U18: 2024 Team USA

Pavel Buchnevich

Drury and Laviolette Must Go
Dec 8, 2013
57,758
23,700
New York
My guess is that Hutson isn't ready yet. Might need another week. They'll try to keep a spot open for him to potentially rejoin the lineup for the elimination rounds. But if a player gets injured and they are down to five, they might have to abandon that plan.
 

Pavel Buchnevich

Drury and Laviolette Must Go
Dec 8, 2013
57,758
23,700
New York
I think we have a medal chance with this team, but most likely it's not our year.

Goaltending is shaky. I have little confidence in Kempf, and none in Heil and Parsons. We don't even know who the goalie will be for game 1.

The defense is big and physical and good defensively, but not that much offense. No Hutson, if he doesn't play, would be a big loss. He's the only defenseman that has more than moderate offense.

The forwards are probably a little better than we worried they could be. Adding Connelly helps, but it's not a great forward group. It's highly reliant on two players.

The lack of promotions from the 17's was stupid. This team needed reinforcements, and for some reason we didn't get many. The other teams aren't that good, so we'll have a chance. But I don't think this is a vintage team for us.
 
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WarriorofTime

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Jul 3, 2010
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I think we have a medal chance with this team, but most likely it's not our year.

Goaltending is shaky. I have little confidence in Kempf, and none in Heil and Parsons. We don't even know who the goalie will be for game 1.

The defense is big and physical and good defensively, but not that much offense. No Hutson, if he doesn't play, would be a big loss. He's the only defenseman that has more than moderate offense.

The forwards are probably a little better than we worried they could be. Adding Connelly helps, but it's not a great forward group. It's highly reliant on two players.

The lack of promotions from the 17's was stupid. This team needed reinforcements, and for some reason we didn't get many. The other teams aren't that good, so we'll have a chance. But I don't think this is a vintage team for us.
The U17 is not very good. There aren’t any superstars there to promote.
 

WhiskeyYerTheDevils

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Good first period. This team has so many offensive weapons.

Hagens
Connelly
Mooney
Eiserman
Hutson
Stiga

They also have some really solid role player types up front, and well rounded group od mobile defensive dmen.

They may not be as deep as the 2019 or 2022 teams, but I think this group is being slept on a bit.
 

SK94

Registered User
Apr 11, 2016
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Aren't eight defensemen usually allowed in IIHF tournaments? It's a big shame whenever one guy works for two years and then gets sidelined at the last minute. I think Lapointe is also a bit more balanced compared to a few others who are in the team. It's not a big deal, of course, and it doesn't affect the outcome in any way.
 

William H Bonney

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Feb 27, 2002
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Aren't eight defensemen usually allowed in IIHF tournaments? It's a big shame whenever one guy works for two years and then gets sidelined at the last minute. I think Lapointe is also a bit more balanced compared to a few others who are in the team. It's not a big deal, of course, and it doesn't affect the outcome in any way.

20 skaters. They're carrying a 13th forward instead
 

SK94

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Apr 11, 2016
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Am I being overly optimistic if I say Eiserman, Buium, Connelly, Bednarik, Stiga, Hutson and Emery all go in the first round?
 

WarriorofTime

Registered User
Jul 3, 2010
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20 skaters. They're carrying a 13th forward instead
13/7 is the norm, but some teams (I think Russia would often do this) will do 12/8 (4 lines and 4 pairs) occasionally.

I think Pardue and Lapointe are likely injury replacements so they're probably still around staying ready. Kids get cut every year and they're aware of course that it's a possibility when they join the program. Most of the time, the writing has been on the wall for a while as they'll spend the entire season as an extra. It can be complicated when a really strong group is a year below a weak group (01s taking the spots of 00s).

They're usually fairly conservative with callups/demotions, such as this year with only one callup (Mooney) and one other "ringer" (Connelly) brought in. I'd imagine not messing wanting to mess up chemistry/create bad feelings heading into the tournament plays a big part of that, because you don't want players being too upset their friends didn't make the team. Everyone knows though that some kids from the U17 team are just too good to leave off the roster or if there is a more specific need.
 
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Pavel Buchnevich

Drury and Laviolette Must Go
Dec 8, 2013
57,758
23,700
New York
Hagens really turned it on after I thought his first couple of shifts were pretty weak. That whole line was great. Ziemer had a very good game, and Stiga was good too. Didn't think Eiserman had a good game. Sounds crazy for a guy that had three goals, but he can do the "play poorly and still score goals" thing better than anyone in the 2024 draft. Plante didn't have it either. Bednarik was decent because he's not really reliant on others in how he plays the game, but I don't think this line clicks well. Didn't think the third line clicked well either. Connelly, Humphreys, and Mooney all had their moments, but they created even less than the second line. To be fair, Connelly has only played one exhibition game with this team, so they may need more time to click. But this line has no center. Should promote LVV to 3C and make Humphreys the 13F, but I don't think that'll happen. Fourth line wasn't bad, but created very little against a bad team. If they don't hurt the team, that's a positive game and they didn't in this game.

Thought the defense was decent. Hutson being back was a great surprise. This team needs him a lot. And he was impactful right away. Hensler, Skahan, and Emery were all solid. Skahan even looked better with the puck in this game. Bottom three guys all were okay. If you look at the minute distribution, they all played similar amounts. There's a huge drop-off between the minutes the top 4 are playing and the bottom 3. And that kind of jives with what we know about this defense. Not that the bottom three are that bad though. I thought Kempf had a very strong game. I have some slight worries about what happens when he comes up against a Canada or Sweden or Finland, but I don't see many strong goaltenders at this tournament and I don't think he's bad. He's just not going to steal games and win us the tournament. But he's likely capable of not losing it for us, and this team might be good enough to win with that type of goalie.
 
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Obvious Fabertism

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Hagens really turned it on after I thought his first couple of shifts were pretty weak. That whole line was great. Ziemer had a very good game, and Stiga was good too. Didn't think Eiserman had a good game. Sounds crazy for a guy that had three goals, but he can do the "play poorly and still score goals" thing better than anyone in the 2024 draft. Plante didn't have it either. Bednarik was decent because he's not really reliant on others in how he plays the game, but I don't think this line clicks well. Didn't think the third line clicked well either. Connelly, Humphreys, and Mooney all had their moments, but they created even less than the second line. To be fair, Connelly has only played one exhibition game with this team, so they may need more time to click. But this line has no center. Should promote LVV to 3C and make Humphreys the 13F, but I don't think that'll happen. Fourth line wasn't bad, but created very little against a bad team. If they don't hurt the team, that's a positive game and they didn't in this game.

Thought the defense was decent. Hutson being back was a great surprise. This team needs him a lot. And he was impactful right away. Hensler, Skahan, and Emery were all solid. Skahan even looked better with the puck in this game. Bottom three guys all were okay. If you look at the minute distribution, they all played similar amounts. There's a huge drop-off between the minutes the top 4 are playing and the bottom 3. And that kind of jives with what we know about this defense. Not that the bottom three are that bad though. I thought Kempf had a very strong game. I have some slight worries about what happens when he comes up against a Canada or Sweden or Finland, but I don't see many strong goaltenders at this tournament and I don't think he's bad. He's just not going to steal games and win us the tournament. But he's likely capable of not losing it for us, and this team might be good enough to win with that type of goalie.
I would echo this.

I have been impressed by Hensler, Skahan and Ziemer the most relative to my own expectations, Hagens is a lot of fun to watch. Eiserman just does very little for me, it’s great he scores a ton, but it just seems like he rarely does any of the actual good work that leads to goals, while not looking very engaged anytime the puck isn’t within 10 feet.
 
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