World Juniors

[Cookie La Rue]

All Euros are gay and can't play hockey...

[Southern_Canuck]

Germany 2 Canada 7

1ST PERIOD
1:34 Germany Sven Ziegler (Lennart Palausch, Patrick Klopper)
6:21 Canada Josh Anderson (Mathew Dumba, Frederik Gauthier)
10:41 Canada Anthony Mantha (Curtis Lazar, Jonathan Drouin)
15:59 Germany Janik Moser (Dominik Kahun)
17:36 Canada Anthony Mantha (Derrick Pouliot, Jonathan Drouin)
18:29 Canada Bo Horvat (Sam Reinhart)
2ND PERIOD
6:44 Canada Sam Reinhart (Josh Morrissey, Connor McDavid)
11:28 Canada Anthony Mantha (Jonathan Drouin, Derrick Pouliot)
3RD PERIOD
10:13 Canada Nic Petan (Connor McDavid)

McDavid and Drouin are pretty fun to watch, and it's neat that Horvat gets to play with McDavid - plenty of offensive chances.

[Chef Boi RD]

Anthony Mantha - another classic Detroit Red Wing steal at the draft. A Giant with a great skill set.

[Lancer]

Anthony Mantha - another classic Detroit Red Wing steal at the draft. A Giant with a great skill set.

We'll see what comes of the kid. No doubt he has a good shot and offensive instincts - at the junior level. The question was whether his head and heart would match his hands. The kid is not without his question marks. That said, definitely a good piece on the team for this tournament.

This is what gets me about these tournaments. A kid goes out and has a great tournament and everybody thinks they're the second coming for the team that drafts them. They may, but it's far from guaranteed. Then you have guys who have a disappointing tournament or who get cut and people see a bust when they could carve a good, if not great, pro career for themselves.

I'll cheer for BoHo and keep an eye on how he does from a prospect perspective, but more than anything it's just a tournament which may be the apex of the careers for many of the kid's playing.

Hope Mantha and the rest of Team Canada get gold, but we'll see what kind of 'steal' he is in a couple years time.

[Per]

Russia beats Norway 11-0.

USA beats Czech Republic 5-1.

Sweden beats Switzerland 5-3.
Swiss were pretty good though. Can surely cause problems and even beat some team.

Official website: http://www.worldjunior2014.com/

[Chef Boi RD]

This has to be one of the least skilled CDN world junior teams I've seen in a long while. Not sure if this is because of Sutter hockey and his blue collar hockey leanings or the dwindling pool of quality elite skill developing in this country. The fact that Tom Wilson was the highest drafted CDN forward in the 2012 entry draft might have something to do with what we are seeing.

McDavid will never be in Crosby territory until he develops the killer instinct, he is too Hank Sedin think pass first. I am impressed with Sam Reinhart

[Chef Boi RD]

Definitely nothing flashy about Horvats game. Keeps things simple, definitely in that straight forward Patrice Beregeron/Ryan O'Reilly territory if all goes well with his development, most likely our two -way, shut down centre of the future, put in key defensive situations with the game on line

Not impressed with Laughton

Still very impressed with Mantha, sees the ice well for a big guy

Thumbs up on the top 2 ranked prospects in the 2014 draft - Reinhart and Ekblad

Still waiting to be wow'ed by McDavid

What happened to our usual great pool of up and coming goalies?

Our QMJHL line Hudon, Mantha, Drouin seems to be our best offensive line

[Island Nucklehead]

Definitely nothing flashy about Horvats game. Keeps things simple, definitely in that straight forward Patrice Beregeron/Ryan O'Reilly territory if all goes well with his development, most likely our two -way, shut down centre of the future, put in key defensive situations with the game on line

Says a lot the Sutter puts him with younger / draft eligible guys. His two-way game is that strong.

Not impressed with Laughton

Very invisible.

Same with Gauthier. Never understood the desire for big pluggers. Other teams aren't intimidated by us... why take some defensive specialists. Overall I'm not very confident in this team, and I think Hockey Canada consistenly out-thinks themselves.

Still very impressed with Mantha, sees the ice well for a big guy

Offensively talented. Lacks smarts. That too many ice penalty was 100% his fault, and he's lucky Hudon picked up his tragic drop pass and finished it off.

Matt Dumba has been the worst defender for team Canada. Bad penalties, bad reads, lazy plays. I don't know how he stuck with Minny, but I'm willing to bet he goes back to Portland when this is done. Doesn't deserve to be on this team, imo.

[Chef Boi RD]

So you judge a players entire career potential from a too many men penalty? I would say that every NHLer has taken a too many men penalty in their hockey careers

Tragic drop pass? To the slot? To Drouin who missed it? That was as tragic Kassians blind pass to the slot that miraculously ended up on Tanevs stick resulting in a goal. Your funny


Disagree with U about Mantha. He is second overall in assists in the QMJHL. Low IQ players like Booth for instance can't make a pass to save their lives. They say puck possession is one way to judge a players IQ, Mantha is very good at maintaining puck Possession and his head is on a swivel when he has it unlike Booth who has it buried beneath the ice.

What is concerning to me is Horvats skating. Looks like he was skating in mud out there. He also seems to slow down considerably from beginning of shift to end

[Southern_Canuck]

Canada 4 Czech Republic 5 (SO)

1ST PERIOD
7:10 Czech Republic David Kampf (Ondrej Kase)
15:50 Canada Sam Reinhart (Bo Horvat, Connor McDavid)
2ND PERIOD
17:16 Czech Republic Michal Plutnar
3RD PERIOD
0:24 Canada Jonathan Drouin (Sam Reinhart, Anthony Mantha)
4:07 Czech Republic Vojtech Tomecek
11:09 Canada Aaron Ekblad (Scott Laughton, Curtis Lazar)
12:45 Czech Republic Jakub Vrana
13:01 Canada Charles Hudon (Anthony Mantha, Jonathan Drouin)

What a crazy game! Plutnar is fortunate that the officials didn't throw the book at him for purposefully knocking the linesman over - you don't see that every day.

McDavid benched after two hooking minors, a wild faceoff goal where Tomecek beat Horvat --- I didn't think Patterson looked very good on the Tomecek or Vrana goals (although Vrana wired that shot) - or in the shootout.

S_C

[Island Nucklehead]

So you judge a players entire career potential from a too many men penalty? I would say that every NHLer has taken a too many men penalty in their hockey careers

Not their whole career, just his impact on that game and in this tourney thus far. He doesn't look like an NHL player amongst juniors. He looks like a junior player. Don't understand the hype.

Tragic drop pass? To the slot? To Drouin who missed it? That was as tragic Kassians blind pass to the slot that miraculously ended up on Tanevs stick resulting in a goal. Your funny

Did you watch the same pass? Even Ferraro called him out. Drouin moved in behind him and he put it to nobody.

I know you like him because he's not a Canucks pick, but c'mon dude.

[Southern_Canuck]

Mantha is definitely not a puck carrier - he looked terrible when he took passes near the Czech blueline and bumbled it to the side boards several times, killing the offense. His bread and butter seems to be less than 10 feet from the net, especially on the power play, and he looks like a very limited player.

I'm surprised RD that you like this player because he seems somewhat one-dimensional.

Maybe he'll make the NHL and bang in goals like Tim Kerr, but I'd be surprised.

S_C

[Per]

Meanwhile Sweden beats Finland 4-2.
A little too close for comfort, but hey, I guess it could be worse.

[Meds]

Mantha is definitely not a puck carrier - he looked terrible when he took passes near the Czech blueline and bumbled it to the side boards several times, killing the offense. His bread and butter seems to be less than 10 feet from the net, especially on the power play, and he looks like a very limited player.

I'm surprised RD that you like this player because he seems somewhat one-dimensional.

Maybe he'll make the NHL and bang in goals like Tim Kerr, but I'd be surprised.

S_C

Mantha is the Red Wings' replacement for Franzen.

[Meds]

Canada dominated that game today, Langhamer was outstanding and made some incredible saves. The Czech's also blocked a lot of shots and worked hard.

The Czech's capitalized on what Canada gave them.

Our shootout attempts were abysmal after Drouin's.

Patterson was terrible. 4 goals on 29 shots isn't a complete disaster, but the number of pucks that he missed that went just wide.....that could easily have been a 6 or 7 goal affair for the Czech team.

On the two goals off of face-offs Patterson was down too early, both shots were wired, but if he had stayed on his feet they would have been off of his shoulder.

Horvat's two-way game is very impressive, definitely the best forward on the team when it comes to hustling back on defense.

If that had been a North American player who tossed the linesman to get at McDavid he would have been gone for the tournament. Bullshit.

I put this on Sutter and Patterson. Patterson didn't close the door, despite his team battling and answering every Czech goal in short order. Sutter should have gone with Fucale after the third goal, and even for the tournament. Fucale isn't known as a world-beater every game, but he has a reputation for making the big saves when they are needed and for showing up in big games.....almost every game in this tournament is a "big game".