Two guys came to play, the rest looked like they were at 80%. Byram seemed to be the only one capable of creating offense.
WJC: 2021 Canada Roster Talk Part 3
- Thread starter TaLoN
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SoundwaveIsCharisma
Moderator
His usage was strange to me. I get trying to get your skill players going, but when it's a short tournament and your skill players aren't doing much of anything, mix it up a bit. The kid battles hard and finds a way to get the puck. That would have been extremely beneficial on the top-6.
I do think a lot of what happened yesterday was a result of the Canadian forwards really having their weaknesses masked by a stronger defensive unit. From a tournament perspective, the only consistent offensive threat was Cozens, and he had his worst game of the tournament. McMichael was snakebit and was forcing shots into shinpads any chance he had. Byfield had one big game, and was mostly invisible after that. Quinn was atrocious, took so long to make decisions that the other team often made the decision for him. Newhook wasn't assertive enough, and then got banged up on top of that. Perfetti showed that he has skills, but his skating wasn't able to keep up with the play frequently enough that it reduced his impact. You could go on, and on with the Canadian forwards. It doesn't help that once the American's started pressuring more the forwards just stood still and stopped fighting back.
At the end of the day though, this was a group of teenagers that haven't played in 8+ months. The easy road to the finals did them no favours, as there was no need to bite down on the mouth guard and just go for it. Hopefully these guys learn some lessons from the loss, and they use that to propel themselves towards future success.
What an absolute travesty of a post. This post reeks of entitlement, just an absurd take on a team that had one off game the whole tournament.
Almost every player on that list IS a skill guy. They are FAR more talented than the US team. That doesn't necessarily translate to victory. Blue Jackets beat Tampa with virtually no talent at all.
robsenz
Registered User
- Apr 15, 2007
- 3,653
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SoundwaveIsCharisma
Moderator
I'd agree with you. I don't think you need to bring a group of grinders to the tournament, but you need a nice mix. This years team just didn't have enough guys that were able to simplify their games and go to the dirty areas. It's always a bad sign when your team is behind, and you are trying no look drop passes, or every second pass attempt is just flinging the puck across the rink expecting to hit someone in full flight.
Part of it is on the coaching staff as well. The guys that were getting in the dirty areas (Zary and Mercer for example), also never got moved up.
McShogun99
Registered User
The credit should go to team USA for executing a solid game plan and sticking to it. They pressured Canada hard until they got the lead, then sat back and kept everything to the outside. If Canada got the first goal of the game it would have changed how USA was playing.
- Jun 17, 2009
- 10,469
- 6,641
The US were battle-tested, and Canada breezed to the gold medal game. It doesn't matter how much talent you have, in tight games its about effort and fight, just like in the NHL playoffs.
Canada only figured out to use their speed to gain the zone in the 3rd, and by then it was too little too late. The first two periods, the breakout was a mess and nobody was winning puck battles. Pure domination by the US.
Canada only figured out to use their speed to gain the zone in the 3rd, and by then it was too little too late. The first two periods, the breakout was a mess and nobody was winning puck battles. Pure domination by the US.
Give me a break. And this is a perfect example of everything that is wrong about junior sports. Entitled fans who decide to call out 18 year old kids for not being at 100% throughout the tournament while they gorge themselves in their sofas. They didn't play competitive hockey for 8 months, they blew out everyone else to smithereens, they played well, but not as good as USA and you rage on about entitlement? Take a look in the mirror.
BTP
Registered User
- Apr 28, 2013
- 4,613
- 6,138
Every game is challenging. This is best on best. They were simply better than everyone.
They ran into a hungry team usa and had an off night. Single game tournaments mean anything can happen.
golffuul
Registered User
- Oct 24, 2011
- 4,923
- 2,784
Yeah...a few guys laid big egg, peformance-wise, who had been solid all tournament long. Tough to see, but this is the kind of experience that will hopefully motivate them to become better players and realize that being a pro is about being consistent at a high level.
It was a no show, biggest game of the tourney and USA was ready
Gold Standard
Registered User
- Sep 7, 2018
- 2,385
- 2,285
ah who cares! with the year we all experienced we should be thrilled we had a tournament at all. It wouldn't be Christmas without one. So, I'm thankful for that,
Let's go for Gold next year!
Let's go for Gold next year!
Stephen
Moderator
- Feb 28, 2002
- 83,068
- 61,971
In the grand scheme of things all the tournament participants deserve a round of applause for going into the bubble and giving us fans a sense of normalcy in these unusual and stressful times. You hear stories of Team Canada going into a long quarantine, being away from home over the holidays and Team Germany coming all this way just to get hit hard by Covid and to get wrecked on the ice. These are remarkable human stories.
From a strictly hockey storyline point of view though, it’s not the best look for a team flirting with tournament long perfection to just completely get smothered the first sign of trouble. No urgency, no composure, no game breaking talent to save the day. The WJC is usually full of these kind of emotional swings but I always dread these storylines when Goliath gets it right between the eyes and all that psychological fragility is laid bare.
From a strictly hockey storyline point of view though, it’s not the best look for a team flirting with tournament long perfection to just completely get smothered the first sign of trouble. No urgency, no composure, no game breaking talent to save the day. The WJC is usually full of these kind of emotional swings but I always dread these storylines when Goliath gets it right between the eyes and all that psychological fragility is laid bare.
Settle down man they are kids who had one bad game. Had they won this game you'd be the same guy saying what a dominant performance
CupInSIX
My cap runneth over
Blame the media for over hyping a mediocre Canadian team in a down year for the tournanent.
I never got it, their terribe PP spoke volumes in comparison to past years. The gamebreakers from previous simply were not there this year.
Deep team, no gamebreakers.
4thlineduster
Registered User
- Jan 6, 2012
- 1,017
- 474
If you want to call 18 year olds embarrassing for losing a hockey game be my guest but that makes you even more embarrassing in my books
I don't think the GMG was really determined by desire or skill, or "bad picks" I think it ended up being matchups and coaching, and the inability to adjust quickly enough. We could highlight a few mistakes here and there made by some players, but mistakes are part of the game.
No, what I think happened is that we found out too late in the game is that;
1) The way to break down the US defense was to use sandpaper-type players like Holloway and Mercer on the forecheck.
2) Cute, behind the back, no-look passes to break out of the zone works well against Switzerland, and Germany, who retreated into the neutral zone to try to turnover the puck - less well against a team that will put pressure on your wingers in the Offensive zone.
3) Support your teammates; individual plays won't work against a solid 5-man unit - too often was the puck poked away from one of our players, and the supporting players were a bit too far to recover the puck.
That was the difference between Gold and Silver.
No, what I think happened is that we found out too late in the game is that;
1) The way to break down the US defense was to use sandpaper-type players like Holloway and Mercer on the forecheck.
2) Cute, behind the back, no-look passes to break out of the zone works well against Switzerland, and Germany, who retreated into the neutral zone to try to turnover the puck - less well against a team that will put pressure on your wingers in the Offensive zone.
3) Support your teammates; individual plays won't work against a solid 5-man unit - too often was the puck poked away from one of our players, and the supporting players were a bit too far to recover the puck.
That was the difference between Gold and Silver.
Lemontree
Fire Dubas
- Feb 12, 2018
- 1,424
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I agree that the team was overhyped based on skill level. It is easy to make the connection when every forward was a 1st round pick however to actually watch them play I didn't see any forward with game breaking ability. Lots of development time left for all these kids but most look to be bottom 6 forwards at the NHL level if/when they make it.
Why is Caulfield in that group? I was underwhelmed by his performance. He was maybe the 5th or 6th best forward of their group IMO.
And you dont mention Cozens?
Fair, but I guess what I'm saying is I expected more of them since they had a decent team compared to other teams. They finished 3rd not by being amazing but rather the other teams were real bad. They were still the 3rd best team in the tourney so I don't want to make it sound like they were terrible but Canada and USA were just on a different level for this year.
I was also expecting more from some of their guys, Jarventie was a ghost for example.
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