What I am going to attempt to do is publish a report/summary
of the most recent Team Canada game at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Earlier this morning, Canada started this tournament off on the right foot by
beating the Germans 9-3.
Although this game was dominated mainly by the Red and
White, there is no question that Germany had their chances to keep it close in
large part due to a couple of costly turnovers. What has impressed me today,
and has impressed me even throughout the exhibition portion of the tournament,
is the blazing speed that the Canadians possess. During the selection camp, a
lot was made about Ryan Murphy’s risk and reward brand of hockey, but today the
rewards undoubtedly outweighed the risks as he was an offensive threat every time
he touched the rubber. His speed is noticeable, and the strategical decision to
pair up the aforementioned Murphy with Moose Jaw Warrior standout Morgan Rielly
was ingenious by coach Steve Spott. The concern of pairing up two ”petit”
defenceman, such as Rielly and Murphy worked today because Germany lacked a lot
of size up front allowing those two stalwarts to easily skate past them without
any issue of getting pushed around like other teams in their pool will attempt
to do. Aside from those two, who I was completely enamoured with, the rest of
the defence in my opinion had admirable efforts today. Dougie Hamilton is
clearly NHL ready and will be in a Boston Bruins uniform as soon as the lockout
has ceased. His shot is Al MacInnis-esque providing fear towards opposing
netminders. There were however a couple of instances that his lack of foot
speed allowed the Germans to skate to odd man rushes and if it wasn’t for shot
blocking machine Scott Harrington, a couple more pucks may have slid past
Belleville Bull and fellow B’s prospect Malcolm Subban. Based on today’s effort
alone, Tyler Wotherspoon deserves a larger role on the back end. He wasn’t
flashy today but the common theme was that he was never out of position and
always made the intelligent play. Probably the smartest defenceman(although if
memory serves me correct, Dougie Hamilton was the reigning OHL scholastic
player of the year) on this squad. The defenceman who I thought played the
weakest game out of the bunch, even though he potted a goal was France born
Xavier Ouellet. There was a point in this game when the score was around 5-1,
and his play was becoming unnecessarily reckless. I’ll preface my opinion on
Ouellet by saying that prior to the tournament I wasn’t overly familiar with
his style of play, but so far he gets a failing grade in my books. Patience is
a virtue, and it’s something Ouellet will have to acquire to reach the next
level in his career, that being the
National Hockey League. To round out the defence, Griffin Reinhart did what he
did best, that being not having his name mentioned once in the broadcast.
Earlier, I labelled Wotherspoon as not being flashy, but Reinhart takes that
moniker to a whole another level.
You score nine goals upfront so you should be satisfied,right?
For the most part, it was a satisfactory offensive splurge against perhaps the
weakest team in the WJHC. Canada’s top forward line,consisting of Ryan
Nugent-Hopkins, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Mark Schiefele was absolutely stellar.
Even though RNH was given player of the game honours after his five point
performance, I felt that the best forward today was that of Jonathan Huberdeau.
The South Beach bound Saint John Sea Dog was ferocious with the puck, and his combination
of size and finesse makes him Canada’s MOST dangerous player. Taking nothing
away from Nugent-Hopkins five point performance, but his lack of physicality in
the corners has always been something that has concerned me about the former #1
overall pick, and I have questions whether
he’ll be able to create the kind of space needed against teams like
U.S.A and Russia. The more I watch Mark Schiefele play, the more I am in awe of
his sick wrister. Not the fastest guy on foot but when you have a wrist shot
that is reminiscent of Brett Hull in his prime, you’re always going to be a
force. One thing that didn’t sit well with me was the play of the second line,
I didn’t sense there was any chemistry
between the three, what I noticed was three talented individuals playing selfish
hockey. On multiple occasions I witnessed Ryan Strome with primo opportunities to
dish the puck instead electing to try an individual dangle that failed
miserably. The onus is on Steve Spott to potentially tinker with this line, and
maybe the time has come to promote Nathan MacKinnon up to that second line, reuniting
him with his Halifax Moosehead line mate Jonathan Drouin. I salivate at the
thought of seeing Drouin and MacKinnon flanked in the middle by Ryan Strome,
while putting Brett Ritchie into a checking role, a role for which I foresee him
being more comfortable handling. The “third”line(although I’m not so sure how
much a of a third line it really was, more like “3a”, and “3b”), was
unfortunately subpar. J.C Lipon and Mark McNeill I’m sorry to say had very poor
efforts today. Nerves? Unwavering excitement? I’m not sure what I can amount it
too, but Lipon and McNeill did not look themselves and in doing so, they made
Philip Danault, who didn’t make any obvious mistakes today, look like a Midget
AAA player playing alongside those two. On two out of the three goals scored
against Canada, J.C and Mark were individually responsible for them. I’ve seen
McNeill play countless times for Prince Albert while visiting Regina and not
once have I seen him this timid with his decisions. The fourth line was alright
at times. I was thoroughly impressed with the energy that Anthony Camara
brought, who prior to the selection camp had the resemblance of a family member
from Duck Dynasty(google Camara’s beard). Ty Rattie, and I hate to keep ragging
on WHL’ers here had a tough effort aswell. These are all uber talented players
on their respective club teams, and while I realize this tournament is all
about adjusting to different roles, it shouldn’t change a player’s skill level.
I’d love to see Rattie let loose in the Power Play to restore his confidence.
My last critique of the forwards applies to the lack of the success on the PP.
Too many times today were they too passive and there wasn’t enough traffic in front
of the German goaltender.Big bodied Nathan MacKinnon wasn’t used much today,
and maybe sticking him in front of the net is worth the try. This kind of role
also may be well suited for Oshawa General Boone Jenner when he is reinstated
from suspension.
To end off each summary, I will create a list(excluding
goaltenders), ranking players on how I thought they stood after each game. I
realize this list will be completely subjective especially since I will ranking
forwards with defenceman, the purpose of this list is to individually rank the
players on how I thought they played while creating water cooler discussion
1Jonathan Huberdeau
2.Scott Harrington
3.Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
4.Morgan Rielly
5.Mark Schiefele
6.Jonathan Drouin
7.Dougie Hamilton
8.Ryan Murphy
9.Anthony Camara
10.Tyler Wotherspoon
11.Philip Danault
12.Brett Ritchie
13.Nathan MacKinnon
14.Griffin Reinhart
15.Ryan Strome
16.Ty Rattie
17.Xavier Ouellet
18.Mark McNeill
19.J.C Lipon
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