When Willander does stuff like this, it still just conjures up memories of Dan Boyle for me. It's kind of a lolzy play overall, where i'm not really sure what most of the people on the ice are even doing. But the way he just effortlessly changes gears and picks through the neutral zone so easily, reminds me of that sort of skillset.
I'm curious to see how that side of his game develops next year, if having Hutson gone, allows him to start to explore that element more consistently. Right now, it's just flashes...but the ability is there. If the confidence to jump on those sort of opportunities more regularly starts to fill in...we're going to get a lot more than just a "steady Top-4 RHD".
But even just getting a steady, 5v5 stud RHD who breaks up plays and moves the puck, with elite skating, would be a huge win.
Tom Willander has made Team Sweden (Lekkerimaki and D-Petey were locks)
It's gonna be so cool having some prospects to actually watch this year. Feels like it's been an eternity since we had a lot to actually look forward to at the tournament.
Virtanen who caught the ire of everyone because he never seemed to fit on any particular line? Juolevi the year
after the big performance that boosted his draft stock, in the year that Finland completely fell off the map disastrously? lol.
BU never played BC yet which was a joke of a schedule
They could have marketed the sh/t out of that rivalry, and the schedule makers just mailed it in.
That freshman line for the USA at BC is absolutely flying right now (Perrault, Smith, Leonard))
Willander has talked about facing them in the NCAA
He'll be facing them at the WJC before he gets them in the NCAA
Idk if it's a "joke" of a schedule thing, so much as...probably trying to make the Pot of Beans Tournament more meaningful.
But that US team is certainly going to have an interesting leg up, with having a top line like that who play together all the time. It's free and easy chemistry, like they usually have as a huge advantage at the U18s.
Some initial tracking data from Laasi Alanen covering Willander's season so far:
I would take this with a massive grain of salt since his transition and defensive play has been far better than his offensive play in my viewings. That said, the shots vs shot-assists numbers make sense and I think also explain his defensive stats. He has done a lot of deferring to his team-mates thus far, which applies not only to his offensive mentality (pass instead of shoot), but also to in zone defense and transition. His strongest suit is off-puck rush defense, which involves tying up his man, and allowing his partner to make the strip or retrieval. When he has played with Hutson he has also naturally deferred much of zone exit/entries to him, passing within rather than across zones. It would be interesting to see his entries against stats, which are not shown, since that is what he is best at.
Here is Hutson's card for context:
I simply refuse to take seriously, any analysis or metric which includes something as dumbfoundingly ridiculous as, "Successful Dekes/60" as a component.
lmao. What on earth. Just incurable "statbrain".
