Quick Notes on the WJC:
Switzerland 3, Finland 2
Outstanding game, and a watermark victory for the Swiss. I have few accolades for the Finns and several criticisms. Brad Lambert was embarrassingly bad, and Joakim Kemell not much better. I felt the best Finn may have been Devils prospect Topias Vilen, whose upward arc as a prospect has been dizzying to behold. This kid can be a top 4 NHL defenseman, a real two-way rock. Heady player. But the true star of the game was Swiss D Lian Bichsel, who simply dominated defensively while impressing offensively. Yet another stellar pick by now-annual draft-day winners the Dallas Stars, Bichsel looks like he can be a virtual Owen Power clone, and maybe even better defensively.
Sweden 11, Austria 0
I don't have much to say here, hard to comment on such a mismatch. I look forward to seeing Sweden vs. some more stout competition.
USA 5, Latvia 2
Great outing for Latvia and a decidedly meh effort by the Americans, but in the end the far more talented Americans won out. I enjoyed watching one of my all-time draft-day favorites out of Latvia in Sandis Vilmanis -- he's going to be one hell of a middle six forward for the Florida Panthers one day. For USA, there were a lot of disappointments, especially on the blueline. Though the best player for USA was far-and-away Colorado prospect Sean Behrens -- who was truly, truly exceptional shift in and shift out -- the only other D who played even a pretty good game was Ryan Chesley. Luke Hughes made some great plays, but also made some hair-pulling blunders. The trio of Lane Hutson, Luke Mittlestadt and Ryan Ufko were nothing short of horrific defensively and one of them should be benched next game for Seamus Casey, who is far superior at handling the defensive zone.
At forward, Jimmy Snuggerud (STL) clearly stood out to me as the runaway top forward. Red Savage (DET) and Dylan Duke (TB) impressed in the bottom 6, as did 2023-eligible power forward Charlie Stramel. The biggest disappointment was without a doubt Logan Cooley, who was godawful -- the worst game I've ever seen him play. Watching Cooley dangle around and fail to utilize his teammates until he turned the puck over time and time again, I wondered why they just didn't demote him to a lower line like the Finns did with Lambert. But it wasn't just Cooley, outside of Behrens and Snuggerud and a handful of others this whole team will need to improve if they hope to medal.
Czechia 5, Canada 2
Obviously, the game of the day. Tough to say who the star of the day was, Switzerland's Lian Bichsel or Czechia's Stanislav Svozil. Svozil dominated every inch of ice in all three zones, he was an absolute monster, adding a goal and a highlight-reel assist to an almost historic defensive, shut-down effort. I couldn't be more proud of how that kid played. The Czech blueline was just terrific top to bottom, with David Jiricek and Tomas Hamara also performing in spectacular fashion.
As relentless as the Czech forwards were as a unit, one has to be concerned with the Canadian blueline. In one way or another, players like Allen, Hinds, Korchinski and Zellweger were all sorely overmatched, especially on the rush and down low. Gaudreau was not good in goal, but his defense did not give him much help. Canada's best player, not surprisingly, was 2023 1st-overall-pick-de-facto Conor Bedard, who is just beautiful to watch play hockey. So explosive and dynamic, every time he touches the puck it's must-see-TV. I was also impressed with Dylan Guenther, who was dangerous all game long. I'm still baffled by the Canadian decision not to take Owen Beck in lieu of a far inferior player in Zach Dean, who may have cost Canada the game with an ill-advised match penalty early in the game. I felt Shane Wright also played a good game, but Fantilli was flashier than he was effective and overall the Czech centers, especially Sapovaliv and Kulich, sorely outplayed the Canadians up the middle.
