Langway
In den Wolken
- Jul 7, 2006
- 32,470
- 9,185
That was the best round robin U18 game I can recall. Team Canada has to be considered favorites now. To beat USA without Veleno playing and in their first tournament game together was pretty impressive. Merkley mostly seems to stand out on the PP where he'll do something fancy but other than that I don't see a player that's matured much over two years or so. Lavoie (2019) and Lafreniere (2020) look to be big-time prospects for Canada. Very impressed with both, particularly at that age.I actually watched about 75% of that game and was surprised at how it was entertaining and was just impressed at the skill over all for both teams. Merkley as a RHD looks intriguing. Kinda hoping a skill forward BPA falls where the caps pick if there is a good offensive D there...
Noel has been pretty impressive so far. One thing I didn't quite realize is just how young he is as an August birthday. If he continues to look the part the skilled players he's probably a lock for the first round. The USA/Sweden game Sunday should be a good one.