2018 World Junior Championships

mikey
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2018 World Junior Championships

Postby mikey » Wed Dec 27, 2017 7:27 am

Tournament kicked off yesterday at noon (12/26)...Czechs held on to beat Russia 5-4, though Russia scored two goals in the last couple minutes to make it tight...Sweden beat Belarus 6-1...Canada over Finland 4-2, but it was a close game...USA spanked Denmark 9-0 in a game that was blown open immediately...

Today (12/27) we got Switzerland and Belarus at 3 pm, Slovakia and Canada at 7.

This is a little bit of an interesting year from my perspective, I really think you could make a reasonable claim that five teams could gold here...Finland's defense, Sweden's star power, Canada's depth, USA has some great 2018 eligible talent and they're the defending goal medalists, Russia doesn't have the star power of a Kaprizov or a Buchnevich or a Kuznetsov like they've had recently, but they always seem to medal...so it should be an interesting tournament from that perspective...

On a personal note, I'll be in attendance for the first time - Thursday thru Saturday I'll be at games, I finalized my shortlist last night, with focus on 2018 eligibles, so I'm pumped for this opportunity...

The Penguins have just one representative in the tournament, Swedish goaltender Filip Gustavsson (2nd round, 2016)...he started against the Belorussians, stopping 8 of 9 shots in a win...

shoeshine boy
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2018 World Junior Championships

Postby shoeshine boy » Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:35 am

I haven't really watched any replays on the interwebs but I still don't understand how that first CAN goal counted......

mikey
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Postby mikey » Wed Dec 27, 2017 9:12 am

Yeah, that was awfully close...and then karma didn't break against them when Carter Hart - a pretty sloppy goalie for my tastes, despite his absurd WHL numbers - let another slip through him that Cal Foote saved with his hand halfway across the goal line...

willeyeam
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2018 World Junior Championships

Postby willeyeam » Wed Dec 27, 2017 10:10 am

i believe the last 5 gold medal winners are in the USA group

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2018 World Junior Championships

Postby slappybrown » Wed Dec 27, 2017 10:11 am

Did not know you had made this

Thank you and god bless

mikey
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Postby mikey » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:12 am

Mikey Presents: Slappy's Players to Watch...

Let's start with God's country, the United God Damn States of 'Merica...

They aren't all here, but there could legitimately be four or five (4/5mm? I'm still a little unclear on slapstick's metric system) Americans in the top 10 of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

Who you should know: Kailer Yamamoto...a weenie at 5'8", 154 lbs, Yamamoto does more than intramural sports, he made the Edmonton Oilers out of camp this season and played 9 games (3 points). before being returned to the Dub...players with NHL experience tend to pillage this tournament, I'm expecting a lot from Yamamoto who plays like Tyler Johnson of the Tampa Bay Lightning. My recollection is that Tyler Johnson's mom is/was Yamamoto's skating coach.

Casey Mittelstadt - the 8th overall pick in 2017 out of high school (well, Minnesota high school...that's like Texas for high school football, it's basically the pros) - CM has already fulfilled his destiny in life by playing for the Golden Gophers. This is a Buffalo Sabres prospect playing in Buffalo, he's going to look to put on a show. He scored twice already against Iraq, or whatever loser country the U.S. started out against in the tournament...he has a legit chance at MVP if all goes right.

Who you will know after this: Quinn Hughes - remarkable 2018 draft eligible defenseman from Big Blue...he is slippery on the back line and has insane vision for a player this young, great multi-directional skater and he can stop on a dime and give five cents change...I haven't come close to putting together a formal draft ranking yet, but I'd be stunned if he's not in my top 10, maybe top 4 or 5...he's more polished at the same age than another U of M star that I saw in this tournament a couple years ago in Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

##

*Chris Berman voice* Now to the frozen tundra of Trudeau field...Canada always has the depth on everyone but this team has become a yearly c*** tease...only one gold medal since 2010 (2015...mm?). Most of it is because they're developing ass**** goalies in their youth ranks...this year might be no exception...

Who you should know: Victor Mete of the Montreal Canadiens. He's played pretty much all season in the show, but Montreal hates talent, so they boxed him up and shipped him to Abu Dhabi...Mete is a compact package but is maybe the best skater of all the '98s...Mete should skate circles around the competition, but is he a game-breaker from a skills perspective?

Carter Hart is a future Flyers goalie disappointment. And man is the hype high...he leads all of Canada with a 1.32 GAA and .961 save pct this season...which means slappy needs to walk one off, but back in reality, it doesn't mean much...Hart plays an annoying reverse-VH style and it has a ton of holes to it. He plays the game like he's huge, but really, he's about 6-foot flat...so he has this annoying-to-watch Brian Elliott thing going on...Cal Foote already saved him from certain disaster against the Finns last night and Dominique Ducharme yanked him last year for a time and guess who the coach is again this year...? Hart has unreal numbers in the Dub, but let's see how he does against the best of his peers instead of the five players in Western Canada who are good enough to beat him...

Who you will know after this: Robert Thomas, the St. Louis Blues prospect can shoot the lights out. I'm thinking he's good enough to jump to the NHL next year even. If John Buccigross wasn't creeping on that wanna-be pr0n star maybe he could have brought back NHL2Night for the easy Matchbox 20 reference...Thomas might be Canada's most dangerous weapon that isn't getting the attention he deserves...

##

The Swedes, dollar for dollar, might have the best star power in the tourney...and they have the only Penguin, so if America fills their diaper, we'll have something to fall back on...

Who you should know: Lias Andersson, 7th overall pick of the Rangers and Derek Stepan replacement. Andersson is smart and he works hard. Like Stepan, one wonders if he's a game breaker or if he's just gonna be annoying jerk like Jan Erixon was to Mario...jerk or no jerk, Andersson is a veteran of the tournament and is gonna be leaned on heavily to carry the expectations of a country whose population is almost 100.

Who you will know after this: Rasmus Dahlin - future God, current Jesus. Likely the 2018 first overall pick, Dahlin was conceived and born during that 5OT game vs. Philadelphia back in 2000. He's not a punk ass b**** like Keith Primeau though, this guy is an Erik Karlsson disciple...he skates and pushes the pace in His mold...tough to ask anyone to be as good as EK has been, but forensics suggests that he's the best Swedish prospect since...

##

Finland has about two and a half d-men in the NHL and four of them are Olli Maatta...since the grass is always greener though, one suggests that they can double their totals with this crop...Heiskanen, Valimaki, Juolevi, Jokiharju all in front of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen...that's diesel good. The tournament might end before you sound all that out, so just do your best to get past it...

Who you should know: Probably no one. Finns aren't on center stage for whatever reason. Miro Heiskanen is a smooth operator and the 3rd overall pick of the Stars in 2017. If he connects on one of these one-timers he's getting setup for, we may well be sending a goalie home in an urn after the tournament...

Who you will know after this: Kristian Vesalainen...first round pick of the Winnipeg Jets (who just can't enough skill I guess)...Vesalainen is a load to handle for these little school boy b**** defensemen in this tournament and he's got little guy skills to boot, he makes these subtle puck touches and just puts it in an area where only he can get it...the dude is so bad ass that he has already played pro in the Swedish top league AND the Finnish top league before turning 18. It doesn't run in the family though, his brother Henrik is 22 and playing in a U20 league...the family is betting all of their goats, or whatever Finns produce, on Vesalainen being the game breaker for what should be a stalwart defensive team...

##

Lastly, our new friends, the Russians will look to tamper with the results of this tournament despite not having their usual star power or strength in net. Taking after the Venezuelans in the Little League World Series, the Russians love to favor 19 year olds in this tournament...so they've sent home most of their pesky 2018 draft eligibles, much to my chagrin...we will never see them again until they lead the NHL in scoring out of nowhere on a team you don't watch.

Who you should know: Vladimir Putin. Balding and with the withdrawn, sunken eyes of an alcoholic, Putin hopes to captain the Soviets whoops, woah-oh, I meant Russians of course...captain the Russians to yet another medal.

Who you will know after this: Andrei Svechnikov a right wing that shoots...LEFT?!?! in Russia?!!? that's crazy...Svech has gamebreaker skill and all the finish you ever want to see in a prospect. It seems likely that Svechnikov will be a top-3 pick in the 2018 draft...and he better make it, because he jumped ship from Ak Bars Kazan to play in the USHL and now the OHL already, so his family has probably been sent to the Ural Mountains to sweep for leftover World War II mines...

##

Rumor has it that other countries will play in this tournament, but no one cares about them in all likelihood...maybe Zadina on the Czechs is someone to watch...but he already plays over here, like most Czech and Slovak eligibles, because the development over there in Yugoslavia - or where ever Czechoslavkia went - is human garbage...enjoy.

willeyeam
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2018 World Junior Championships

Postby willeyeam » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:31 am

thank you for ur service

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Postby dodint » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:45 am

Putin is sneaky good, triple hat tricks n'****.

slappybrown
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2018 World Junior Championships

Postby slappybrown » Wed Dec 27, 2017 12:07 pm

thank you for ur service
Follow up question, how good is Dahlin at the same stage compared to (rank them, recognizing that these are all forwards and Dahlin is a dman):

Tavares
Matthews
McDavid
Hall
Stamkos

mikey
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Postby mikey » Wed Dec 27, 2017 12:12 pm

Based on how perceived them at the time...full well noting that I was one of those people who over-scouted Tavares and said that Hedman is a reasonable player to choose at #1.

1. McDavid
2. Stamkos
3. Dahlin
4. Matthews
5. Tavares
6. Hall

I didn't expect Matthews to have the impact that he did as a rookie, though that was the opposite of Tavares, I was probably under-exposed to Matthews because he went to Switzerland...

You would need an index card to figure out the space between 3 thru 6 though...I'm ranking them, but they ought to be just about the same level...

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2018 World Junior Championships

Postby slappybrown » Wed Dec 27, 2017 12:13 pm

Wow higher than I thought he would have been based solely on the amount of hype for each

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Postby mikey » Wed Dec 27, 2017 12:26 pm

I <3 d-men that can skate and move the puck...if it were up to me, that's all I would look at it...defensemen. Anyway, I'll get to see Dahlin live this week, so maybe I'll adjust that very, very tenuous ranking...

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Postby shafnutz05 » Wed Dec 27, 2017 3:11 pm

That was also very enlightening for me re: Dahlin, thank you. Need to read up on him a bit and watch some tape

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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 9:47 pm

Why tf are we tied with Slovakia right now

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Postby shafnutz05 » Thu Dec 28, 2017 9:56 pm

Why tf are we tied with Slovakia right now
I am watching too. We will pull away in the 3rd.

willeyeam
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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:35 pm

What's the overtime situation in this shindig? Is there OT in group play?

willeyeam
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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:41 pm

Oh no

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Postby Sam's Drunk Dog » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:44 pm

Wow that was pretty

willeyeam
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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:45 pm

Mittlestadt that was absolutely filthy

willeyeam
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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:48 pm

Ahhh cmon

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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:48 pm

Total Flower move in net

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Postby Sam's Drunk Dog » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:49 pm

I blame the Buffalo Bills inspired jerseys

willeyeam
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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:55 pm

Gotta beat Canada tomorrow

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Postby willeyeam » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:57 pm

Cool. Canada had the day off and we play them in 16 hours. Bettman must be in charge

mikey
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Postby mikey » Fri Dec 29, 2017 2:06 am

How did we lose to ******* Argentina...? Uninspired effort...

Met Bob McKenzie tonight though, among others....pretty cool....

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