World Jr's: Things We Learned

[Shake]

Jr's are over now. USA wins Gold. That is not the point though, over the course of the tournament ( Yes it's a small sample size) what have you realized, or learned both positive and or negative about player(s) that you want to give insight on? What went wrong for Canada, Russia etc, what went right for USA? Are they that good? Looked like they played a great team game. Gibson was badass. Anyway, just rant off on things you want to share with the group. Have different views post Jr's about a certain player than you had pre-Jr's?

[JagrBomb]

1. canadians need to stop thinking they're in another tier above everyone else.
2. russians need to learn how to play as a team, not as a bunch of individuals on a team
3. sweden would have won if they had zibanejed
4. bye to the semis hurts your team more than it benefits. more often than not, the first round matchup is a joke, and in such a small tourney, an extra game developing chemistry is HUGE.

[metaldude26]

1. canadians need to stop thinking they're in another tier above everyone else.
2. russians need to learn how to play as a team, not as a bunch of individuals on a team
3. sweden would have won if they had zibanejed
4. bye to the semis hurts your team more than it benefits. more often than not, the first round matchup is a joke, and in such a small tourney, an extra game developing chemistry is HUGE.

The good news is that starting next year there will be no bye to the semis. Fourth place crosses over to play first.

[Deke]

Totally agree in a tourney this short, that bye isn't a plus for the top seeded team imo ?

[Essej]

The good news is that starting next year there will be no bye to the semis. Fourth place crosses over to play first.

This is the way it should be, so defiantly glad it's going to be reality for next years tournament.

[doulos]

1. canadians need to stop thinking they're in another tier above everyone else.
2. russians need to learn how to play as a team, not as a bunch of individuals on a team
3. sweden would have won if they had zibanejed
4. bye to the semis hurts your team more than it benefits. more often than not, the first round matchup is a joke, and in such a small tourney, an extra game developing chemistry is HUGE.

1. Agreed. There are 4-5 teams on the same level now.

2. Starting with Yakupov. Great talent, but not seeing him as much of a teammate quite yet. But he's young so has time to work on that. The thing with the Russians is that their style sometimes really works and sometimes utterly fails. But there is no denying that it is fun to watch. If I was a Russian fan I wouldn't want them to change.

3. Sweden was really lucky to even make the Gold Medal game. Zibanejad is good, but so is Nugent-Hopkins. You need the defense to be able to win it all. But who knows, maybe you're right.

4. Nobody ever mentions this when a great team rolls through and crushes the competition in the RR and Elimination games. I think the chance of losing a close quarter final game against an overachieving opponent is just as high as not gelling due to one less game played. I don't think it makes a difference either way in such short tournaments.

[Dakkster]

1. canadians need to stop thinking they're in another tier above everyone else.
2. russians need to learn how to play as a team, not as a bunch of individuals on a team
3. sweden would have won if they had zibanejed
4. bye to the semis hurts your team more than it benefits. more often than not, the first round matchup is a joke, and in such a small tourney, an extra game developing chemistry is HUGE.

Zibanejad wasn't the biggest hole. Brodin, Klefbom and Lindholm were the ones that would have made a bigger difference.

[ericdaoust]

Such a short tournament and the single-game elimination makes anything possible just like the NFL playoffs.