For as bad as the OHL forwards played, who knew the WHL forwards would be much, much worse? Dumba-Pouliot managed to make Koekkoek-Murphy look like a shutdown pair too.
I thought Reinhart was the best defenseman tonight. He and Wotherspoon were the two I thought played the best.
Edit: Unfortunately, I just wasn't that impressed with the rest of their blue line tonight. There were a lot of mistakes, and not a whole lot of positive to make up for them.
Weird series. Team Q played great in Game 2, both OHL and WHL failed to impress. Russia looked inconsistent, very good defence and outstanding goaltending with terrible, probably the worst PP I have seen from recent Russian U-20 teams. Yakupov showed zero, I am not so sure if the team may have been better without him.
For as bad as the OHL forwards played, who knew the WHL forwards would be much, much worse? Dumba-Pouliot managed to make Koekkoek-Murphy look like a shutdown pair too.
To be honest OHL should've NEVER lost game one.
But this also shows how much hockey is growing and developing around the world, because this has to be one of the most physical teams I've ever seen from Europe.
I had a fun time watching this, because as an Oiler fan, I was kinda rooting for Russia (As the series is basically meaningless anyways) and it was a different experience seeing it from their viewpoint (I can kinda understand why other countries get ticked off with Canadian media and fans now. lol ).
I think the best thing in the entire tournament, besides the video judge cursing on TV, was when they had the terrible soundsystem in Val-d'Or and the Russian anthem sounded like it was being beamed in from 1983 and they showed the one Russian player laughing while the anthem played, I assume, because it sounded so bad.
Players who really opened my eyes in this were: Hunter Shinkaruk (As good offensively as advertised, but also a willingness to go to high traffic areas and hit); Andrey Makarov (He basically kept Russia in the first WHL game and looked like probably the best goalie in the entire series); Eric Comrie (Came in at a tough time and stood tall, tracked pucks well, and projected some confidence out there); Yaroslav Kosov (Continued his good play from the summer, with a nice mix of surprising speed and size); Artem Sergeev (Who picked up the mantle from Yakupov and looked like the most dangerous offensive player in the tournament) and Nail Yakupov (Because I'm an Oiler fan ).
But this also shows how much hockey is growing and developing around the world, because this has to be one of the most physical teams I've ever seen from Europe.
This statement is ridiculous. You should watch more of international hockey. Russian team from 2 years ago was more physical than this year's team.
But this also shows how much hockey is growing and developing around the world, because this has to be one of the most physical teams I've ever seen from Europe.
Oh they absolutely should have won that game, Binnington could have easily made a save. And the Russians were impressive physically, WHL hit them and hit them hard and they barely blinked.
But this also shows how much hockey is growing and developing around the world, because this has to be one of the most physical teams I've ever seen from Europe.
Team Canada will need to bring a BIG (in order to NOT get pushed around) skating team...there will be a few BIG teams..Russia, Sweden, USA and even the Czechs will be BIG and also skate...its not enough to bring 1 BIG line and 3 puny, small, diminutive lines...
This statement is ridiculous. You should watch more of international hockey. Russian team from 2 years ago was more physical than this year's team.
So I make a good statement about international hockey and you call it ridiculous? Odd.
I do watch a lot of international hockey and for a junior team to match Canadians physicality is very impressive, definitely one of the first times I've seen that. Bold is keywords.
Yukapov is so overrated..He hasn't done anything all this series...
Ya he's been a piece of junk.. Bad turnovers and decisions by him tonight. Teamates set him up a couple times for glorious chances and he whiffed. I would leave him home but then if you lose you take some serious blame for not bringing him. Whatever maybe he will turn it on in December.
Ya he's been a piece of junk.. Bad turnovers and decisions by him tonight. Teamates set him up a couple times for glorious chances and he whiffed. I would leave him home but then if you lose you take some serious blame for not bringing him. Whatever maybe he will turn it on in December.
hmm.. strongly disagree, it's not always about scoring goals
His team won, I say that he's done his job as a Captain.
hmm.. strongly disagree, it's not always about scoring goals
His team won, I say that he's done his job as a Captain.
I disagree as well, tonnes of turnovers. The first Canadian goal specifically he whiffed on a sure goal then missed his back check. On the power play he has been atrocious with his decision making. He sets up for the slapshot along the half boards and he always shoots it. The goalie just cheats over to him now because its so obvious, they know he's not going to make a pass cross seem, which a player of his caliber should be able to do... OV sets up there too, but he throws a pass across from time to time so the goalies dont cheat..
He likes to show everyone his neat stickhandling skills whenever he gets the puck, but he ends up losing it most of the time. Its been more than just a lack of production, its lack of usefullness. The other forwards have been very impressive and hustled. They are just more usefull.
A couple over reactions in here as to what Canada needs to bring to beat these Russians. News flash...this is not the best Russia will bring to the WJC and obviously it isn't for Canada either.
It's good to see Russia bring closer to an A squad for this than they ever have before. I hope they continue that trend as in the past this tournament has been a joke at times.
Maybe each junior league should ice one complete team for both games instead of split squads. Goalies splitting games is silly. Also, as this is considered somewhat of an evaluation for Team Canada, almost 90 players is a bit excessive. Without split squads, the coaches would still see at least 60 players. That's more than enough. The development camp isn't even that big and this doesn't include college or NHL eligible guys.
Ya he's been a piece of junk.. Bad turnovers and decisions by him tonight. Teamates set him up a couple times for glorious chances and he whiffed. I would leave him home but then if you lose you take some serious blame for not bringing him. Whatever maybe he will turn it on in December.
Yea I disagree too. Yak had a great game tonight. Just by his skating alone he caused timely turnovers and created offence.
On the flip side, man did anyone else notice Kirill Dyakov? This guy is high end.. Very fast and strong, I didn't see him get beat the whole tournament. Has very good stickhandling and passing skills, physical and a pest as well. Just a great all round player.
Nesterov was weak the 1st few games but steadied the last 2 although he did get beat and made a few mistakes tonight. Overall the Russian D are tanks, its going to be hard to make decisions;
).
).
