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U18: World Championship, Lappeenranta & Imatra, Finland

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Congrats to the US squad. Lots of talent on the team to watch going forward.

The Czechs were a fun squad to watch. Some very talented players that will be at the forefront of Czech hockey for the next 15 years or so.
 
Shots 41-17, and Czechs had only three shots in the third . 5-2 score is very decent for the Czechs. Some shifts , Americans were circling around the Czech net simply to not let the opponents to touch the puck. It appeared it was Amerk's PP, but it actually wasn't.
Czech team has some brilliant talents (finally) in its roster , as Vrana (wow), Zacha, Pastrnak , Kase, but this team USA is too good for them . Matthews and Milano are the players I was impressed the most in the golden squad . If it's remembered that Matthews is only 2016-eligible (!!!) prospect , his performance is really incredible.
As for Canada, a goalie MacDonald, a "hot-shot" Konecny, and Sanheim (big D-man with a good vision and a very decent passing) were the best players in Dineen's team...
 
A solid win from one of the more talented US teams to play at this tournament over the years. I'd say it's the deepest group since the '92 birth year. Congratulations to them all and I hope the success continues from here.

Congratulations to the Czech team as well. They had a great run and it certainly seems things could be turning around for them after a real drought in recent years. We'll have to wait and see.
 
The Yanks are crazy good.

6 - 2 vs Slovakia, 4 - 1 vs Sweden and 5 - 2 vs the Czechs. That's some "can't touch me" stuff they pulled in the playoff round.

Good stuff.

Also the Czechs, good job, good to see different countries succeed at this level.
 
very proud of this US team, from top to bottom it was simply loaded. Connor and Nedle did a solid job of raising their draft stocks as outsiders for this team.

Eichel, Hanifin, Connor, and Matthews are just at another level skill wise then much of this tournament. Milano, Larkin, Dougherty, were excellent as well. Overall this squad was just loaded.
 
Here's a basic recap of USA efforts throughout the tournament

Depth Players are Real USA U18 Champions

When the top line failed to create the pressure expected from them, fans saw the deep USA team blitz opponents and outright confuse them. The kid line featuring Kyle Connor (2015), Auston Matthews (2016), and Shane Gersich (2014), could have been mistaken as USA's top guns when times got tough for Eichel's crew. Kyle Connor emerged as a top threat who would not give up.
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bottomofthefoodchain said:
It would be weird if the USNTDP didnt win this tournament year after year. They have been playing together for months, the other teams for a week.
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The Russians will start a NTDP starting this summer (1997 born players) to play in the MHL. At least that's what I was reading on a few sites...
 
Mr Writer said:
Tretiak was quoted as saying he wants this created this summer...but Tretiak wants a lot things that ultimately seem to go nowhere.
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the bar keeps getting higher.If you want to win at youth hockey, the Americans have led the way. Does this translate to under 20 success. It has too to some extent.
Will Canada follow suit? How would this work? Is it really beneficial to have 16-17 year olds playing junior hockey? Why not have a select team of say 98's and 97's for example of those ages and turn them over to the CHL.
I don't think it would work for the 96's, but then at least these players would have high level coaching and competition to better prepare them. The pitfalls are numerous to make this work but I think changes are coming in the youth program for Canada but I don't recall what they will be. If we are ok with putting all our eggs in the under 20 basket, then that's ok, but standing pat is not the answer.
 
clarkebr said:
the bar keeps getting higher.If you want to win at youth hockey, the Americans have led the way. Does this translate to under 20 success. It has too to some extent.
Will Canada follow suit? How would this work? Is it really beneficial to have 16-17 year olds playing junior hockey? Why not have a select team of say 98's and 97's for example of those ages and turn them over to the CHL.
I don't think it would work for the 96's, but then at least these players would have high level coaching and competition to better prepare them. The pitfalls are numerous to make this work but I think changes are coming in the youth program for Canada but I don't recall what they will be. If we are ok with putting all our eggs in the under 20 basket, then that's ok, but standing pat is not the answer.
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The CHL would never go for it. Losing from their club teams up to 25 U18 players and 25 U20 players to a NTDP... Hockey Canada does the CHL's bidding...so long as Hockey Canada is still raking in 20 million dollar profits from the WJC - b/c HC doesn't measure success by the number of gold medals won, they measure it by mega profits equally as much... so I don't see them changing Jack**** for a while...

btw the estimates for this year's WJC in Montreal and Toronto are projected to be in the range of close to 30 mill.
 
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The Russians will start a NTDP starting this summer (1997 born players) to play in the MHL. At least that's what I was reading on a few sites...
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For now, it's only a rumor. Or, Tretyak's proposition , no more. This idea can become a reality, but equally likely it can thaw in the air. There is a dirrerent hockey system in Russia as opposed to the U.S. All talented young players belong to the professional franchises and I don't think these franchises (in the KHL and VHL) will want to loan their prospects to that dev.program thereby to lose them for indefinite time. On the other hand, it's Russia and everything will be possible if there is a "political will". So I'd bet 50/50% so far.
 
Lalonde said:
For now, it's only a rumor. Or, Tretyak's proposition , no more. This idea can become a reality, but equally likely it can thaw in the air. There is a dirrerent hockey system in Russia as opposed to the U.S. All talented young players belong to the professional franchises and I don't think these franchises (in the KHL and VHL) will want to loan their prospects to that dev.program thereby to lose them for indefinite time. On the other hand, it's Russia and everything will be possible if there is a "political will". So I'd bet 50/50% so far.
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Russia has never been a force in this tournament because the kids start playing competitive hockey at a much later age than in other countries. An NTDP might be a good way of making the transition to competition at an earlier age, and might claim support on that basis.
 
SanDogBrewin said:
A profit machine...wow.
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WJC is the goose that lays the golden egg...once every 2 years...I don't see them being too motivated to change how things are currently done... but fail on home ice again this year, then all bets are off and we may see some things change.
 
Yakushev72 said:
Russia has never been a force in this tournament because the kids start playing competitive hockey at a much later age than in other countries. An NTDP might be a good way of making the transition to competition at an earlier age, and might claim support on that basis.
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We're telling about different things. I told I didn't see any resolve so far how it was going to work regardless of a total result. Where will they take/lease/loan players from? Considering that all players have agreements with pro-teams , it could be a problem. If you were GM of one of KHL teams, you wouldn't be very delighted if some officials from the hockey federation would come to you and say something like that : "You know, we need players for our national U-18 team...So, you can lend three best players from your junior team to us for .... years, can't you? ".
Generally, I'm not against the idea. But I don't see any reason why the clubs must agree to lose talented young players from their systems for nothing. I guess, it's needed at least to consider some kind of compensation otherwise I can't see how it's going to work ...
 
Lalonde said:
We're telling about different things. I told I didn't see any resolve so far how it was going to work regardless of a total result. Where will they take/lease/loan players from? Considering that all players have agreements with pro-teams , it could be a problem. If you were GM of one of KHL teams, you wouldn't be very delighted if some officials from the hockey federation would come to you and say something like that : "You know, we need players for our national U-18 team...So, you can lend three best players from your junior team to us for .... years, can't you? ".
Generally, I'm not against the idea. But I don't see any reason why the clubs must agree to lose talented young players from their systems for nothing. I guess, it's needed at least to consider some kind of compensation otherwise I can't see how it's going to work ...
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and there was continued talk of it today by the U18 coach who said a NTDP for U18 and U20 is the best route to take. It will be interesting to see where it goes...

I'd like to see Canada give it a trial run just out of curiosity.
 
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