Most Disappointing Players of the Tournament

[Gobo]

Both Canadian goalies.

Every single Canadian player in the last 20 minutes of the tourney.


But seriously, this is another year where Canada's goaltending has been subpar. We haven't had good goaltending ever since Price, and aside from the one save from Tokarski where McGuire Tokarski'd all over himself.


I don't know who the future Olympic goalie would be for Canada after Luongo. Fleury? Steve Mason dropped off the face of the earth, Turco sucks now....I guess Price......Canadian goaltending seems to be on a lower level then other countries right now.

Anyways, not to derail the thread.

26(?) year old Stanley Cup Champion, Cam Ward?

 

[The Perfect Human*]

What the hell were people expecting out of Lander? I know he was picked somewhat high (40th overall in 2009), but he was never supposed to be a dynamic offensive player. He's essentially Sweden's answer to Ryan O'Reilly, and due to a lack of depth was thrust into the #1 center position. I wasn't really expecting much offensively from him without the legit star power the Swedes have had in the past with Paajarvi, etc on the wings.

I felt he played a strong 2-way game and showed his high hockey IQ in his decision-making, but looked weak in terms of his speed and faceoffs late in the tournament. Sure, he's not your typical flashy, dangling, offensive-minded Swede, but he seems well on his way to achieving his projected potential (3rd line center in the NHL).

 

[CaptPantalones]

For canada, absolutely the goaltending and Dylan Olsen. Olsen was at times brutal.

For the USA, Jerry D'Amigo was pretty much invisible. Wasnt particularly wowed by Derek Forbitt either

 

[BobDobolina]

What the hell were people expecting out of Lander? I know he was picked somewhat high (40th overall in 2009), but he was never supposed to be a dynamic offensive player. He's essentially Sweden's answer to Ryan O'Reilly, and due to a lack of depth was thrust into the #1 center position. I wasn't really expecting much offensively from him without the legit star power the Swedes have had in the past with Paajarvi, etc on the wings.

I felt he played a strong 2-way game and showed his high hockey IQ in his decision-making, but looked weak in terms of his speed and faceoffs late in the tournament. Sure, he's not your typical flashy, dangling, offensive-minded Swede, but he seems well on his way to achieving his projected potential (3rd line center in the NHL).

I totally agree and I think the O'Reilly comparison is about perfect. Maybe because he had a really good tournament last year numbers wise had something to do with higher expectations?

 

[The Perfect Human*]

I totally agree and I think the O'Reilly comparison is about perfect. Maybe because he had a really good tournament last year numbers wise had something to do with higher expectations?

Well he had 8 pts in 6 games last year playing on a much more offensively-stacked Sweden team. There were many Swedish players putting up some ridiculous numbers that year thanks to a couple blow-out wins. He was also a 2nd/3rd line fixture that year, and didn't see the opposition's top shutdown line nightly like he did this year (4 pts in 6 games).

I feel he's made some major strides in his game offensively, even if the numbers don't show it.

 

[nitz]

I really thought that Lehner would have been better. Same with Morin.

 

[Steven]

For canada, absolutely the goaltending and Dylan Olsen. Olsen was at times brutal.

For the USA, Jerry D'Amigo was pretty much invisible. Wasnt particularly wowed by Derek Forbitt either

Forgot about him. Worst player on team Canada and it's not even close.

 

[Kaoz*]

I expected more from Couturier and Larsson. I know both were playing with and against much older players, but from top level talent you hope to see more.

Both Canadian goalies left much to be desired as well, but I don't think expectations were all that high for them.

 

[Makaveli]

NiNo

 

[Juzmo]

FIN: Rajala and it is not even close.

 

[iamcanadian23]

Roy and Olsen.

 

[skroob**]

Ill start

US - D'Amigo, Kreider

4G + 2A playing with a tunnel-visioned puck hog. Yeah, so horrible.

 

[Laus723]

Couturier - Did he even play?
Larsson - At times he looked real good and at times he made some brutal decisions.
Niederreiter - See Couturier
Gudbranson - He wasn't bad or anything but this kid was a hair away from making the Panthers this year, really?
Connolly - Ok it's real early but...(Jeff Skinner, enough said)

Looks like the Devils chose a potentially bad year to tank.

What?

 

[Torts]

Jeremy Morin

barely noticed him for a guy that has played pro hockey all year

 

[Lucky7]

Most --> Lander, D'Amigo

Yeah !! I hope he's not like this anytime !!

I was not impressed by his play .. guys like Fasth, Cehlin, Jarnkrok, Klingberg and all the rest was better than him !

 

[Que Sera Sera]

Erixon, Nemeth, J Larsson, D Olsen

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

The most disappointed playa of the tourney was Pierre McGuire

Haaa!

 

[Frank Bascombe]

Couturier, Lehner, Armia.

 

[zorz]

Nestrasil, Horak and in lesser extent Palat (had some health issues) failed in this tournament. They were expected to be leaders on the Czech team, but they didn't make things happen.

 

[alko]

Both Slovak goalies. They looked like they couldn't stop a beachball at times.

We should have cheated and somehow played Halak.

hm, in my opinion, that was not a big surprise. Everybopdy counted, that this will be the weakest part of our team. And when you look to their stats, its not very bad - Riecicky 91,6 %, Holly - 91,1 %.

But i think the most disappointing playoer from Slovak teams are boys from Canada.

Marek Hrivik - 2 goals
Tomas Jurco - 1 goal
Dalibor Bortnak - 2 assists
Andrej Kudrna - 1 a !!!!

Kudrna is the biggest disappointment for me. As 19 years old, top player from WHL, he should be the leader...

And MArincin - what he did, was realy stupid

 

[sleb]

Toni Rajala and Joel Armia.

 

[Jussi]

Toni Rajala and Joel Armia.

This. Although one could say that Armia suffered from playing in the same line with Rajala. It was his first WJC and he's 17 so I'll be a little easier on him.

 

[joe89]

Erixon, Nemeth, J Larsson, D Olsen

Why J.Larsson? It's not like he was supposed to do any heavy lifting on this team. PLUS that he was selected one of the three best players on Team Sweden by the Swedish coaches and led all players in the tournament in FO% with 70.59. I think he did exactly what was expected and maybe more.

Erixon was standout in the group stage, but disappointed specifically against Russia, he was named one of Swedens three best too, though. Still grade C, at best.

Nemeth followed the same pattern as Erixon, but was not as good.

Except the first pairing on D, there was really only one big disappointment for me and that was Lander. A lot of players like Cehlin, Fasth and Wannstrom stepped up, we just would've needed our top guns to do more. Lehner also let in an unacceptable goal in the semifinal, for the rest he did okay but not more.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Cowen, Despres, Olsen, Cizikas, Hamilton, Leblanc, Connolly

 

[Tim Wallach]

As a Canadian fan watching the American junior team I was frustrated for those kids. I have to say in my humble opinion, that I really think those AHL kids would have been MUCH better served playing junior this year. What the hell good is it doing D'Amigo to get 7 minutes a game with mostly pluggers, playing against men when he could be logging 25 minutes a game in a scoring role in junior? Just my 2 cents, but I'm biased.

To answer the question, I was disappointed with Roy, Visentin, Couturier, the aforementioned Americans, Niedereitter, Reider, the Norwegian Leaf pick (name temporarily escaping me), Lehner and a host of others.

But I have to tip my cap to Russia. We talk a lot in Canada about grit and determination. Well they gave everyone a lesson in that this year. Forget "epic collapse".... let's give credit where credit is due.