World Cup: Four Nations Tournament-Team Canada

[Regal]

Regarding the Jarvis selection, it's easy to see why he was named over potentially superior players like Bedard, Scheifele, etc to be the extra forward. He can seamlessly fill in for anyone that gets injured, whether top or bottom 6, and can play on the PK as well. A Bedard/Scheifele wouldn't fill in the role of a Bennett/Cirelli/Hagel if one of them went down.

Not saying it's the direction I would have gone, but not hard to see the rationale.

Basically the same reason the US took Nelson. Though I think he’s underrated. He was already a 30-30 guy while being strong defensively last year while playing through a shoulder injury. He might come close to PPG this year.

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

It would be great if all the cool posters who have no interest in this and won't watch a single second would kindly you know what.

It's just hockey. It's not the Olympics. It's a gimmick. etc etc.

Ok, get over yourself and stop being so interested in it then?

 

[nbwingsfan]

It's best-on-best, as in, the best players in the world. We are going to ice grinders against a third-line Jack Eichel my dude

Not sure a point- hagel- Konecy type line is considered “grinders” my guy

 

[Regal]

Marchand is a legacy pick and has no business being on this team. He's on pace for 54 points and is way past his prime and is small and slow.

He was picked before the season, but given his age they probably should have waited and taken someone like Morrissey who was unlikely to be displaced.

Someone is still bitter Bouchard vastly outplayed Quinn Hughes in last years playoffs lol

The non-Silovs goalies in this tournament will probably stop unscreened shots from the point though

 

[sepHF]

The non-Silovs goalies in this tournament will probably stop unscreened shots from the point though

Meanwhile Quinn was shooting on a .833 Skinner and Calvin Pickard

 

[nbwingsfan]

A decent amount of those players were shit on throughout the tournament lol. Let's not pretend like that team was universally loved either. Pronger and Niedermayer were called old and slow. People consistently wondered why Thornton and Marleau were on the team and the team was considered dead when they lost to USA in group play.

I still stand that Niedermayer was too old and was terrible that Olympics

 

[Regal]

Meanwhile Quinn was shooting on a .833 Skinner and Calvin Pickard

Yet they had a .940 with Hughes on the ice 5v5. What they did when he was off doesn’t matter.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Yet they had a .940 with Hughes on the ice 5v5. What they did when he was off doesn’t matter.

Anyone can stop muffins from Quinn..even Skinner
0 goals is 0 goals

 

[stl76]

To be fair, it does mention Parayko as someone who carries the puck up the ice like few others in the blurb above the charts. Parayko definitely can move the puck well. Not sure why the Bkues have been so bad offensively with him on the ice. Still, Tanev is also an underrated puck mover out of the zone and up the ice. He just doesn’t have much vision or creatively in the offensive zone once the puck is there.

It's not that the Blues have been bad offensively with Parayko on the ice, but rather that they have to focus on defense when he's out there. Parayko usually has a dzone start % in the mid 60s and generally plays against extremely tough 5v5 TOI% QoC.

For comparison, this season Parayko has an all situations dzone start % of 65.7% while Weegar's is 44.3%. This season, Parayko has played 35.7% of his minutes against elite QoC (30% against weak) while Weegar has played 34.9% of his minutes against elite QoC (32% against weak). Makar is a similar story: 34% dzone starts and 35.2% against elite QoC (27.7% against weak).

Tanev is actually an interesting comparison for Parayko in terms of usage. He is one of the few dmen in the NHL with higher dzone start % historically and this year at 75.9%, He also plays a ton against elite QoC: 40.3% so far this year. The difference is that Parayko plays a ton more minutes averaging nearly 5 more minutes a game, is 3 years younger, and plays on a lower scoring team.

Truth is that publicly available models do a poor job of gauging the true impact of defensive dmen like Parayko or Tanev. Parayko's 5v5 scoring is actually pretty good considering his usage, but more importantly - Parayko eating tough defensive minutes frees up other dmen to play easier offensive minutes. This impact is simply not captured in team based shooting metrics, or rather is captured but not properly attributed to defensive dmen.

 

[Woodrow]

The lines for Canada were:

Staal Crosby Iginla
Morrow Getzlaf Perry
Marleau Thornton Heatley
Nash Toews Richards
Bergeron

Niedermayer Pronger
Keith Doughty
Weber Boyle
Seabrook

Luongo

 

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

I still stand that Niedermayer was too old and was terrible that Olympics

looking back on it, its kinda surprising he was there after considering retirement after the ducks won the cup

 

[supercanuck]

The lines for Canada were:

Staal Crosby Iginla
Morrow Getzlaf Perry
Marleau Thornton Heatley
Nash Toews Richards
Bergeron

Niedermayer Pronger
Keith Doughty
Weber Boyle
Seabrook

Luongo

Wow! What a team. It's easier to pick out the non-Hall of Famers from that list

 

[hangman005]

I wonder if there's some beef between Hill and Thompson. Regardless I'm glad they picked the guy who won and not his backup. I wish Fleury would've been there just for the vibes.

Bennett absolutely belongs. He can play on any line and go out there when shit needs disturbing

Thompson was never Hills backup, the only reason it was "Close" is because coaches kept trying to force to Hill to happen. Thompson was and is the superior goalie and Vegas was idiotic to move him. I would have kept the better cheaper goaltender and shipped Hill out 100 times out ten before moving LT if I were in charge.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Probably the first best in best tournament where Canada doesn’t have the top from bottom best team.

I like their forwards as best in the tournament but imo they're clearly behind the US in defense and goaltending.

 

[HighLifeManIsHigh]

Huge insult to not have Bedard on the roster. Are you kidding me.

Him and his 5 goals can have fun in Barbados

 

[KCC]

Cirelli? Hagel?

Jesus that's bad.

TC showing no loyalty to long time guys who've been with the program forever. As much as I despise Tavares, I fail to see how you leave him off.

Suzuki has done dar more than Cirelli in his career.

Brutal choices.

It’s about balance. You fail to understand that.

 

[Sky04]

I got to say I'm not crazy about McDavid and Marner both on the same line, I feel like they would try to pass the puck into the net.
Not really any horrible picks. I think I've read that Parayko's game has slipped but I guess he's there to deal with the Tkachuks so I guess we'll see how that works.

You're worried about the guy who scored 64 goals 2 years ago? Huh.

Cirelli? Hagel?

Jesus that's bad.

TC showing no loyalty to long time guys who've been with the program forever. As much as I despise Tavares, I fail to see how you leave him off.

Suzuki has done dar more than Cirelli in his career.

Brutal choices.

Suzuki has done what exactly? Be a bottom feeder year in and out?

 

[lawrence]

Cirelli? Hagel?

Jesus that's bad.

TC showing no loyalty to long time guys who've been with the program forever. As much as I despise Tavares, I fail to see how you leave him off.

Suzuki has done dar more than Cirelli in his career.

Brutal choices.

Its an underwhelming team in a team Canada perspective.

We use to have 7 all star dmans. Of course I'm all in on Canada.

Team is relying on mac McDavid Crosby. Offensively from the back end we use have 3 top pairings, now it seems like everything runs through makar.

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

Were they pounding Whiskey when they selected this Team? Going to be a tough road to Gold.

 

[Erikfromfin]

View attachment 940145
B team is still better than Finland and comparable to Sweden

6 Finns would make Canada A team, or even 7

 

[DearDiary]

I would rather have Hagel/Cirelli playing a shutdown role 6-8 min a game at 5on5/PK than guys like Bedard with that ice time floating around and likely not scoring any goals. Give McDavid/Mackinnon/Makar all the ice time they can handle, roll them against other teams worst players. Because I doubt we're going to see a 15/15/15/15 icetime split.

 

[Mathieukferland]

6 Finns would make Canada A team, or even 7

3 outskaters at most, 1 goaltender

 

[Erikfromfin]

3 outskaters at most, 1 goaltender

Barkov is as good as any of these forwards. Same with Rantanen better than Marner.
Ask anyone in Carolina who theyd rather have Jarvis or Aho

Saros and Lankinen easily over these goalies

Heiskanen over for example Parayko any day

Even Granlund is top20 in scoring only handful Canadiens ahead

 

[Deevo]

The goaltending picks seem really weird, no? Does anyone think Montembeault is a top 3 Canadian goalie?

 

[FlyingPhi]

I really don't understand Hagel or Cirelli at all.

They are both mediocre regular season players, and both have not been productive playoff players either.

This is a round robin tournament, not a 4 round slog to a Cup. IMO, being heavy, or having grit, will not factor into this tournament nearly as much as pure skill. Line assignments, wearing down the competition, etc, doesn't matter in a round robin tournament.

Then again, whoever has two of three good games will play for the "championship ". It's not a reflection of national hockey strength, it's a fun thing for fans.

I'm very happy that my favorite nhl team doesn't have too many players risking injury by playing in this. Will be fun to watch though. I like hockey.