Voila, it's this time of year again....
I attended to the first day of the under-20 Camp in Lenzerheide...
Before the Camp even started, the Swiss took a major blow to their projected roster with the injury to Christoph Bertschy... It leaves a hughe hole on the center position...
Anyhow, in the 90min drills-session the Swiss worked more or less on their playing system and it looked promising... They were put in three groups with the following line-combination:
White:
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D
Phil Baltisberger (Guelph/OHL) - Lukas Frick (Kloten)
Benoit Jecker (Biel) - Claude Paschoud (Davos)
LW-C-RW
Lukas Sieber (Davos) - Marco Müller (Bern) - Julian Schmutz (Bern)
Nico Dünner (Zug) - Lukas Balmelli (Lugano) - Dario Simion (Lugano)
Red:
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D
Mirco Müller (Everett/WHL) - Yannick Rathgeb (Plymouth/OHL)
Sämi Kreis (Bern) - Anthony Rouiller (Biel)
LW-C-RW
Fabrice Herzog (Remparts/QMJHL) - Jason Fuchs (Rouyn-Noranda/QMJHL) - Sandro Zangger (ZSC/GCK)
Vincent Praplan (North Bay/OHL)- Flavio Schmutz (Västeras/SWE) - Kevin Fiala (HV71/SWE)
Blue:
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D
Jonas Siegenthaler (ZSC/GCK) - Riccardo Sartori (Lugano)
LW-C-RW
Lars Frei (Rapperswil) - Luca Hischier (Bern) - Luca Fazzini (Lugano)
So Blue looks more and more like the taxi-squad as, especially the defense is pretty set... 97-born Jonas Siegenthaler is walking directly in the foot-steps of Phil Baltsiberger, but I don't think he will make this team as Phil did as a double-underager... I still don't see, what the Maple Leafs see in Herzog... He seemed lost and not enough drive in his play... Besides size and decent shot, there isn't much in my eyes...
If I had to choose, I'd pick Hischier for the Line with Julian Schmutz and Lukas Sieber, put Marco Müller on the wing with Balmelli and Simion and cut Nico Dünner... Dünner, though, looks solid, but I like the size and skill of Hischier more...
Well on the Goaltender's Position, Melvin Nyffeler took the Starting-Job and is already running away with it... With Sascha Rochow and Daniel Guntern in the wings Melvin probably will see the full load of all games during the tournament...
Looking forward to your comments...