FULL SUMMARY of the game.
PS - I am a canucks fan, so In theory I should have a bias towards Canucks prospects.
While I am a fan of a lot of players, My opinion of Quinn for example has nothing 2 do that he is a Canucks prospect (other than the fact we are blessed), and it's my honest opinion on him THIS game.
(also the plays I am missing out with descriptions are players I simply did not see or focus on, so no comment)
Ryan Poehling - Had a good first perioid, he was skating really well and created a few offensive rushes.
Solid effort overall, but faded as the game went on. 6/10
Josh Norris - Very average game, I barely noticed him on the ice. Was hoping and expecting more from him overall. 4/10
Tyler Madden - First of all, the guy looks like a skeleton. Might be the skinnest player on the ice, and it showed.
While he had some nice moments where he drove the net which was surprising, he had issues along board battles and focused on using stick work to get out of situations. I thought his effort and compete was good, so overall was average.
5/10
Jack Hughes - Jack Hughes overall had a disapointing game. While his skill level was evident with the way he skates and how incredibly agile he is when he is skating, I thought he through to many passes in pointless spots, and tried to do a bit to much himself. He was actually falling off as the game went on, and overall had a tough test. That being said, I am not worried what so ever, I think over time in the tourney he will figure it out and be a solid part of USA.
4/10
Oliver Wahlstrom - Maybe the best game I have seen him play, live or on TV. While he was not out-skating anybody, he got into good positions and as a sniper he made the BEST out of his opportunities. His job is to score goals, and he had a few chances and made sure they were in the back of the net. If he plays like this all tourney, lots of people will not care about how bad his season has been so far.
9/10
Jason Robertson - I do not know a lot about him, but he seemed to be involved a lot in the game. Unfortunately it was for the other team, because he had a really poor game overall.
His skating, acceleration especially is not even AHL material, and I really hope he finds a skating coach to help him fix these issues.
That being said, he was competing, and showing no problems getting into the dirty areas, but he clearly had issues keeping up with the pace of the game.
3/10
Quinn Hughes - Okay, I know what you are thinking, but before you say what you are thinking, go to the top of the post and let me repeat, this is not a summary of him because I am a Canucks fan, just a observer of his game.
Quinn in the 1st period looked like Bobby Orr, While you get the laughter out of your head, I am not saying he is going to be ORR or Erik Karlsson, etc. Because Quinn is unlike any Defender I have ever seen in watching over 25 years of hockey.
Just in the first 10 minutes alone, he had two assists.
The first goal was a god awful turnover that he saw coming and after he got the puck, passed it to Oliver tape to tape, easy enough.
Before the second goal, Quinn had the puck behind his net, and within 3 seconds it felt, he's already in the offensive zone going through at least 2/3 people, eventually giving the puck to Oliver for another goal.
Everybody on HF Boards has to watch this kid play, I saw him countless times on TV and was amazed, and then I saw him live and all I was thinking was. What? HOW? WTF? jesus!.
Quinn on another occasion im the third period, he had two guys on him, the first guy he did a SPIN MOVE and completely blew by 1 guy, then he skated passed the red line into the offensive zone, another guy was chasing after him and he did ANOTHER spin move, so smooth and made a rocket pass across the ice to Oliver who got a shot off. The crowd was chanting his name a bit after JUST this play alone. It's not over yet...
The entire crowd was buzzing everything he touched the puck. Quinn had multiple guys on him over a half a dozen times in the defensive zone and he absolutely BLEW by all of them with ease.
I cannot stress this enough, he would grab the puck, do a fake head-bob and accelerate by the opposition without looking like he is breaking a sweat.
Even his passes were crisp as hell, the crowd was on there feet, it was something to see.
Also like to mention he had two "fights" both DEFENDING teammates after they got cheap shotted.
Quinn was trash talking in the bench, crowd loved that also.
Quinn is a player I have no comparable in the NHL too, his shot is a muffin, but his playmaking reminds me of like a johhny hockey or marner but on defense, absolutely elite talent, will be a top 5/10 defender in the league in the next 7-10 years.
This is by far the best game I have seen Quinn play, on TV or Live.
10/10
Mattias Samuelson - This kid had a great game, While he won't put up much points, his defensive work was very good tonight. He won countless board battles, made strong crisp passes, had a few big hits where the crowd reacted.
He did have 1 bad turnover, but overall, he was the 2nd best defender on USA.
7.5/10
OTHERS - Zadina is huge, the guy owned the puck on countless occasions making other defenders look silly, he had one in and out move (similar to what Horvat/toews/bergeron) do, and blew by a few guys in the process just missing a goal. He seemed to be alone on an island, but he showcased his skill very much so. I really enjoyed him play.
8/10
Here are a few plays by quinn, This gentleman records the second half of the spin move in but not the first one but still pretty incredible just watching it again.
Here are both his flights
