WJC: 2021 Canada Roster Talk Part 2

[snipes]

Button says Canada will win gold undefeated.... but little comfort for other nations Button is wrong with his predictions pretty much every year so..

He predicted Canada v Russia for the finals last year didn’t he?

 

[jcs0218]

Did the US and Finland drop out of the tournament?

They might as well drop out of the tournament.

Save themselves the money, time, energy, and embarrassment.

 

[jcs0218]

Whoa! Slow your roll, dude. I did my own chest-thumping Canada post back there, but saying you have a wicked lineup is NOT the same as guaranteeing Gold. A LOT can happen and it only takes one bad game. Plus there are still some pretty good teams out there and certainly some game stealing goalies. We’re still going to have to work our asses off to win this thing.

Canada has got this. No doubt about it. It is as good as done.

D.O.N.E.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

They might as well drop out of the tournament.

Save themselves the money, time, energy, and embarrassment.

Yeah, I mean why have the tournament at all? Good point.

 

[jcs0218]

Yeah, I mean why have the tournament at all? Good point.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[snipes]

It’s crazy how Russia only has one right shot player on their roster. I know they usually bring a team with a majority of left shots, however, all but one forward and all of their D men are left shots.

As well, Askarov is a right catching goalie which is always unique for a shooter.

We’ll need to heavily target the D man playing his off side when the puck is dumped in and crash hard on the forecheck to that side. Should help lead to turnovers if we play them at some point, hoping in the Gold medal game.

 

[Prominence Problem]

I'm pretty sure that that's Sweden vs the Czech Slovak team, Russia, and Canada only. TSN still shows the Canada Sweden game and there are Swedish highlights out there of Sweden vs the Czech team. I never noticed before that Naslund was apparently the captain of that team, which feels odd.

Caught me, I never watched the video

 

[ORRFForever]

Don’t forget, they still get exhibition games and a soft prelim schedule to warm up. If they haven’t got it going by the QF then that’s another issue, but it looks to me like there’s plenty of runway here.

The good news is we’re well rested!

Well said.

 

[ORRFForever]

I am not a CHI fan but did watch Dach in the bubble and he looked very good for a young player. I cannot see any other country stopping him. That alone might be enough to give CAN the win. Layer in the weird travel and quarantine and it's hard to see any other country showing up in force, even the US. I do want to see competitive games to make watching more fun. It will be interesting to see if SWE can pick itself up off the mat and show up or do they use the missing players and coaches as an excuse to mail it in.

Not me. The 2005 WJR's was the most fun I've ever seen.

 

[ORRFForever]

We'll face good goal-tending in that medal round ; Russia , USA and Sweden all have goalies that can steal a game.
USA vs RUSSIA right off the hop Christmas day should be good.

That's the game I'm most looking forward to and it's on Christmas night - when there is nothing to do. Perfect!

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

Dach was a beast in the playoffs and can win the tourney himself.

Byram was looking like Chabot.... we haven’t gotten to Drydale but those 2 alone should be enough. Lafreniere just wouldn’t be fair lol.

For everyone sleeping on Levi... don’t.

 

[Adam da bomb]

That's the game I'm most looking forward to and it's on Christmas night - when there is nothing to do. Perfect!

Perefetti! I want his name to be the new word for perfect.

 

[ORRFForever]

If the team had found a way to include Shane Wright, the parallels between this team and 2005 would have made for an interesting discussion.

 

[Leviathan899]

I still have serious question marks about Canada's goaltending (seems like an annual thing aside from Carter Hart 2018). But no serious person can argue that Canada doesn't have the deepest group on D and up front. All 14 forwards are 1st round NHL picks. Simply unheard of in a rare COVID year.

I do agree but I think the goaltending this year is solid, nobody was expecting Hofer to become a legend last year

 

[Leviathan899]

I have very limited viewings of Rees but he seemed more controlled with his physicality compared to Virtanen. Rees is a honey badger and those guys can have good impacts on a team if they come out flat or just need a good energy shift to change momentum.

Rees does have a bit of a suspension history for questionable hits in his OHL career so far.

 

[Leviathan899]

Whoa! Slow your roll, dude. I did my own chest-thumping Canada post back there, but saying you have a wicked lineup is NOT the same as guaranteeing Gold. A LOT can happen and it only takes one bad game. Plus there are still some pretty good teams out there and certainly some game stealing goalies. We’re still going to have to work our asses off to win this thing.

Last year should serve as a prime example, we lose 6-0 to Russia during the prelims and while over in Europe the mood after that game was very somber, nobody was giving us a chance it seemed. Then beat Russia in the gold medal, it’s so hard to beat good teams twice in this tournament

 

[Leviathan899]

Does anyone else think Kirby Dach has a chance at having the greatest performance in tournament history ?

He's 6'4", well over 200lbs, one full year of NHL experience and at times he looked like the best player on his team with the Blackhawks in the playoffs.

While it’s probably going to be hard for anyone in the modern game to put up the numbers some guys have, I think he should dominate out there. Watching Chicago in the playoffs I honestly at times thought to myself, dach might even get an invite by the time 2022 Olympic camp rolls around, maybe a little far fetched and he wouldn’t based on his play to date, but with another year under his belt you never know. He is already a really good PK’er in the NHL and is so good around the net on the PP.

 

[jetsforever]

I hope Perfetti gets at least some icetime so I can get a first look at his play.

 

[Hagstrom]

Scott Wheeler at the Athletic takes a stab at a lineup projection and guesses for Letters

C: Kirby Dach (Blackhawks)
A: Bowen Byram (Avalanche)
A: Peyton Krebs (Golden Knights)
A: Jakob Pelletier (Flames)


Forwards

LEFT WING	CENTER	RIGHT WING
McMichael (WSH)	Cozens (BUF)	Dach (CHI)
Perfetti (WPG)	Byfield (LAK)	Krebs (VGK)
Holloway (EDM)	Newhook (COL)	Pelletier (CGY)
Zary (CGY)	Mercer (NJD)	Tomasino (NSH)
Extras
Quinn (BUF)
Suzuki (CAR)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Defencemen

LEFT	RIGHT
Byram (COL)	Drysdale (ANA)
Harley (DAL)	Schneider (NYR)
Guhle (MTL)	Barron (COL)
Extras
Spence (LAK)
Korczak (VGK)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Goaltenders

Gauthier

Garand (NYR)

Levi (FLA)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

His article also had his thoughts about each player cut and each stand out player (Byram, Krebs, Pelletier, Dach, McMichael, Zary, Levi)

 

[sabresEH]

Rees does have a bit of a suspension history for questionable hits in his OHL career so far.

Good to know. Didn’t seem to cross the line when watching him in the U18’s. But obviously when you play that game it can happen.

 

[Gold Standard]

He predicted Canada v Russia for the finals last year didn’t he?

He did, but predicted a Russian gold medal win. He was almost right, but wrong in the end.

I don't put much stock into Button's hockey musings...they don't often mesh with mine, but when they do - I chuckle. so, I had a good chuckle this a.m. with my morning cup of french press.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Is Dach not good enough for NHL? I've seen people putting him over Hughes and Kakko.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Is Dach not good enough for NHL? I've seen people putting over Hughes and Kakko.

Huh? He played all of last year in the NHL and is going right back once he is done here.

 

[Hagstrom]

Is Dach not good enough for NHL? I've seen people putting him over Hughes and Kakko.

He definitely is, he just wanted to go to the tournament and Chicago let him go. Hughes didn't want to go and the Rangers didn't let Kakko.

 

[snipes]

Is Dach not good enough for NHL? I've seen people putting him over Hughes and Kakko.

Dach is the best forward from his draft class and will be rejoining the Hawks as soon as the season is done.