Welcome to another Thursday ramblings. It is Thursday correct? I seem to have completely lost time over the holidays and have no idea what day is what currently. On that note hopefully everyone had a good Christmas (or whatever) holiday. Here is a Christmas song (if you are at work I would not recommend blasting this for all to hear):
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I would love love love to have recapped all of the World Junior games, but I am one of those people who has cut cable and uses internet, but could not find a good stream of it on the 26th (by the way thanks TSN for making it seem free then going LOL JK midway through the Russia vs Czech game). Tonight I had hockey at 6pm so I barely watched the game, but I will go with what I saw / know.
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Canada won 6-0 over Slovakia and really who did not think Canada would win. Their main challenger is the USA and do not forget Finland, Canada may have won the first game 4-2 but it was a pretty even game and Finland has such a strong group. I still think that when push comes to shove (the playoff rounds) Canada will have a tougher time scoring.
Sam Steel and Jordan Kyrou are starting to take off as Steel finished with a goal (the game winner) and an assist, while Kyrou finished with two assists. They are showing while they are the top two forwards for Canada in this tournament.
{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Another look at Jordan Kyrou victimizing Slovakia <a href="https://t.co/RABNziCldS">pic.twitter.com/RABNziCldS</a></p>— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteBlackburn/status/946186337476018177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2017</a></blockquote{/source}
Jonah Gadjovich finished with two goals and Cale Makar finished with two assists as the Canadian defense core was pressed into action with Kyle Clague not playing and Jake Bean going down in a heap off of an awkward play. Hopefully he is not out for long but honestly it did not look good, see below:
{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ugly sequence here…Jake Bean gets shaken up going into the boards, Marian Studenic takes Bean’s skate in the face <a href="https://t.co/vaqmPJDLd8">pic.twitter.com/vaqmPJDLd8</a></p>— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteBlackburn/status/946177609997668354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2017</a></blockquote>{/source}
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Switzerland beat Belarus 3-2.
Maksim Sushko (Flyers draft pick) was in on both two points for Belarus, and the Swiss has six players record one point on three goals.
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Alright, now for the fun part. A few friends and I do a World Junior pool for the past …. oh approximately six years with a missed year in there somewhere. I think I have won four of the six so far (Thank RNH), and last tournaments was contested as three different sites that has the scores recorded all differently where I won one, lost one and tied the third (or he won the third). We usually record them off of The Score app and use the iihf site for back up. Anyway I let it go and let him win.
The idea is you draft Canadian players and one international one, no goalies. Scoring is G, A, GWG, and Shootout GWG’s, once the team is eliminated from Gold medal contention points do not count, and there are five of us in the pool. I think we should go to two international players as the draft will make more sense (also I can pick more) but it is not my pool. Here is how the draft went (I had fourth pick; I did not want this pick).
Round 1:
J – Kyrou
H – Steel
A – Dube
PQ – Thomas
D – Raddysh
I was disappointed I could not grab a top line guy and knew Steel and Kyrou would not fall to me. I picked Thomas even though he was not on the 1PP as I just liked him more than the rest.
Round 2:
D – Clauge
PQ – Katchouk
A – Mete
H – Middelstadt
J – Makar
You can see with Darcy here drafting Clague and Raddysh he added 2/5 of the 1PP for Canada, and arguably the #1 defenseman for Canada. I picked Katchouk here as he had 2PP and line two role here. The first international player went, and I did not understand why, I keep my last pick for an international player as there are so many good ones out there so it is best to get all the best Canadians you can. Also on that Middelstadt would not have been one of the players I would pick.
Round 3:
J – Pettersson
H – McLeod
A – Yamamoto
PQ – Steenbergen
D – Tkachuk
Well three international players went leaving me with the last one, so I could definitely keep my pick until last. Three Americans have gone as they are arguably the team expected to challenge for gold, so it makes sense. Two of the people in the pool are big time Canucks fans so that is why Pettersson was taken there (to make sure the other could not get him), but Pettersson could also wind up being the best player in the pool. Here I was very happy Steenbergen fell to me as he has been wrecking the WHL and was on 1PP according to the lines before the tournament started (is he still? Because I would like points)
Round 4 & 5:
D – Howden
PQ – Bean (IR ..sad)
A – Formenton
H – Batherson
J –Gadjovich
J – Comtois
H – Fabbro (he went late here as we didn’t know if he or Mahura was in for sure)
A – Timmons
PQ – Svechnikov
D – Foote
I was stoked to get Svechnikov as Sweden and Russia as the tops in their group so they should run up the score on a few teams, but then the Czech’s had to play great and beat Russia to worry me. Also Svechnikov has 11 minutes of ice time in game one! Come on. Most players were bottom six players and not really on either power play so they are mostly random picks. I was happy to get Bean as he is a great offensive defenseman, but now he is hurt.
Other players I was contemplating at this pick: Nylander, Abramov, Chytil, Zadina, Dahlin, Rubtsov, Tolvanen, or Heponiemi. I felt I was in tough to pick a Czech or a Finn as they will likely have the toughest of the quarter finals opponents. Perhaps a Swede would have been better to pick but I really feel like Svechnikov can still take over, perhaps not in the way Kaprizov did last year but should still be steady.
Anyway, the document is viewable. Here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eP1RbbJIjX9kYyl_jJ48DxvvBDmSmo0wU0evBTFj2TE/edit?usp=drive_web
Alright I am up waaay too late and waaay to sore as the hockey adrenaline is leaving me.
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