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World Cup: 2016 World Cup — Team Canada (Part III)

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50 in 07 said:
anyone at least a bit surprised that holtby is scratched for crawford for the opener vs. czechs?
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Not really.

Crawford has won two cups, Holtby hasn't been out of the 2nd round.

And before anybody cites team strength, the goalie in question is going to be playing behind Team Canada. Go with the goalie that's been in a pressure cooker.
 
JaegerDice said:
If you can't find Toews, look in the other team's defensive end. He's spent the bulk of every 5v5 shift there against the other team's top line. :laugh:
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Toews definitely hasn't been facing other teams top lines in these 3 games
 
DearDiary said:
Toews definitely hasn't been facing other teams top lines in these 3 games
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His line was hard matched against Datsyuk and Ovechkin all night.

Prior to that, he was hard matched against the Kane line. On D, they mostly saw Mcdonagh and Carlson. They saw Suter and Johnson the most after that, but Suter saw pretty much equal time against everybody cause he barely left the ice.

Who do you think are the top matchups if not the Kane and Ovechkin lines?
 
TC lacks offensive punch on the left side of defense, we shall see if the LHD/RHD pairings in this tourney are enough to justify the absence of Letang/Subban, not to mention LHD in Giordano/Brodie who most rate over Muzzin and especially Bouwmeester.

Thornton over Hall is the over surprise of course.
 
drewstar said:
TC lacks offensive punch on the left side of defense, we shall see if the LHD/RHD pairings in this tourney are enough to justify the absence of Letang/Subban, not to mention LHD in Giordano/Brodie who most rate over Muzzin and especially Bouwmeester.

Thornton over Hall is the over surprise of course.
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For all we know the Flames duo said no thanks. They have turned down Canada in the past in attending the IIHF championships because they wanted a full summer. It remains a bit of a Flames tradition since Iginla started doing it a decade ago.
 
Frank the Tank said:
For all we know the Flames duo said no thanks. They have turned down Canada in the past in attending the IIHF championships because they wanted a full summer. It remains a bit of a Flames tradition since Iginla started doing it a decade ago.
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Possible, but doubtful. I haven't heard of even one player from any country/team decline an invite to this tournament.
 
drpepper said:
It'd be nice seeing Canada mix up the lines a little bit:

Marchand-Crosby-Bergeron
X-Toews-Giroux
Tavares-Thornton-Stamkos
X-Getzlaf-Perry

Fill in X with ROR, Duchene, and Couture - maybe Couture to Toews line because he shoots more and ROR to Getz-Perry as a Benn-lite or Duchene if they need more speed.

It keeps the top line together. It reunites Tavares-Stamkos who looked great together and adds a playmaker in Thornton. It give Toews a playmaker winger that should be more familiar with. It keeps the Getz-Perry dynamic.
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I also thought that Stamkos looked good with Tavares (and vice versa). I"d like to see them on the same line too. I think Thornton would be very good between them, although Getzlaf would be fine too.

I'd like to keep Couture with Toews bc, so far, they've done well against other teams' top lines. Both are used to playing a shut down role. That's probably why the coaches don't want to move Stamkos from that line. ROR could be good there instead of Stamkos, freeing up Stamkos for a scoring role. I think ROR would be good but he was very sheltered in the only game he's played so far. (Understandably so since it was his first game and he hadn't had much time to get used to the team.)

I agree that it could be worthwhile to try Giroux with Toews since he's good defensively and having a playmaker on his right wing might be good for Toews. (Obviously not in the next game but at some point, at least in practice.)

Glad Crawford's scheduled to play. I thought he was outstanding.
 
Is Muzzin injured or something? He's the 7th dman against CZE. Makes the dmen selections to exclude BOTH Letang and Subban even more mind moggling.

With no Keith, your top 2 left sided dmen are Vlasic and Pietrangelo (a righty), with Bouwmeester not making the top 7 originally, and a LHD who made the top 7 but will ride the pine.

SWE's defense is talked as being on the same level or close to Canada's level, yet they took 5 LHD and 2 RHD.
 
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drewstar said:
Is Muzzin injured or something? He's the 7th dman against CZE. Makes the dmen selections to exclude BOTH Letang and Subban even more mind moggling.

With no Keith, your top 2 left sided dmen are Vlasic and Pietrangelo (a righty), with Bouwmeester not making the top 7 originally, and a LHD who made the top 7 but will ride the pine.

SWE's defense is talked as being on the same level or close to Canada's level, yet they took 5 LHD and 2 RHD.
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And Sweden allowed 6 goals against Team Europe. Tough decisions have to be made and Babcock articulated a week ago why he prefers ideally a perfect LHD/RHD split. I also questioned the Bouwmeester pick to replace Keith, and yet I understand a lot of information probably exists behind the scenes to which we do not have access.
 
JaegerDice said:
Advanced stats for Team Canada thus far:

http://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?season=WCH-20162017&stype=1&team=CAN&sit=ev&rate=n


The Toews line should be wanted for murder right now. Just insane.
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They've dominated the puck, no doubt, but at some point they need to develop prime scoring chances. The Toews' lines in 2010 and 2014 were key contributors to Canada's success, by both shutting down the opposition's best players and providing timely goals. I'm hoping Toews is saving the offense for when the tournament actually matters.
 
Talks to Goalposts said:
So he's been team average? That isn't notable in the slightest.
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getting the least o-zone starts, highest TOI while facing the toughest competition and maintaining 61% CF and 65% FF is average? :laugh:

only Burns and Pie have better numbers (65% CF) and they have 62% o-zone starts, Weber has 42%.
 
That fourth line makes no sense at all, basically just throw everyone left together. Also, the difference in speed :laugh:
 
Nalens Oga said:
That fourth line makes no sense at all, basically just throw everyone left together. Also, the difference in speed :laugh:
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Yeah.

I feel like Thornton would be a better fit on the Toews line, and Stamkos would be a better fit on the '4th' line.

Or they could have just left the Toews line alone, since they were dominating everybody in their path in possession.

Ah well. It's the CZE. I'm not particularly worried.
 
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