GDT: WJC Pre-Competition: Team USA (Galchenyuk) vs Team Finland
- Thread starter Marc the Habs Fan
- Start date
-
We sincerely apologize for the extended downtime. Our hosting provider, XenForo Cloud, encountered a major issue with their backup system, which unfortunately resulted in the loss of some critical data from the past year.
What This Means for You:
- If you created an account after March 2024, it no longer exists. You will need to sign up again to access the forum.
- If you registered before March 2024 but changed your email, username, or password in the past year, those changes were lost. You’ll need to update your account details manually once you're logged in.
- Threads and posts created within the last year have been restored.
- Our 2025 light and dark themes were lost, so we are rebuilding them. Light theme is currently available, but work in progress
Our team is working with Xenforo Cloud to recover data using backups, sitemaps, and other available resources. We know this is frustrating, and we deeply regret the impact on our community. We are taking steps with Xenforo Cloud to ensure this never happens again. This is work in progress. Thank you for your patience and support as we work through this.
In the meantime, feel free to join our Discord Server
- Status
I can't count how Many times the US has missed the net and have the puck go all the way back into their own end
Player of the Game? Id say Barkov for Finland and for USA.. Ill go with Galchenyuk for not choking his coach to death
3rd period:
4 shifts, 4:21 TOI
Breakdown:
3:23 ES
0:58 PP
0:00 PK
Stats:
Shot missed the net, 2-for-2 in face-offs (both won cleanly, on PP)
Rundown:
Again, only 4 shifts. Not much Galchenyuk can do with that little ice time and his linemates, whether it was Trochek or Gaudreau, Lucia or Barber, nobody could handle his passes. They'd either bobble on their sticks or they'd just turn it over quickly. Galchenyuk showed some frustration too with his body language. On the PP, he worked well and was given enough room to execute passes but you knew he wanted to fire that shot from the left face-off circle. Just not enough room.
Totals:
Total of 12 shifts for 12:33 TOI.
7:50 ES
4:43 PP
0:00 PK
1 shot on net and 3-for-3 in face-offs. All of them were taken on the PP and two of the three were won cleanly.
4 shifts, 4:21 TOI
Breakdown:
3:23 ES
0:58 PP
0:00 PK
Stats:
Shot missed the net, 2-for-2 in face-offs (both won cleanly, on PP)
Rundown:
Again, only 4 shifts. Not much Galchenyuk can do with that little ice time and his linemates, whether it was Trochek or Gaudreau, Lucia or Barber, nobody could handle his passes. They'd either bobble on their sticks or they'd just turn it over quickly. Galchenyuk showed some frustration too with his body language. On the PP, he worked well and was given enough room to execute passes but you knew he wanted to fire that shot from the left face-off circle. Just not enough room.
Totals:
Total of 12 shifts for 12:33 TOI.
7:50 ES
4:43 PP
0:00 PK
1 shot on net and 3-for-3 in face-offs. All of them were taken on the PP and two of the three were won cleanly.
Gally didn't bring it that much today. Yet, if US keeps doing this, they're doing the best they can to waste his talent. Besides....is this really all the firepower that US has? And while we all have our reservations on the guy, and if that's the only firepower you could provide, do the team understands chemistry? Boucher didn't deserve even a look? In today's game, you felt like he was playing with pluggers on a 4th line role.....
Gally was not a factor today, not enough icetime.
The Finns are to be taken seriously this year. Very balanced team with an energic game and crisp passes.
Solid team with Barkov, Armia, Teravainen, Granlund, Salomaki, Maatta, Ristolainen, etc Armia much improved from last year....solid pick for Buffalo.
First time i have the opportunity to see Seth Jones, i understand why he's projected to be top draft, he's a beast!
The Finns are to be taken seriously this year. Very balanced team with an energic game and crisp passes.
Solid team with Barkov, Armia, Teravainen, Granlund, Salomaki, Maatta, Ristolainen, etc Armia much improved from last year....solid pick for Buffalo.
First time i have the opportunity to see Seth Jones, i understand why he's projected to be top draft, he's a beast!
Guys stop freaking out. They're not trying to win but to evaluate. It's not a good mentality going into the tournament. But it's what they're doing. I'm sure they will lean heavily on Miller's line and then on Galchenyuk's.
The US coaching staff doesn't seem to believe Galchenyuk is their best player. They seem to peg him as a second line winger. Am I wrong?
Well I didn't watch the absolute whole game but if they'd be trying to evaluate.....would they shuffle their lines from time to time? Not every shift but maybe 2 or 3 times a game? Have they done that? Was Gally seen with Grimaldi?
I think before people get too worried, lets really look out how the whole squad for the US team played. They didn't play well, Seth Jones and the Bardreau line were the only stand outs for me and even then the US effort was an overall poor performance.
What I noticed is the lack of chemistry the top line for the US has. Gaudreau, Miller and Grimaldi really have to work to get anything done together. The first period and first half of the second, they were the top PP unit, but as we saw, they put little or no pressure on the Finnish defense even when they had a 5-3.
Phil Housley then changed up the PP lines and put Alex Galchenyuk out on the first PP unit with Johnny Gaudreau and Riley Barber. Galchenyuk centered the PP line and if my memory serves me right, he won all the face offs in the 3 PP attempts Galchenyuk had. Winning the faceoff on the PP is huge, it allowed them to set up and actually put a fair bit of pressure on the Finnish defense with several good attempts to score and Galchenyuk making several nice passes. Its obvious to me that Gaudreau has alot more chemistry with Galchenyuk then he has with JT Miller.
I don't know if Phil Housley will change the line ups, but the Miller line simply wasn't doing what they were suppossed to do. Put pressure on the oppossing defense and force the play in the oppossing zone. Then again the Galchenyuk line with Vince Trocheck and Riley Barber wasn't working either. The lack of chemistry between these 2 top lines is going to be a concern for the USA.
Should the US make some line changes? I think they probably should look into it, Galchenyuk really should be centering with Gaudreau, but that does create alot of line up problems for the US if this happens. So the US may be forced to keep what they have in the top lines and hope they can create some chemistry in the tournament.
What I noticed is the lack of chemistry the top line for the US has. Gaudreau, Miller and Grimaldi really have to work to get anything done together. The first period and first half of the second, they were the top PP unit, but as we saw, they put little or no pressure on the Finnish defense even when they had a 5-3.
Phil Housley then changed up the PP lines and put Alex Galchenyuk out on the first PP unit with Johnny Gaudreau and Riley Barber. Galchenyuk centered the PP line and if my memory serves me right, he won all the face offs in the 3 PP attempts Galchenyuk had. Winning the faceoff on the PP is huge, it allowed them to set up and actually put a fair bit of pressure on the Finnish defense with several good attempts to score and Galchenyuk making several nice passes. Its obvious to me that Gaudreau has alot more chemistry with Galchenyuk then he has with JT Miller.
I don't know if Phil Housley will change the line ups, but the Miller line simply wasn't doing what they were suppossed to do. Put pressure on the oppossing defense and force the play in the oppossing zone. Then again the Galchenyuk line with Vince Trocheck and Riley Barber wasn't working either. The lack of chemistry between these 2 top lines is going to be a concern for the USA.
Should the US make some line changes? I think they probably should look into it, Galchenyuk really should be centering with Gaudreau, but that does create alot of line up problems for the US if this happens. So the US may be forced to keep what they have in the top lines and hope they can create some chemistry in the tournament.
It's more about the bottom 6 that they're unsure of.
Their top 6 is set with:
Gaudreau-Miller-Grimaldi
Barber-Trocheck-Galchenyuk
For the tournament, I would switch Miller and Galchenyuk + move Trocheck to RW because the 3 Gs all have similar puck skills and can handle the puck at a higher level whereas Miller is a step below imo.
For what I see so far, I'd graduate either Lucia or Pietila instead of Barber. And the others would be on a short leash. I understand that almost all of those other guys can't fill the spot in a bottom 6....but if my "pluggers" are doing better....might as well go all in.
Based on these few games, I agree. Barber has had an excellent freshman year and I think they wanna get that out of him for this tournament.
He's the best player on that team, WHY THE **** does he only doesnt play 25+ mins ...
****ing christ housley ur a bonehead
****ing christ housley ur a bonehead
There not playing Galchenyuk a lot cuz they already no is his on the roster. There trying out other players more to see what they have.
PricePkPatch*
Guest
When Galchy had the puck, especially during the PP, he usually made a noticeable difference.
If only his teammates could catch a ****ing pass once in a while. In his last PP shift, he made two brisk passes and his teammates seemed surprised to see the puck coming their way.
NEW MEMO TO TEAM USA:
When #15 has the puck, always expect to see it coming your way. The kid can pass at any angle, through any circulation.
If only his teammates could catch a ****ing pass once in a while. In his last PP shift, he made two brisk passes and his teammates seemed surprised to see the puck coming their way.
NEW MEMO TO TEAM USA:
When #15 has the puck, always expect to see it coming your way. The kid can pass at any angle, through any circulation.
PricePkPatch*
Guest
If they can't catch a puck pre-competition, why could they during the tournament?
Well, that was a letdown.
As many have said:
- He barely played.
- USA took a ton of penalties and the flow of that game was often non-existent.
- Barber seems completely unable to keep up with Gally on that line.
- Seeing him at LW just pisses me off. If USA was stacked at center like Canada is I could accept it...but Miller and Trocheck?!
Good to see Barkov really kick it into another gear in the 3rd. So big. That interview was hilarious too.
Ristolainen was solid on the backend.
As many have said:
- He barely played.
- USA took a ton of penalties and the flow of that game was often non-existent.
- Barber seems completely unable to keep up with Gally on that line.
- Seeing him at LW just pisses me off. If USA was stacked at center like Canada is I could accept it...but Miller and Trocheck?!
Good to see Barkov really kick it into another gear in the 3rd. So big. That interview was hilarious too.
Ristolainen was solid on the backend.
- Status
