WJC discussion

[rataylor22]

Canada just doesn't have the talent this year, and Celebrini at 17 is their best player but nowhere close to Bedard's performance last year (not that it was expected). I think they can get past Czechia but I don't expect them to beat the US or SWE. Despite playing for the Bruins this year, Poitras is the same in junior as he is in the NHL, a really solid defensively sound 3C. Can't be relied on for offense.

[Axeman33]

Canada just doesn't have the talent this year, and Celebrini at 17 is their best player but nowhere close to Bedard's performance last year (not that it was expected). I think they can get past Czechia but I don't expect them to beat the US or SWE. Despite playing for the Bruins this year, Poitras is the same in junior as he is in the NHL, a really solid defensively sound 3C. Can't be relied on for offense.

Spot on, although I may argue that their best player has been Rousseau, but that's splitting hairs at this point.

I agree with your assessment on Poitras. Same can be said for Minten, who they seem to want to keep running out there on PP1 and he's clearly not an offensive guy.

It will be interesting to see how they deploy Firkus, who is probably now their most offensively skilled player outside of Celibrini.

[2014olympicgold]

I'm surprised at how much Celebrini has grown this tournament.

[Axeman33]

That was a painful first period to watch. Canada sloppy in the offensive zone, struggling to handle passes cleanly. It led to the first CZE goal as Dumais bobbled the pass, which lead to the CZE breakout and goal. I am sure Rousseau would love to have both goals back. The first was was a clean shot that he "should" have had but the second goal was just bad.

[PenguinHunter]

Wahoo!!! The boys have tied it up, lets go!!

[2014olympicgold]

What an awful goal to give up with 11s, like awful luck.

[Belexus75]

Disappointing, but not surprising. I thought they will make it to the semis and loose there....

[Axeman33]

Based on the game play, Canada deserved to win that game but they also deserved to lose that game. They outplayed them the last 40 mins, but their inability to shoot the puck and put pucks on net, as well as finish just wasn't there. One crappy bounce sealed the deal late in the game but that doesn't surprise me.

Hopefully team management will learn from them and look for game breakers instead of game managers. Too many grinders, not enough polish.

[rataylor22]

Just not a skilled enough team this year, not a surprising result.

[PenguinHunter]

Suisse is making Sweden earn it.

What a heartbreak it would be for Sweden to lose in quarters to Suisse on home ice.

[doulos]

That late 3rd period call was premium IIHF reffing. Particularly after not calling a whole bunch of stuff before that. I love it.

Swedes win on the powerplay in OT. Wow.

[2014olympicgold]

The reffing in this tournament has been awful. It's felt like they've been influenced by the crowd HEAVILY.

[loppantorkel]

Some bad calls, but it's no worse than usual. The Swedes were bailed out late by the refs yesterday though. Several looked very nervous and the Swiss deserved a better outcome, but I'm happy Sweden is through to meet the Czechs. No chance there unless they get it together.

[2014olympicgold]

Some bad calls, but it's no worse than usual. The Swedes were bailed out late by the refs yesterday though. Several looked very nervous and the Swiss deserved a better outcome, but I'm happy Sweden is through to meet the Czechs. No chance there unless they get it together.

The inconsistent boarding calls have be frustrating to watch.

[Axeman33]

The inconsistent boarding calls have be frustrating to watch.

What I found frustrating was constantly upgrading/downgrading calls just to take another look at it. It basically tells me the refs have no confidence in their own ability to make a call and need to rely on video review to see what they may or may not have seen while the play went on. Make your call, stick to it, and move on. It must have been embarrassing to call a 2 minute tripping call on Nelson from Canada, upgrade it to a major penalty, then determine it wasn't a penalty at all to begin with after review and come out and say that there was no penalty on the play. No one would have argued about the 2 min tripping call to start with because of the speed of the game.

I am all for getting it right, but if you bring good enough officials to start with, you shouldn't need to rely on video review to make the calls needed to be made.