fourth line stud lol.

No disrespect to Wright, but can we save our lottery luck for next season please.

[Skilly]

Dec 28, 2021 20:52:43 GMT -5 Andrew said:

Dec 28, 2021 20:14:32 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

Holy Bedard. Hat trick already. Fourth line stud lol.

No disrespect to Wright, but can we save our lottery luck for next season please.

Wright has been extremely underwhelming in this tournament against the crappy teams.

[jkr]

Its not just tanking, it's tanking at the right time. Look at Edmonton. With 1st overall picks that got McDavid and Yakupov.

I find some of the top picks lately, Dahlin , Hischier, Hughes, Lafreniere, have been underwhelming. I don't see any game changers there yet.

[NWTHabsFan]

All three prospects in action today.

🇫🇮 (Kapanen) vs 🇨🇿 (Myšák) 2:00pm ET

🇩🇪 vs 🇨🇦 (Guhle) 7:00pm ET

The Germans hot off their OT win against Czechia will no doubt try and trap the much more talented Canadians to death. Canada needs to be patient and put a lot of pucks deep. The talent will then prevail.

The other two games should be very competitive as well, with 🇸🇰 vs 🇷🇺 and 🇸🇪 vs 🇺🇸 (if the Americans get the green light to play).

The Slovakia/Russia game is a rematch of the Hlinka gold medal game this past August. Quite a few of the Slovak players played in that game and, of course, Michkov was his usual brilliant self. Slafkovsky, Mešár, Nemec, Dvorsky and Michkov…loads of talent from the next two drafts on display in this game.