WJC: Jared Cowen

[ecemleafs]

what will canadas D look like for the final?

Pietrangelo Scandella
McMillan Teubert
De Haan Ellis
Cowan

??

 

[ARS]

He clearly shouldn't be on the team and he clearly shouldn't have been drafted that high. Canada has more confidence in a foward playing D than they do in letting him play even one shift.

I have a hard time believing that you're actually being serious. Did you even pay attention to the training camp? Cowen showed that he was a steady force on the blue line, not flashy but did his job and was better than all the other defencemen who got cut, like people have already said, he played his way on to the team.

We also have a die hard Spokane fan who posts and reports on Cowen's progress on the Sens board from time to time and he too always has something positive to say about Cowen everytime he posts. There's a reason why professional scouts, who watch these kids play every single game in person, had him ranked so high prior to the draft. The fact of the matter is that team Canada has not handled Cowen all that well and now the kid has no confidence as a result.

 

[Hale The Villain]

He was picked as high as he was for the same reason Zdeno Chara and Boris Valabik were.

Sometimes it works out(Chara), sometimes it doesn't(Valabik).

For every Victor Hedman out there, there's 3 or 4 Wade Belaks.

What a stupid post

First of all, he's 6'5, not 6'7-6'9 like Chara and Valabik are

Second of all he backboned the defense of Spokane to a Memorial Cup at age 16. Skates extremely well (pre-knee injury) and can flat out shutdown opposing forwards. Despite playing bad this WJC, he still shutdown 90% of the forwards who came in his reach.

Valabik and Chara were drafted only because of their size. Cowen could actually play in his draft year.

It's amazing how 5 games in the "all-knowing" WJC can affect a player's value. Oh yeah, tell that to Victor Hedman and Tyler Myers who had bad WJCs last year yet are playing 20 minutes a night in the NHL right now.

 

[nomorekids]

What a stupid post

First of all, he's 6'5, not 6'7-6'9 like Chara and Valabik are

Second of all he backboned the defense of Spokane to a Memorial Cup at age 16. Skates extremely well (pre-knee injury) and can flat out shutdown opposing forwards. Despite playing bad this WJC, he still shutdown 90% of the forwards who came in his reach.

It's amazing how 5 games in the "all-knowing" WJC can affect a player's value. Oh yeah, tell that to Victor Hedman and Tyler Myers who had bad WJCs last year yet are playing 20 minutes a night in the NHL right now.

If he was 6'0, I'd wager he's a second or third round pick. You can claim that his size had nothing to do with where he went, but you'd be wrong. However, if you'd read on, you would see that I basically agree with you. Most of the people on this board *NEVER* see these prospects play live, outside of this tournament. As a result, everyone and their common-law husband becomes an armchair scout, and throw out all common sense and past achievements to either declare them a STEEEEAL(Chris Didomenico, or even my own team's prospect, Gabriel Bourque) or a BUUUUST(Cowen, Schroeder,and now Rundblad). Just take a few deep breaths, enjoy a Pepsi (EH OH CANADA GO!), and relax. He might be great, this tournament could mean nothing, or he might be a disappointment and this tournament a portent of things to come. I don't know, neither do you, so let's just see how it unfolds?

But I'll try to be careful what I say about Sens prospects when you might be reading, from now on. I didn't realize that the stupidity of suggesting they'll be anything but blue-chip studs sent people into a head-to-keyboard rage.

 

[bleed_oil]

He looks awful. Worse than awful he's easily the worst Dman on the Canadian team. I'm not just talking about skating issues, the guy makes poor decisions with the puck.

 

[deanosaur]

I still believe Robak should have been at least at the camp in Dec.

 

[Avs_19]

From Bob McKenzie...

Cowen is a still a fine prospect but his knee and leg obviously require a lot more strengthening after the ACL surgery

Give the kid a break.

 

[ComrieFanatic]

McKenzie and McGuire were talking about him throughout the game and the USA/Sweden game and they pretty much said the coaches have no confidence in him and he likely won't get any playing time. They said his skating was sub-par and he wasn't keeping up with the speed of the game.

I'm surprised because I'm sure this would have been exposed in the pre-tournament camp by Canada's own speed. Perhaps he re-injured his knee and is hiding it so he can keep playing. Either way, it sounds like he won't have any impact on the gold medal game.

 

[The Expert]

It's great to see such level headed evaluation of a prospect from a staff member, no less.

Honestly, the people complaining about Cowen should go out and tear their knee apart and try to run in a year, much less play hockey at the highest level and see how you do.

18 months, people. I don't care what the prognosis is for an early return. Just because the knee is healed enough for you to be able to participate in games and complete rehabilitation does not mean your knee is totally back to tip top shape. It takes a good six months even after all the "healing" has taken place for you to be even close to the level you were before the injury. There are some aspects of movement that you never recover, but throwing the gauntlet down after roughly 10 months after an operation to repair the MCL, ACL, and tears in the meniscus is laughable.

I am not here to sway anybody one way or the other in regards to Cowen's place on the team and if he should be there or not, but to make such outlandish statements like "bust" and this is just woefully premature and ridiculously typical of the knee jerk populace of prospect watchers that think a guy is worth nothing unless he's in the NHL the year after he's drafted or dominates in the WJC that year.

By the time Cowen is assigned to Bingo, he'll be ready to play hockey again. His conditioning will need work, but physically his knee should be good by then. If the Sens were smart, they would shut him down after his junior season, get him in a workout program, and have him debut next season in the AHL after many months of steady stability building knee workouts. He'll get that speed back but it takes time.

Great post, agreed completely.

Only thing is, since he was drafted out of the WHL he won't be eligible for the AHL next season. It'll be WHL or NHL for Cowen.

 

[Minister of Offence]

It's great to see such level headed evaluation of a prospect from a staff member, no less.

Honestly, the people complaining about Cowen should go out and tear their knee apart and try to run in a year, much less play hockey at the highest level and see how you do.

18 months, people. I don't care what the prognosis is for an early return. Just because the knee is healed enough for you to be able to participate in games and complete rehabilitation does not mean your knee is totally back to tip top shape. It takes a good six months even after all the "healing" has taken place for you to be even close to the level you were before the injury. There are some aspects of movement that you never recover, but throwing the gauntlet down after roughly 10 months after an operation to repair the MCL, ACL, and tears in the meniscus is laughable.

I am not here to sway anybody one way or the other in regards to Cowen's place on the team and if he should be there or not, but to make such outlandish statements like "bust" and this is just woefully premature and ridiculously typical of the knee jerk populace of prospect watchers that think a guy is worth nothing unless he's in the NHL the year after he's drafted or dominates in the WJC that year.

By the time Cowen is assigned to Bingo, he'll be ready to play hockey again. His conditioning will need work, but physically his knee should be good by then. If the Sens were smart, they would shut him down after his junior season, get him in a workout program, and have him debut next season in the AHL after many months of steady stability building knee workouts. He'll get that speed back but it takes time.

Yep.

And youd figure the difficulties in coming back from a serious knee injury for an 18 year old who carries 230 pounds may be a little more pronounced as well. I dont know the details of his injury and whereabouts in his rehab, but we've been told several times his knee is still an issue. It seems like most people who have had serious knee injuries arent surprised. When a prospect drops from 3-4 to 9 due to injury, gotta assume it was a bad one.

Im dissapointed we havent been able to see the level of play that garnered Cowen a projected top 5 pick in the draft (pre-injury). I live in Ottawa, I was excited to see what this guy had. With the way hes playing I was pretty surprised he made the team, from what I heard and saw from the tryout camp, I wouldnt say he didnt deserve it, just surprised his speed wasnt being exploited like it is in the tournament.

McKenzie said a couple things at the beginning of camp that made me think we may not be seeing what we expected from Cowen in the tournament.
-Knee is still an issue (therefore, his play may be affected)
-Hes a blue chip prospect so their likely going to give him every opportunity to make the team (therefore, he was likely going to make the team)

Theres a lot you can do with a 6'5 230 pound 18 year old, especially one with athleticism and pre-injury he was a good skater regardless of size and an exceptional skater when size is considered. He wasnt able to build his legs last off season and he can only benefit from that luxury this summer.

I remain optimistic about him, but no prospect is a surething, especially one whos destroyed his knee.

 

[TheBradyBunch]

They just said how much better Cowen looked on TSN. Can we all agree that it is too early to write him off as a bust, and too early to label him as a future Norris winner?

 

[take a peek]

Remember when Hossa, who was supposed to bedraftef high had major knee injury and surgery and dropped down the draft cause of the worries about that knee and now........................ i hope this is one of those cases.

 

[Rysto]

Remember when Hossa, who was supposed to bedraftef high had major knee injury and surgery and dropped down the draft cause of the worries about that knee and now........................ i hope this is one of those cases.

Hossa blew out the knee after he was drafted. IIRC, Hossa dropped because teams were concerned about whether Hossa had the commitment needed to be an NHL player.

 

[Mach 9*]

He played well in spokane

Much rather have a committed. Cowen than Kadri
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[PanniniClaus]

From Bob McKenzie...



Give the kid a break.

This is why he should never have been selected. I will give him a break - why did the Canadian staff select him?

 

[danishh]

He played well in spokane

Much rather have a committed. Cowen than Kadri
Posted via Mobile Device

i'd rather have cowen, but that's because of the style of game he plays and his top-end potential. Questioning kadri's committment seems strange and homerish.

 

[take a peek]

Hossa blew out the knee after he was drafted. IIRC, Hossa dropped because teams were concerned about whether Hossa had the commitment needed to be an NHL player.

no, point still remains cowan will be better than hossa, book it.



kidding, you right, why did i think that? must have just lowered my personal expectations when he was injured (and already drafted a sen).


o.t. imagine hossa as a puck mover type d-man? size, smarts, defense, offense...

 

[bert]

He looks awful. Worse than awful he's easily the worst Dman on the Canadian team. I'm not just talking about skating issues, the guy makes poor decisions with the puck.

Bingo

 

[The Expert]

He played better tonight.

Desjardins is a tool. If a guy isn't good enough, and you don't plan on playing him, don't pick him for the team. All they did was destroy Cowen's confidence, they shouldn't have even taken him on the team with the way they handled it.

 

[ARS]

He played better tonight.

Desjardins is a tool. If a guy isn't good enough, and you don't plan on playing him, don't pick him for the team. All they did was destroy Cowen's confidence, they shouldn't have even taken him on the team with the way they handled it.

Seriously, the kid is gonna go back to Spokane a much worse player than when he left the team for the WJC thanks to the coaching staff of team Canada.

 

[Joey Moss]

Hands down the worst player I have ever seen put on the Canada jersey at the WJC.

 

[The Expert]

Seriously, the kid is gonna go back to Spokane a much worse player than when he left the team for the WJC thanks to the coaching staff of team Canada.

I just don't understand what they were thinking? All Desjardins has done is make himself look like a fool for even taking Cowen. Terrible handling.

 

[Leafidelity]

Hands down the worst player I have ever seen put on the Canada jersey at the WJC.

Can't say how dissapointed I am in his play this tournament. He has some serious reflecting to do coming into this thing as unprepared as he was.

 

[bert]

Seriously, the kid is gonna go back to Spokane a much worse player than when he left the team for the WJC thanks to the coaching staff of team Canada.

I dont know how else the coaching staff should have delt with him he couldnt make a breakout pass.

 

[Mach 9*]

i'd rather have cowen, but that's because of the style of game he plays and his top-end potential. Questioning kadri's committment seems strange and homerish.

I wasn't questioning his commitment (although I will admit the statement was formed ina weird way) But Kadri's decision making.