Some good and bad from that game. It's probably useful that the team showed some battle and push to fight through some adversity, but that's also a game against a middling team that didn't even have its pre-tournament game. After the many defensive lapses of the first things tightened up, probably a combination of Canada's defence making better choices and also the Czechs wearing out a bit. Very fortunate to get the two man advantages, but at least they did capitalize. Power is quite skilled and confident and of course McTavish is a beast. Wouldn't mind seeing Stankoven mixed in with Guenther up in the box. Not sure what to make of Garand, he wasn't terrible but you'd also probably like him to keep that first period to two goals against. I liked Sebrango's game even outside of the goal. I'm also convinced of Bedard, the guy looks confident out there so let him play with some legitimate minutes. Johnson strikes me as a bit of a wildcard who might look great one game and pretty poor the next.
Wright is clearly shaping up to be the whipping boy. I'm not looking to pile on him but the coaching staff cannot try to force its preconceived plans when they are not working. I won't pretend to know a lot about Wright but it is hard to believe that this guy was the dominant player in the U18 tournament a few months ago, ahead of a guy like McTavish, and now looks like this and is having a disappointing regular season. 17 year olds rarely light the tournament on fire but I wouldn't be surprised if there is some kind of injury at play here, though not one serious enough for him to miss out on time after he sat out all of the previous season.
Canada has lots of room for improvement after that game, and I do expect the team to get better. Good news is that none of the teams looked awe inspiring on the first day.
