I thought Cirelli was horrid for most of the tournament and the most obvious fish out of water, but had a good final game overall. Your point still stands though. His first shift of the final was a D zone draw and he was all over the place, almost cost us early. As you said, simply cannot have players that skate slow even if they get away with it in the NHL.
Didn’t think Cooper was great through the first 3 games, but the decision to move Stone off a line with skill players was very smart. Im pretty sure the switch was made after Stone missed McDavid by a mile off a 2 on 1 pass in the 2nd. Those opportunities maybe happen once or twice in a game like this and you can’t waste them.
Big defense is critical, but for international ice skating needs to be the #1, 2 and 3 as initial qualifications. No Parayko, no Toews, and I even have struggles with Morrissey. Don’t see what everyone else does there. On international ice I’d rather have Nurse than any of those 3 (assuming it’s this year Nurse) on the basis of skating alone.
Team came together and performed right when it mattered, but it was in spite of a lot of these poor roster decisions.