world junior a hockey challenge

[collegehockeyguy]

how good of a team do countries put together? specifically the two canadian teams and russia?

as i understand it- usa uses this tournament almost exclusively for USHL kids.. not including the national team kids.

[cska78]

Russian team is pretty good, i question the goalies (Filonenko? Vokov?) Obviously it's missing players from the CHL as well.

[cska78]

Russia has lost to Canada East in a pretournament tune up.

[J Murda]

Just wondering, are the Russians using players from the MHL in this tournament?

Canada's teams are built up from the 10 Junior A leagues that make up the CJHL. Canada West has players from the BCHL, AJHL, SJHL, and MJHL. Canada East usually has players from the rest but it appears they are just using CCHL and OJHL players for whatever reason. The quality of hockey is very high in Canadian Junior A and is for players opting to take the scholastic route.

[cska78]

Originally Posted by J Murda

Just wondering, are the Russians using players from the MHL in this tournament?

Canada's teams are built up from the 10 Junior A leagues that make up the CJHL. Canada West has players from the BCHL, AJHL, SJHL, and MJHL. Canada East usually has players from the rest but it appears they are just using CCHL and OJHL players for whatever reason. The quality of hockey is very high in Canadian Junior A and is for players opting to take the scholastic route.

yes, MHL

[cska78]

Czechs are downed 6:1

[cagney]

US beat Canada East 9-1. The US team looked quite good, particularly the forwards, and McAdam was solid in goal.

[cska78]

Originally Posted by cagney

US beat Canada East 9-1. The US team looked quite good, particularly the forwards, and McAdam was solid in goal.

ouch, is the US-team U18?

[Mr Writer]

Originally Posted by cska78

ouch, is the US-team U18?

Mostly 1994 born players, a handful of 93s and a few 95s all except one for the USHL.

[cagney]

Originally Posted by cska78

ouch, is the US-team U18?

No. The US team at this tournament is put together in the same manner as the Canadian teams; mostly 18 year olds with a few 19 and 17 year olds. All but one player on the team are currently playing in the USHL.

[cska78]

Originally Posted by cagney

No. The US team at this tournament is put together in the same manner as the Canadian teams; mostly 18 year olds with a few 19 and 17 year olds. All but one player on the team are currently playing in the USHL.

oh, so we are the youngest? gonna be tough.

[cagney]

Originally Posted by cska78

oh, so we are the youngest? gonna be tough.

Yes. Russia has been sending their U18 team to this tournament for years now and it's tough going for players that age against the older competition.

This year should be real tough for the Russian team once the cross over round starts as all three of the teams in Group B (USA, Canada East and Switzerland) are real contenders to win the tournament. We've seen a bit of what the US and Canada East teams bring to the table but the Swiss could be very good as well. They have the oldest team in the tournament as it's basically the European core of their U20 team and they did very well in their one previous tournament appearance.

Here's some tournament history... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Junior_A_Challenge

[cska78]

I remember we did bad last year, but it's a good school to play older (not the cream of the crop, but still) players, playing physical NA style. Good rigors to go through.