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GDT: Exhibition • North America vs. Europe

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Maplebeasts said:
How is that fair? So great players like Roman Josi are SOL because he's from Switzerland? How about Kopitar?
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Yeah Switzerland is actually a half decent team. They've given Canada fits in the past and that was before they had a player as good as Josi. I don't really understand your point here though. Should the Oilers have loaned McDavid to a playoff team last year so he wasn't left out?

If your team is bad you work to improve it and make it better. If you are a player on a bad team you work to improve it and make it better. Or if you don't care about loyalty at all and really just want to win you can go get a citizenship in Canada or the States and play for those national teams.
 
Iceman said:
For someone who didn't watch the game, should I assume that team Europe got destroyed when Kopitar was not on the ice?
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yeah pretty much, both kopitar and zuccarello had excellent nights

the rest of the team was mediocre to unnoticeable, draisaitl had a few good shifts but many of them were good defensive plays because of chasing the play, not generating much.
 
I was impressed with Nugent-Hopkins tonight, good 2-way game, excellent in the dot and looked a lot stronger than I ever seen him. Good on him for taking a defensive role and looking like a pro at it.
 
That was a great game. Team NA is going to be fun to watch!

I thought a number of forwards had good games. Some started stronger and others finished stronger. A lot of guys made some nice plays though. You could definitely see the rust. You can see they are still learning to p,any together too. I expect to see more crisp passing as the tournament goes on.

As a Sabrs fan, I'd say Eichel looked ok. Not a good 1st period. Got better as the game went on. Showed some flashes of his offensive talent and had a few good takeaways. I'd like to see a more consistent effort from him. I feel like he could dominate a game if he would play with more of a motor the entire game. Not bad overall though. His stats/Corsi looked good for a first game.

Toronto fans - Matthews looks darn good. He had an excellent start to the game. Very noticeable in that 1st period. He had flashes throughout the game. Definitely looks like a 1st overall pick and a very special player. Not out of place at all. He will do fine in the NHL this year. He's ready. I look forward to seeing more of him this tournament.

Mackinnon had himself a nice game too. That breakaway move was so dirty.
I love Jonmy hockey too. Him and Saad looked good together.
Seth Jones had himself a very nice game too.

I know I'm forgetting players but it's late. I need to sleep now... lol.

Can't wait to watch more Team NA! They are definitely the team I am rooting for now.
 
McDavid looked like the best player on earth through that 1st period. What a performance.

Matthews looked very good in the 1st as well, but like McDavid seemed to tail off a bit.

The good:

McDavid
Matthews
Scheifele
RNH
Gaudreau

The "all right":

MacKinnon
Drouin
Saad
Couturier
Miller

The bad:

Eichel
Trochek

It's not often a player scores two goals but seems underwhelming. MacKinnon was bad with the puck tonight. Lots of turnovers and dumb plays, but you can see the potential is there. He is so fast, so strong, and possesses a wicked shot. Not a fan of his game tonight at all.

Eichel looked like he didn't want to be there. Lazy as hell and nothing like I saw from him in the NHL. Hopefully he was shaking off rust and that's it.

Gaudreau has some of the best hands in the league. A few times I was flabbergasted he ended up with the puck after skating into 2-3 guys. I would like to see him play with McDavid and Scheifele to start next game. That could be a very deadly line.

RNH looked like rookie RNH. As Oilers fans know, he had seemingly regressed the past few seasons with injuries and lack of confidence. Tonight he looked incredible by RNH standards. Tough on the puck, very fast, and defensively sound. I hope his tenacity sticks around throughout the season and he gets back to his rookie form.

Trochek made some horrible plays in the first period that stuck with me. I think he'll be sitting next game for Larkin who will bring even more speed to the group. Although, he shoots right and they might opt for him to stay in and instead replace Miller who I think got injured tonight.

If I was deciding forward lines going into Sunday, this is what I would roll.

Gaudreau-McDavid-Scheifele
Matthews-RNH-MacKinnon
Drouin-Saad-Eichel
Larkin-Couturier-Trochek

Saad looked incredibly uncomfortable on the RW and I think putting Eichel there as a right hander could make more sense. Switch them if not.

As for the defence, Ekblad and Jones both looked very solid. I'm so impressed by Seth Jones and hope he keeps it up. Reilly made a couple skillful plays but overall didn't accomplish much offensively. I noticed Murray once all game which is a good thing for the style he plays. Ghost made a few bad turnovers, but he won't be getting scratched at all due to his PP presence. Perhaps he gets reduced minutes 5v5 depending on how he fares next game.

I think Trouba comes out personally.
 
McDuul said:
Ghost made a few bad turnovers, but he won't be getting scratched at all due to his PP presence. Perhaps he gets reduced minutes 5v5 depending on how he fares next game.
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He already got 3rd pair minutes. I've seen this a couple times where Ghost is said to have made "egregious turnovers," and yet I can't recall a single one, nor saw any at the time. I think people are just assuming he made some turnovers because offensive d man and all....:sarcasm:

It also wouldn't surprise me to see the kid who just had major hip surgery in the offseason and didn't start skating again until mid July to need a bit of game action to catch up.
 
Maplebeasts said:
How is that fair? So great players like Roman Josi are SOL because he's from Switzerland? How about Kopitar?
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The same way it's not fair that Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the world's best soccer players, doesn't play in the soccer's World Cup. His national team just isn't good enough to make it.

That's how it's done in any other sport. Because an international team is about having the best nations play, not the best players. Otherwise, why don't we put PK Subban on Finlands team? Surely he 'deserves' to play in the World Cup over the likes of Ville Pokka and Esa Lindell.
 
mobizziness said:
yeah pretty much, both kopitar and zuccarello had excellent nights

the rest of the team was mediocre to unnoticeable, draisaitl had a few good shifts but many of them were good defensive plays because of chasing the play, not generating much.
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Not surprised since this team is made up by terrible hockey countries like switzerland and germany. No winning culture
 
Larkin not playing really depressed me. He's the only guy I was super eager to watch in this tournament. He should be in next game at least.
 
It's a shame they put MacKinnon on a line with inferior players so he has to do everything by himself. Guess he's the babysitter this tournament.
 
Pretty insulting to QC no?

"hey sorry we don't think you can support an NHL team....but this meaningless preseason contest between two gimmick teams in a less than prestigious made up tournament should tide you over!"
 
Freudian said:
It's a shame they put MacKinnon on a line with inferior players so he has to do everything by himself. Guess he's the babysitter this tournament.
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incredulous.gif


There really are* no vastly inferior players on TNA. They're all pretty good. MacKinnon isn't playing with linemates that are so far below him that he needs to carry all three of them.
 
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Semantics said:
I don't like their chances against Canada. Most of that team has played together in multiple tournaments, they've got Babcock coaching, and elite defense and goaltending. NA might be the 2nd best team in the tournament, but the only way I see them beating Canada is if the vets on Canada treat it like the gimmicky tournament it is and not the Olympics.
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I'm sick and tired of all the gimmick stuff. This is basically the Canada Cup but instead of having patsy teams they did something different. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Some of us are looking forward to the competition
 
Irishguy42 said:
incredulous.gif


There really is no vastly inferior players on TNA. They're all pretty good. MacKinnon isn't playing with linemates that are so far below him that he needs to carry all three of them.
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I was going to respond to that post, but feel no need after you posted that gif. Nicely done

Very entertaining game to watch. The speed that team NA posses is incredible. How a hockey fan can complain about this is beyond me. What a fun team to watch.
 
Elvs said:
The same way it's not fair that Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the world's best soccer players, doesn't play in the soccer's World Cup. His national team just isn't good enough to make it.

That's how it's done in any other sport. Because an international team is about having the best nations play, not the best players. Otherwise, why don't we put PK Subban on Finlands team? Surely he 'deserves' to play in the World Cup over the likes of Ville Pokka and Esa Lindell.
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If team NA was never formed we all wouldn't have got to see that team last night and would all be worse off because of it.

Nationalism be damned, that was fun to watch.
 
I was dissappointed when I heard that MC David would captain this team over "veterans" like Gaudreau, Ekblad and especially MacKinnon who could be this team's #1C
 
Jaynki said:
I was live at Videotron center tonight.

MacKinnon (****ing wow)
McDavid
Gaudreau
Matthews (You've got a ****ing great one here, toronto!)

are the forward that stood out for me. I also liked very much RNH and Drouin.

Defensively, i was very impressed with Ryan Murray and Ekblad. A bit disapointed by Gostisbehere, i tought he was physically weak in his zone.

Matt Murray is a ****ing stud.

From Team Europe,

Kopitar was very impressing for me.

Chara looked slow. I don't think there are many games left for him in this league. Probably his last contract.

Sekera is bad. Oilers should have kept Petry for the same contract...

Was not really impressed with Josi, he was very weak on RNH goal.

Liked Bellemare in a support role.
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I think some players will need some time to feel comfortable for various reasons. Keep in mind this is the first game they have played in months with new teammates and new coaches. Much easier for veteran players and much easier for forwards where the mistakes aren't as magnified. Some of the players its physical like Ghost who is coming off hip and abdominal surgery in the off season. I've seen him play a lot and he looked slow and winded. Others like Eichel looked like he wasn't sure of what the coaches wanted and looked slow. Big advantage also to play with players you know and have played with before. Team Europe had virtually one line and little pressure. In my opinion this tournament is a tough test for young defensemen. The D for NA will be severely tested by some of the other teams and if the forwards don't help out hard they will be in trouble.
 
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