Yay Thursday ramblings time! I will discuss Carter Hart’s start, Team Canada, Team Russia, Svech and Dahlin. Start a ramblin!
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Hart was called up for the Flyers after being … fine in his first 17 AHL games. In his debut he was …fine as well winning 3-2 with a 0.909 save percentage. Going forward the Flyers should play Neuvirth until he gets hurt again (so ~2-8 games) as he is finally back healthy, plus Alex Lyon can play part time in the NHL in the meantime. Call me a person who feels you should give your top goalie prospect at least a year in the AHL before throwing him to the wolves.
I think Hart will have as hot of a run as a goalie can for his first few games and then come crashing back to earth, as good as he can playing behind the Flyers of course. Hopefully the Flyers do not ruin him by rushing him.
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Team Canada World Junior Roster time!
By now you have heard that Gabe Vilardi will not make team Canada, but the Kings will also return him to junior:
{source}<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Gabriel Vilardi has been ruled out of World Juniors, Team Canada confirms <br><br>More to follow</p>— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) <a href=”https://twitter.com/markhmasters/status/1075153299383439367?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
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{source}<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Per Rob Blake, Vilardi will return to juniors. No timetable. Needs "time to heal up." Not eligible to return to Kings this season.</p>— Curtis Zupke (@curtiszupke) <a href=”https://twitter.com/curtiszupke/status/1075491099878281217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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There was concern Jaret Anderson-Dolan (LAK) would not be able to make the roster after breaking his wrist October 27, but team Canada left him on the roster and he played in the first pre-competitive game versus the Swiss (see below). With Vilardi out Canada left Lafreniere on the roster as he was going to be the player to be sent back if the two older players who have been hurt all season were finally able to play. This is a more recent team Canada issue
{source}<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>This is so Team Canada haha.<br>Roster mistakes routinely by over thinking, but are covered up by incredible talent throughout <a href=”https://t.co/ubVzX9tEGP”>https://t.co/ubVzX9tEGP</a></p>— PQsFantasyHockey (@FHPQuinn) <a href=”https://twitter.com/FHPQuinn/status/1074452165689630720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Where they bring older players and players to fit certain positions instead of all the skill possible, It rarely appears as an issue though considering all Team Canada rosters are stacked, until they lose a playoff game and everyone wonders what happens. Lafreniere should kick butt in the tournament and was currently lined up on line two in the game last night. The rosters for this prelim-game were:
Comtois(ANA)-Glass(VGK)-Tippett(FLA)
JAD(LA)-Suzuki(MTL)-Lafreniere(2019)
Frost(PHI)-Hayton(ARI)-Studnicka(BOS)
Veleno(DET)-Bowers(COL)-Entwistle (CHI-play that bass!)
Josh Brook(MTL)-Dobson(NYI)
Markus Phillips(LA)-Bouchard(EDM)
Smith(NJ)-Mitchell(CHI)
McIsaac(DET)
DiPietro (VAN) – Starter
Scott (TOR)
Notes on roster:
- I like putting the top three defensemen on a separate pairs. It likely will not hold up but it is good to keep one out on the ice at all times
- It is DiPietro’s net to lose
- I am not a fan of Tim Hunter as a coach but I will let it play out
- Canada has a siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick top nine, with the fourth line being no slouch either
- Something just tells me (if it holds up) the Frost-Hayton-Studnicka will be a crazy two-way force line in the same mould as the Bergeron line is in the NHL
For the game:
Canada ended up winning 5-3 outshooting the Swiss 41-17. Max Comtois lead the way for Canada with two goals and two assists, and Cody Glass, Owen Tippet and Jack Studnicka chipped in the other goals.
Valentin Nussbaumer(2019), Philipp Kurashev (CHI) and Tobias Geisser (WSH) scored for the Swiss.
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Kostin has been loaned by the St. Louis Blues to the WJC for Russia. The Russians are set up like they usually are: Insanely skilled forwards; a couple good dmen and other not great ones; and a goalie who can steal games in Daniil Tarasov
{source}<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>In case someone lost track of the recent Team Russia U20 camp roster changes, here is the current camp roster. Seven players still to be cut before the <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldJuniors?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#WorldJuniors</a>. <a href=”https://t.co/EDYxnOlyeD”>pic.twitter.com/EDYxnOlyeD</a></p>— Russian Prospects (@RUSProspects) <a href=”https://twitter.com/RUSProspects/status/1074687318282391553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 17, 2018</a></blockquote>
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I will go over the team more in the KHL update later this week (aka on the weekend, sorry it was not released yesterday work has kept me far too busy), but this team is going to need Alexeyev and Romanov to be anchors on the back end. I hope a lot of games end up 7-6 as the Russians have so many options up front but not many that are super great in their own end. Should be fun to watch!
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Svechnikov has been heating up of late (as much as he can with mediocre line-mates and ice time) with nine points in his last 12 games. At least he has found his way on to #1PP and now if only #RodTheBod could figure out Hamilton is miles better than Faulk at running a powerplay, he could pick up his scoring even more. If Carolina coaches could just figure out roster construction and powerplay deployment this team would be miles better*
*with competent goaltending
It is also amazing how fast Dahlin is turning in to a top defenseman. Usually it takes a few seasons but this kid already looks like he could be a top #3 defenseman on an NHL squad. I would hate to be the GM for Team Sweden at the Olympics if NHL players are going (by the way they should) and they decide to leave the older bad ones at home (sorry Kronwall you were done). Karlsson, Hedman, OEL, Klingberg, Dahlin, H. Lindholm, Ekholm, Klefbom, Stralman (if not broken by then), Andersson, possibly Boqvist. Good lucky picking just seven from that.
That is all. Thanks for reading. Follow my twitter for Fantasy Hockey advice, I win ALL the pools: @FHPQuinn