WJC: Canada 2019 Roster Talk Part 2

[Junohockeyfan]

If Canada wins this tournament it would be due to team depth and goaltending. You don't need a "#1" dman to win this tournament. But you need goaltending to win. That is where i have the most concerns. The Fins have very good goaltending and special teams.

Also, it really is sad that people have such allegience to their own draft picks that they can't rally around a group of kids to win gold.

 

[wishywashy19]

I agree that we have much to worry about. As I said in an earlier post, the last thing you want to happen in hockey is being caught too slow. Last night it showed that this team lacks dynamic talent. The type of talent that makes the game easy for us and intimidates the other teams. If the Finns had us on our heels what are we going to do when we play the U.S. and have the Hughes brothers, et al, coming at us at a 100 mph. Whether the recent years are a mere trough in the development of Canadian hockey or is systemic of something wrong in our overall identification, attraction and development of elite talent, there is little doubt that some nations have now caught us, and in some cases passed us, in their successes of developing winning elite hockey programs. Long gone are the days that we could boast of sending any number of teams to any championship who could and would win. Now, it is life and death to even reach the championship game with our best team. With the increased development of the U.S. Finnish, Swedish and Russian programs, soon it will be a challenge to just make the medal round.

About last night. I have said this before that if we are going to win our goalie has to be the best or a close second best in the tournament. We are not going to score many goals folks, the talent is not there. Sorry.
Hunter has said the right words. A little sense of urgency guys.
I also feel that our Penalty kill is going to be our downfall unless Hunter works out the kinks

 

[sipowicz]

While the changing demographics of Canadian urban centers and the costs associated with playing hockey have impacted the sport's attraction, Canada still has the more registered players than any other country. The problem lies in our existing identification and development program. With such a large pool of talent, we became lazy and allowed other countries to close the gap. It showed last night and over the past 5 to 10 drafts. How we respond to the challenge will determine if Canada retains its dominance.

Canada 37 million, Finland 5.5 million but it has nothing to do with population it just shows how broken the Canadian hockey system is where skills are less important than the excessive number of games or thirteen year olds wearing suits to games as the top priorities of Hockey Canada!

 

[Baksfamous112]

I dont think Canada wins this tournament. They are lacking a true #1Dman. That Darnel Nurse , Makar, Chabot, Morrisey, Pietrangelo etc..

Both goals on Dipetro vs Fins for instance was Dman fault.

The shorthanded 4on3 goal was an awful awful play by Bouchard. Its what London Knight fans kept trying to tell everyone last yr. Bouchard is fantastic w. The puck...but lost and lazy without it.

On the 4 on 3 he bobbles the puck and looses it at blue line.. FIn forward w speed is now flying down the wing vs a Forward Tippet. Fin Forward bloes past him, and is 1 on 1 w. Dipietro. Dipietro makes a great cross crease save but Bouchard with a massive laxy backcheck loses his man who scores the tap in on the rebound goal

Don’t want to burst your bubble but last year Makar was barely a top 4 for Canada. Timmins/Mete was the top pair for Canada.

Altough it would’ve been nice for Canada to have Makar back this year (he’s too old), they have Bouchard which should be able to lead Canada’s D

 

[kabidjan18]

I think JAD should be cut. Not sure his wrist is all the way.

 

[lakai17]

If Canada wins this tournament it would be due to team depth and goaltending. You don't need a "#1" dman to win this tournament. But you need goaltending to win. That is where i have the most concerns. The Fins have very good goaltending and special teams.

Also, it really is sad that people have such allegience to their own draft picks that they can't rally around a group of kids to win gold.

Are there no #1 defenceman on this team this year?

I still like both goaltenders on this team and believe the pre games are a small sample size on their overall play.

 

[DangerDave]

I know Canada lost last night but I saw a lot of positives. The team was fantastic in the second half and really brought it to a Finnish team that is one of the favorites. Finland was opportunistic but that game could have easily gone Canada's way. I think Canada had their foot off the gas at first because the game doesn't count but their compete came back later in the game.

I'm seeing a serious lack of chemistry but theirs still time for the guys to find it.

Don't think their is a lack of skill here at all. This is a very talented team despite no Crosbys or McDavids.

Goaltending is fine. These kids are probably just nervous but the jitters should go away.

Defence is good. Not sold on Dobson and theyve made critical errors but they need to build chemistry and get comfortable.

Anyways, it's the same thing every year. Canada loses a pre tourney game and everyone is suddenly worried. They always end up turning it around.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Let's wait till the tournament starts before we determine what Canada has or has not.

 

[bigdog16]

Probably good for them to get their stinker out of the system in the pre tourny games. Theres 5 teams that have a realistic chance to win this tournament. I dont think much separates any of them.

 

[Plub]

Keep in mind that the Hughes brothers are pretty much Canadian products, but yeah Canada should improve. Canada is trending to be just one the of big teams, and that shouldn't be acceptable. Before this decade in probably 9/10 years at the WJC either Canada would win or when you considered the players in the NHL we could conclude that Canada almost certainly would have won had everyone been available. This decade that hasn't been true in several tournaments. Other countries have improved their development and Canada has looked complacent.



That's certainly one area in which Canada can make many gains. Canada already has massive hockey infrastructure and I'm quite sure that no governing body has as much money as Hockey Canada does, even USA Hockey with its NHL subsidy. Attracting the children of immigrants to hockey would also help.

They were in the states until Quin was like 14. Then after a short time in TO he joined the development program. You're reaching quite a bit stating they are products of Canadian hockey.

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

It was a decent bounce back for Dipietro. Thought he made alot of good saves, had a no chance on the first goal (made a nice original save). The guy was left wide open on the 2nd goal. Live it looked like an absolute snipe but after seeing the replay it wasn't quite as nice as Tolvanen's shot. Maybe you'd like a save there but either way he was left with way too much time.

Scott didn't have to make as many big saves as Canada picked it up when he got in. He got absolutely sniped out by Tolvanen & then the 1st one was pretty tough to hang him on.

Would have liked to see Scott tested a bit more as I missed the game he started but overall I think goaltending will be fine for Canada. Defensive lapses will be more detrimental than goaltending IMO.

Finland definitely has the best goalie, and possibly the best FWD. USA probably has the best defenseman. Canada has good players but its going to have to be the whole team carrying their weight for Canada to win.

 

[admiralcadillac]

People are acting like every other team has only first round picks filling their rosters

 

[Legend123]

I know Canada lost last night but I saw a lot of positives. The team was fantastic in the second half and really brought it to a Finnish team that is one of the favorites. Finland was opportunistic but that game could have easily gone Canada's way. I think Canada had their foot off the gas at first because the game doesn't count but their compete came back later in the game.

I'm seeing a serious lack of chemistry but theirs still time for the guys to find it.

Don't think their is a lack of skill here at all. This is a very talented team despite no Crosbys or McDavids.

Goaltending is fine. These kids are probably just nervous but the jitters should go away.

Defence is good. Not sold on Dobson and theyve made critical errors but they need to build chemistry and get comfortable.

Anyways, it's the same thing every year. Canada loses a pre tourney game and everyone is suddenly worried. They always end up turning it around.

After what Ive seen, I hope they scratch Dobson and play Brook on the right side. Dobson has been a huge mess.

 

[Legend123]

People are acting like every other team has only first round picks filling their rosters

but first round picks dont win the tourny on their own. Theres something called team chemistry and a team in general.

 

[admiralcadillac]

but first round picks dont win the tourny on their own. Theres something called team chemistry and a team in general.

Fantastic Legend I'm glad you gleaned the lack of chemistry from two preparatory games, the only possibility available.

People here are complaining about the talent by the way.

 

[Legend123]

Fantastic Legend I'm glad you gleaned the lack of chemistry from two preparatory games, the only possibility available.

People here are complaining about the talent by the way.

I was just replying to what you were inferring that we are the only team filled with first round picks so we will likely win the tourny.
And a few games provide a better idea of the chemistry this team might show up with than no games and just ignoring they ever happened.

 

[JackSlater]

YES, I and hockeyanalyst99 are friends. We play hockey together and record junior games in our free time as we learning how to analyze games and come up with ways to run drills to improve skills. You may interpret whichever way you like. We just notice noone is doing analysis, and just write comments. We are just putting out our observation and predict what TC will do, and hopefully put forward some factual observations. Hopefully, we can contribute something to TC. It is fun to write game analysis.

More power to you with regard to analyzing and posting, though the analysis is not particularly in depth analysis yet. My point was more about how very similar your points and posting styles are. Perhaps you are just friends and that somewhat explains it.

How are the Hughes brothers Canadian products

They were in the states until Quin was like 14. Then after a short time in TO he joined the development program. You're reaching quite a bit stating they are products of Canadian hockey.

Their father worked in Toronto since Quinn was 6 and Jack was 5. They played in the Toronto system until Quinn was 15 and Jack was 16. If my information is wrong then so be it, but if I'm correct then they sound like primarily Canadian products. I will say that given that their father was a skills coach they likely turn out well living in many places.

 

[admiralcadillac]

I was just replying to what you were inferring that we are the only team filled with first round picks so we will likely win the tourny.
And a few games provide a better idea of the chemistry this team might show up with than no games and just ignoring they ever happened.

I 100% agree with your points but it's not like this team canada lacks talent either, it's just that other countries have alot of it too

 

[Isaac Nootin]

After what Ive seen, I hope they scratch Dobson and play Brook on the right side. Dobson has been a huge mess.

Brook hasn't been much better. Overall, the defence as a whole has been pretty poor. I've been impressed by Mitchell, however.

 

[Legend123]

I 100% agree with your points but it's not like this team canada lacks talent either, it's just that other countries have alot of it too

Yeah this team is stacked with talent, no doubt about that. Unfortunately for us tho, other teams are also very talented such as the Americans and the Fins. Should be a fun tourny. Im confident we will repeat!

 

[Legend123]

Brook hasn't been much better. Overall, the defence as a whole has been pretty poor. I've been impressed by Mitchell, however.

imo hes been much better and steadier.

 

[Isaac Nootin]

imo hes been much better and steadier.

Better and steadier than Dobson at this point isn't much of an accomplishment considering his level of play. He's been pretty poor up to this point to be honest. Maybe I was expecting too much, same as Dobson.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

imo hes been much better and steadier.

I think Brook has been average at best. He did show flashes of what he is capable of last night but so far that is all they have been is flashes.

 

[93LEAFS]

They were in the states until Quin was like 14. Then after a short time in TO he joined the development program. You're reaching quite a bit stating they are products of Canadian hockey.

Jack Hughes played GTHL pretty much his entire hockey career. They moved there for the start of the 2006/07 season. Quinn was 7 and Jack was 5. They also stayed when their father went to Russia briefly to coach.

Either way, it doesn't matter. Despite what elite prospects had up for a while, neither kid got Canadian citizenship, and therefore couldn't play for Canada at IIHF events.

 

[93LEAFS]

Canada 37 million, Finland 5.5 million but it has nothing to do with population it just shows how broken the Canadian hockey system is where skills are less important than the excessive number of games or thirteen year olds wearing suits to games as the top priorities of Hockey Canada!

Canada's population is much more spread out. Also, don't read too much into a one-off game, that's what makes these tournaments so unpredictable. In comparison, Canada's most densely populated area which is the GTA/Golden Horseshoe could field a best on best team that could take on any country in the nation, and a lot of that talent is still fairly young like McDavid and Marner. Also, how Europe supports athletes through club programs makes it much more accessible. If the League let the Leafs through money at the best 8 to 12 year olds while getting their rights when they turn 18, the game would be much more affordable, but that is not something that is accepted in NA Professional sports, so the Leafs or the rich teams in these market, have little interest in subsidizing kids through junior hockey.