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GDT: 2020 World Junior Championships

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They talked about a flu bug going around the team and chicken soup at every meal on the telecast, wonder if that has anything to do with the bullshit line blender.

Would certainly explain Turcotte inexplicably falling down every 5 steps, even after making great little plays to advance the puck
 
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Anything can happen but looks to me like it's Canada's year. They have depth and a good coach. Only weakness is in Goal. Rooting for Bjornfot and Fagemo moving forward.
 
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****ing atrocious game. Credit to Finland for playing excellent defense, but my God that last 10 minutes made me want to pull my hair out. Every single American player wanted to play hero and dangle 4 or 5 Finns. They were playing as individuals and not as a team and that's what pissed me off.
 
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kingsboy11 said:
****ing atrocious game. Credit to Finland for playing excellent defense, but my God that last 10 minutes made me want to pull my hair out. Every single American player wanted to play hero and dangle 4 or 5 Finns. They were playing as individuals and not as a team and that's what pissed me off.
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There were so many 1-on-4 and 1-on-3 attempts at entering the offensive zone. It was brutal.
 
kingsboy11 said:
****ing atrocious game. Credit to Finland for playing excellent defense, but my God that last 10 minutes made me want to pull my hair out. Every single American player wanted to play hero and dangle 4 or 5 Finns. They were playing as individuals and not as a team and that's what pissed me off.
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This is usually a coaching issue when so many players are doing it. They don't have confidence in their linemates or the system so they try to be heroes.
 
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kingsboy11 said:
****ing atrocious game. Credit to Finland for playing excellent defense, but my God that last 10 minutes made me want to pull my hair out. Every single American player wanted to play hero and dangle 4 or 5 Finns. They were playing as individuals and not as a team and that's what pissed me off.
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It was painful to watch indeed. And again the coaches kept throwing them out there. Brutal.
 
Hasn't been the best from our standpoint. Wild ride.

Kaliyev was up and down, usage
Turcotte was up and down, usage and not productive, and falling down a lot. Sick? Regardless, he was very good when he was out there, but we need more than very good.
Nousiainen isn't getting talked about enough, he's been nails from what I've seen.
Kupari, RIP, go figure
Fagemo luckily has been awesome, but everyone is looking at Hoglander
Bjornfot has been very good, but everyone is looking at Broberg
Dudas/Thomas have been good, but mostly just Canada depth
Parik, of course, another injury.
 
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Raccoon Jesus said:
Hasn't been the best from our standpoint. Wild ride.

Kaliyev was up and down, usage
Turcotte was up and down, usage and not productive, and falling down a lot. Sick? Regardless, he was very good when he was out there, but we need more than very good.
Nousiainen isn't getting talked about enough, he's been nails from what I've seen.
Kupari, RIP, go figure
Fagemo luckily has been awesome, but everyone is looking at Hoglander
Bjornfot has been very good, but everyone is looking at Broberg
Dudas/Thomas have been good, but mostly just Canada depth
Parik, of course, another injury.
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pretty fair run down
 
Hoglander/Broberg get lots of attention because they are prospects of Canadian teams. Same with Robertson/Sandin and Caufield (in the pretourny game atleast)
 
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Raccoon Jesus said:
Hasn't been the best from our standpoint. Wild ride.

Kaliyev was up and down, usage
Turcotte was up and down, usage and not productive, and falling down a lot. Sick? Regardless, he was very good when he was out there, but we need more than very good.
Nousiainen isn't getting talked about enough, he's been nails from what I've seen.
Kupari, RIP, go figure
Fagemo luckily has been awesome, but everyone is looking at Hoglander
Bjornfot has been very good, but everyone is looking at Broberg
Dudas/Thomas have been good, but mostly just Canada depth
Parik, of course, another injury.
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That's pretty much the point of the criticism from last week. He's the prize jewel (Vilardi arguments aside) of the pipeline at the moment, the "reward" for one of the worst seasons in the history of the LA Kings. I'd actually say he was "okay" and we need at least "very good" in a short tournament like this. At the same time, it isn't like everyone except Zegras and Pinto is going to bust because of this tournament. I mean, the guys from the 1998 US Olympic Team didn't all crater after Nagano. I don't know if he was sick but I'm not going to speculate that he is/was because that happens here a lot when guys under perform and it turns out they were fine. I'm just going to chalk it up to a shitty entry for the US pretty much all around and hope he goes back to Wisconsin and crushes it.

I will say that while I have stated you can't make huge decisions in a small tourney like this--for the most part--it is pretty easy for me to say he should be at Wisconsin next season.

As for Kaliyev, I feel he scores even more if his usage was up. The guy scores all the time against his peers. He's proven it for a good amount of time now at the OHL level, did it in the summer tournament and then did it here. His play away from the puck is nothing like Kovalchuk-level bad so to limit his playing time is pretty stupid: especially his deployment on the power play. I know Caufield got all the pub as the best goal scorer and shooter in the draft, but Kaliyev can't be far behind and he's got a big boy body. As much as I like Fagemo, Kaliyev is my favorite pick from the 2019 draft and the player I'm most excited about. His floor is lower than others but his ceiling is insanely high.
 
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Disappointing as a whole. Hopefully Turcotte and Kaliyev respond well to disappointment. Also hope they get more usage and better coaching next year.

Thomas and Dudas have been depth players, but they've stepped up when needed to.

Fagemo and Nousiainen are the prizes of this year's WJC. Björnfot has been solid, but underappreciated.

Three teams with Kings prospects are semifinalists, guaranteeing at least two teams medaling.
 
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King'sPawn said:
Disappointing as a whole. Hopefully Turcotte and Kaliyev respond well to disappointment. Also hope they get more usage and better coaching next year.

Thomas and Dudas have been depth players, but they've stepped up when needed to.

Fagemo and Nousiainen are the prizes of this year's WJC. Björnfot has been solid, but underappreciated.

Three teams with Kings prospects are semifinalists, guaranteeing at least two teams medaling.
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He's been good from my limited viewing. Extremely lazy analysis to liken his game to Visnovsky but I'm lazy so there you go.
 
BigKing said:
He's been good from my limited viewing. Extremely lazy analysis to liken his game to Visnovsky but I'm lazy so there you go.
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He's definitely been unexpectedly good. Granted, he's older than some of the other Finnish dmen, but anchoring the top pairing is pretty impressive.
 
Lots were already said about Turcotte, but for me the one thing that stood out was how small he looked on the ice. I noticed that too with the badgers but it was more noticeable in this tournament. His board play and fearlessness to go to the dirty areas was evident. He is going to need to bulk up to play that type of game in the NHL.

I really like the play of Fagemo. Not just the 31 shots and leading the WJC in goals, but the fact that he seems engaged along the boards and made some nice decisions with the puck. Reminds me of Pasternak on the PP.

Kaliyev's flaws are fixable. He back checked well, kept up with the play and the kid can finish. He outplayed Caulfield who looked over matched the first 3 games.

Nousiainen is underrated. Strong on his skates, plays well against the bigger players. He got over 19 minutes of ice time last game and just kept playing stronger. Going to see how he matches up against the canadians next.

Bjornfot as expected. Nothing fancy, solid. Good first pass.

Dudas\Thomas were role players. I would put them and JAD as the heart and soul bottom 6 players if they make it.
 
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