WJC: 2015 — Canada Roster Talk (Part IV)

[s7ark]

I really think Canada could have used Nurse last year. When he is on top of his game he is a hell of a player. +4 tonight while playing against Eichel? Impressive

 

[Snippit]

He was pretty much sitting in the corner on the first goal. Comrie was NOT good today. At all. If it was Fucale playing like that everyone would be shouting from the rooftops.

If they dont go with Fucale from hear on in they are morons.

Nah, Comrie was very composed today until the end. Both Fucale and Comrie have been very good, aside from one soft goal each. 50/50 decision.

 

[Novak Djokovic]

Joe Hicketts needs to play less. Brutal. I wish Nurse and Theodore could play 60 mins.

 

[Skip2myBordyloo]

I really think Canada could have used Nurse last year. When he is on top of his game he is a hell of a player. +4 tonight while playing against Eichel? Impressive

You're really just beating a dead horse and stating the obvious, he would have been an easy upgrade over Pelech or Bigras on the left side.

 

[longchange]

Hard to choose between Fucale and Comrie in my opinion. Both have looked decent (not spectacular though) and I think can be counted on moving forward. Still a bit surprised Comrie got the start today though, I was hoping they would put their faith in Fucale.

I like the composure of this team. They seem fearless, which I'm not sure I can say about some of the teams in the past few years. I'm excited to see how things go the rest of the way.

 

[ZeroPT*]

Comrie for me. I like Fucale but Comrie's calm demeanor has been excellent and helps than someone like Fucale

 

[trilobyte]

I don't see a lot of difference between Fucale and Comrie. Style is different. Some like Comrie's apparently more calm style, yet ignore Fucale's effectiveness at the same time.

Not a big difference to me. Both can get the job done on this t-e-a-m.

 

[bigdirty]

No disrespect meant to our other opponents, but my biggest question heading into this game was whether all of Canada's slick offensive moves were going to work against a defense that isn't completed out-classed. The American defense may be young, but they are a highly skilled team and our forwards were just making them look silly at times tonight.

Also worth noting that we have solved probably the two best goalies in this tournament now, although Demko was still ridiculously good.

 

[trilobyte]

No disrespect meant to our other opponents, but my biggest question heading into this game was whether all of Canada's slick offensive moves were going to work against a defense that isn't completed out-classed. The American defense may be young, but they are a highly skilled team and our forwards were just making them look silly at times tonight.

Also worth noting that we have solved probably the two best goalies in this tournament now, although Demko was still ridiculously good.

Team USA defence was not nearly good enough. I think that USA's defence was out-classed.
I thought that the Team USA's strength would be building off the cycle down low in Canada's zone. USA did that well until this game. So, my fears were for nothing. Canada's defence were great, USA has much less talent on their defence.

 

[ZeroPT*]

Talent? No. Very talented group. They're just really damn young. 2 draft eligible D-men on the USA team is kinda iffy IMO.

 

[trilobyte]

Talent? No. Very talented group. They're just really damn young. 2 draft eligible D-men on the USA team is kinda iffy IMO.

Well, Hanifin is amazingly good, but I think it drops after that. What I meant is how good they are as a group in this tournament. Under pressure from Team Canada, iffy indeed.

Edit: enough talk about another team's roster in a Team Canada roster thread. My fault

 

[JackSlater]

Joe Hicketts needs to play less. Brutal. I wish Nurse and Theodore could play 60 mins.

Agreed, he looks out of his depth. Heatherington isn't great, but I like his game better than Hicketts'. I know when you're dealing with an ultra fast/talented/deep American forward group (and with a slow, outclassed Canadian forward group) that it's nothing but constant pressure, but Canada needs more than he is giving.

 

[OttawaRoughRiderFan*]

Well, Hanifin is amazingly good, but I think it drops after that. What I meant is how good they are as a group in this tournament. Under pressure from Team Canada, iffy indeed.

People always overrate the U.S. and their prospects.

Edit: enough talk about another team's roster in a Team Canada roster thread. My fault

Agree.

 

[BruinsBtn]

Looks like Canada has a dream draw.

Denmark and then CZE/SVK

The other bracket has USA/RUS/FIN/SWE

 

[OttawaRoughRiderFan*]

TSN trying to sell the Denmark game. LOL. We need to worry.

 

[ZeroPT*]

Looks like Canada has a dream draw.

Denmark and then CZE/SVK

The other bracket has USA/RUS/FIN/SWE

Well I guess that's what going undefeated gives you

 

[86Habs]

Agreed, he looks out of his depth. Heatherington isn't great, but I like his game better than Hicketts'. I know when you're dealing with an ultra fast/talented/deep American forward group (and with a slow, outclassed Canadian forward group) that it's nothing but constant pressure, but Canada needs more than he is giving.

Overall, the defense corps isn't as deep as I thought it would be heading into the tournament. Bowey had his best game tonight, IMO, and Nurse and Morrissey have been exceptional in my view through four games. Then there's Theodore, who has been a consistent "very good" to "great", with his performance tonight ranking at the high end. So the top 4 is in good shape heading into the playoff round. The bottom three hasn't been abysmal, just not good. Heatherington is a good defensive guy but has a very limited overall game. Hicketts is clearly outmatched at this level, but is needed to play on the right-side unfortunately so he seems to get a regular rotation. Morin has, IMO, been the best of the three and is well-suited to a bottom pairing on a team of this caliber. I guess things would be better if either H'ton or Morin could play their off-side and those two could pair up consistently, but sadly this does not appear to be the case. Anyway, I expect the bench to be shortened in a few days time....which hopefully doesn't involve the vaunted H2 pair out there protecting leads late in the game (that one is on Groulx).

 

[danron1376]

Looks like Canada has a dream draw.

Denmark and then CZE/SVK

The other bracket has USA/RUS/FIN/SWE

and duthie said that this was a nothing game during the pregame. finishing first is important!

 

[trilobyte]

You have to have a filter in place when inhaling TSN.
They can be quite a bit of overload. Much of it should be rejected.
I wonder if they get as tired of it all as many of us do.

 

[86Habs]

You have to have a filter in place when inhaling TSN.
They can be quite a bit of overload. Much of it should be rejected.
I wonder if they get as tired of it all as many of us do.

Aside from the massively over-the-top McDavid (and McDavid vs Eichel) hype, it appears they've toned things down a bit this year.

 

[Lalonde]

Hey, guys, what happened with Brayden Point? He was OK (or even very good) in two starting games and after that he didn't see any icetime , as I saw. Maybe, I miss something?

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

 

[Alerion]

 

[199991]

This was the right decision

 

[Sharpshooter]

Hey, guys, what happened with Brayden Point? He was OK (or even very good) in two starting games and after that he didn't see any icetime , as I saw. Maybe, I miss something?

Good question actually. I'm not sure but perhaps others do. Would prefer him, with Crouse and Ritchie over Gauthier on the 4th line.