Bedard is 4 years younger than Jarvis and at worst is comparable. If you are bringing a young player to get experience and leaving behind a better hockey player (of which, there are several), why not take someone who is likely to be an anchor piece in the future.
Does it matter? If Bedard were this dominant 5v5 force, he should be outscoring guys like Foligno by a significant margin.
He's nowhere near comparable to Jarvis at 5v5. He's less productive offensively and way way way worse all around (while also not being able to kill penalties).
Jarvis wasn't taken because he's young. He was taken because he's one of the best 2 way wingers available to Canada. There's no reason to take a player (regardless of age) if they can't be trusted defensively.
Of course it matters.
He certainly is comparable.
Not enough to account for the lack of difference. Plenty of other star players face top competition and still lap the scrubs on their team.
Just watch them play. Bedard is a huge defensive liability. There's a reason he got demoted to 13th forward during the WCs last year.
He's 3rd among Canadian wingers in goals per game and 6th in points per game while being an elite penalty killer playing in a defensive system.
Jarvis is one of my favourite players and you will be quite pleased with his play.
That's it in a nutshell. The rest of the lineup is amazing. Forwards coming out of our ears - including the 2 best players in the world + Sid. D is solid with a once in a generation player leading the pack - Makar.
Bedard's linemates that are scoring at the same pace as him aren't reasonable?
You disagree that he's a defensive liability? Well that explains your posts, you just don't know anything about hockey.
40 goals in his last 82 games. Point and Reinhart are the only Canadians with more goals in their last 82 games. And Jarvis has done it while playing a significant amount of his time on a line with Staal and Martinook.
It's also worth noting that most of his time without Aho has been with Staal and Martinook.
Oh god damn it.
.
No Heiskanen - no win
And you know it.
... but back to basics; all, and I really do mean all, the Finland defenders only have to defend around this time around and let the fine mighty Finland forwards do the talkin' upfont.
Infront of Saros knees if so. Let the (Finland) hockey do the talkin'!
Targeting the Jarvis inclusion as the suspect one is a bit strange to me. In the games I’ve seen this year, he’s played his way onto this team. If you want to talk about Bennett or Sanheim, then I can understand. I generally think there are only two outskaters that were questionable picks, which is good compared to the recent catastrophe of the WJC. But Jarvis is a gamer that is a Swiss Army knife of versatility, and players like that are always going to be given priority over players whose full games are as well rounded like Bedard or Scheifele (a tangent, but I actually would have had Vilardi in front of Scheifele as a replacement)
Honestly as an American fan I think Canada made damn near perfect skater selections. I would have tried to find a way to get Barzal onto the roster, but really good job by the management team IMO.
I think so, too. They did mess up the goalies - making a bad situation even worse but...
I have not seen Sanheim enough to comment but I have NO problem with Bennett. He was AMAZING when Florida made their run to the Cup and I expect nothing less here.
It's not just us that say he's a defensive liability...
Yeah he has had some brutal sequences this year. Kid has tons of talent but he's just not playing winning hockey yet. Which isn't surprising, he's 19. But it's hard to just flip that switch from playing "pond hockey" to being asked to defend against guys like Matthews and Hughes.
He's also never had to face adversity. He always been the "chosen one". He will be great but he needs to put in the work to become a complete player.
