WJC: Roster Talk '13 — Canada 5.0

[InjuredChoker]

Ryan Murray instead of Murphy would have help us so much. Hudon instead of McNeill. Eberle instead of RNH.

Just kidding for the last one

I think Wotherspoon would have been cut in that case.

 

[JackHughes86]

murray would help alot but i really thought they should of use mackinnon better

 

[Rabid Ranger]

how come no one was hitting against the us? everyone was turning away from finishing their checks it was pathetic

although a lot of the dmen were bad (how many goals were t-drag shots?) murphy was terrible, pinches too much and gets turned into a pylon in his own end

coach was a joke too

This iteration of Team Canada didn't strike me as all that gritty. I was wondering how that would flesh out based on the team make-up (more of a finesse oriented squad).

 

[Intoewsables]

Did you notice how much pp time Ouellet got in today's game? If you didn't, you're gonna get even angrier. For both pp's combined it was under 20 seconds.

I can't even make a Ryan Murphy joke about this. Too depressing.

 

[timekeep]

Ryan Murray instead of Murphy would have help us so much. Hudon instead of McNeill. Eberle instead of RNH.

Just kidding for the last one

McNeill was fine, only had the bad faceoff goof and they won that game.

 

[sepHF]

Reading Malcolm Subbans twitter mentions is just depressing.

 

[Leafidelity]

I'm glad I only have to cheer Murphy on for one more game before he goes back to being just another Hurricane prospect.

 

[newfy]

Did you notice how much pp time Ouellet got in today's game? If you didn't, you're gonna get even angrier. For both pp's combined it was under 20 seconds.

I definitely noticed. Hamilton and Murphy were gifted PP time all tournament and did nothing with it, Ouellet and Rielly should have been the top PP unit after the Slovakia game. And even after the Slovakia game when they played the states in the prelims and they had all those penalties at the end and barely generated pressure the coach should have went to Rielly or Ouellet. The only time Rielly saw PP time was when Murphy got chicken winged in that game.

And then it only took until the third period of an elimination game when they were getting blown out to see Drouin and Mackinnon together or for Mackinnon to play with any scoring line types

Now look at Murphys tourney and play in the OHL this year and look at Sprouls. How anyone can think Murphy should have been the PP specialist is beyond me. And thats not to mention Corrado playing his way onto the team only to be cut in favour of the coach's sweet heart.

I wonder where that Fairh ed Rugin guy or whatever his name was has been this whole time? I would like to hear his opinion on the tournament lol

 

[Atomos2]

I definitely noticed. Hamilton and Murphy were gifted PP time all tournament and did nothing with it, Ouellet and Rielly should have been the top PP unit after the Slovakia game. And even after the Slovakia game when they played the states in the prelims and they had all those penalties at the end and barely generated pressure the coach should have went to Rielly or Ouellet. The only time Rielly saw PP time was when Murphy got chicken winged in that game.

And then it only took until the third period of an elimination game when they were getting blown out to see Drouin and Mackinnon together or for Mackinnon to play with any scoring line types

Now look at Murphys tourney and play in the OHL this year and look at Sprouls. How anyone can think Murphy should have been the PP specialist is beyond me. And thats not to mention Corrado playing his way onto the team only to be cut in favour of the coach's sweet heart.

I wonder where that Fairh ed Rugin guy or whatever his name was has been this whole time? I would like to hear his opinion on the tournament lol

Exactly! For the record, I have nothing against Murphy, I watch him in Kitchener and he is definitely entertaining and has a lot of good moves and offensive potential. But when you are down 4-0 in the third and you have a guy on the pp that hasn't produced one point all tourney long, how could you (in all good conscience) put him on for the whole 2 minutes when your second pairing are the defensive leaders in points on the team?

This isn't about loyalties, it's about success and the fact that Spott ignored this was one of the reasons why we lost and the reason I think much less of him as a coach and a hockey person in general. It wasn't all his fault, but these things that started off small at the beginning of the tourny ended up being enormous in this loss.

 

[LaTenderness*]

Da Roster needed more Franco's

 

[Novak Djokovic]

I never want to see Doug Hamilton (sooo overrated) and Ryan Murphy (he's terrible at everything) anywhere near Team Canada again.

 

[WarriorofTime]

The coach couldn't beat his own Junior team goalie. Shows all he knows as a coach.

 

[toewsintangibles]

Too many prospects from loser organizations?

Scheif - Jets / Thrashers, Strome - Islanders, RNH - Oilers, Huberdeau - Panthers

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Too many prospects from loser organizations?

Scheif - Jets / Thrashers, Strome - Islanders, RNH - Oilers, Huberdeau - Panthers

Granlund - Flames; Armia - Sabres; Korpisalo - Blue Jackets; Pokka - Islanders

Your logic is sound.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

It's obvious to me that next year's team for Team Canada has more potential than this year's. Needed more offence from the defence than this year's team, USA got offensive contributions from their big 3, Canada did not. So the list below is a welcome change of strategy. This team had no identity, really think Dumba would have helped this year, and perhaps Pulock on the PP.

Possible players on Defence for 2014:

Rielly
Pulock
Dumba
Mathieson
Koekkoek
Finn
Ceci
Pouliot
Reinhart

Gone are Hamilton, Murphy, Harrington, Wotherspoon and not soon enough.

 

[1Gold Standard]

It's obvious to me that next year's team for Team Canada has more potential than this year's. Needed more offence from the defence than this year's team, USA got offensive contributions from their big 3, Canada did not. So the list below is a welcome change of strategy. This team had no identity, really think Dumba would have helped this year, and perhaps Pulock on the PP.

Possible players on Defence for 2014:

Rielly
Pulock
Dumba
Mathieson
Koekkoek
Finn
Ceci
Pouliot
Reinhart

Gone are Hamilton, Murphy, Harrington, Wotherspoon and not soon enough.

Remove Ceci, he's a 93 born player and next year is 1994 born players or younger.

And I don't see that d-group being significantly better than the 93 group. And remember Reinhart will be suspended for the first 3 games of next year's championship, pending Hockey Canada's appeal of the suspension. If that suspension is not reduced, they may have to leave him off next year's team.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Remove Ceci, he's a 93 born player and next year is 1994 born players or younger.

And I don't see that d-group being significantly better than the 93 group. And remember Reinhart will be suspended for the first 3 games of next year's championship, pending Hockey Canada's appeal of the suspension. If that suspension is not reduced, they may have to leave him off next year's team.

I think this year's defensive core, the 19 year old crop especially was overrated. The proof is there, when Harrington is considered your best D man, and the USA 18 yr old Trouba is the best on the USA, followed by draft possible Jones and 19 year old Mccabe, Canada was not as strong as widely believed on the backline. We have potentially a much better group next year than the 19 year old group of this year.

 

[1Gold Standard]

I think this year's defensive core, the 19 year old crop especially was overrated. The proof is there, when Harrington is considered your best D man, and the USA 18 yr old Trouba is the best on the USA, followed by draft possible Jones and 19 year old Mccabe, Canada was not as strong as widely believed on the backline. We have potentially a much better group next year than the 19 year old group of this year.

While I do agree with you that the 93s are a tad over-rated. The 94s are not significantly any better. Not significantly any better

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

Too many prospects from loser organizations?

Scheif - Jets / Thrashers, Strome - Islanders, RNH - Oilers, Huberdeau - Panthers

Granlund - Flames; Armia - Sabres; Korpisalo - Blue Jackets; Pokka - Islanders

Your logic is sound.

Trouba - Jets
Gibson - Ducks
McCabe - Sabres
Galchenyuk - Habs

 

[wishywashy19]

Nothing at all to disagree with here. People are going to question both the selection and play of bottom-end guys like Lipon, Murphy, Camara, McNeill, and the goaltending of Subban, but the fact is we've won (and lost) with similar guys in similar roles before. Camara and Lipon were selected to the team to play 4th line, energy-type roles, kill a few penalties, and provide marginal offensive production - and that's what they did. McNeill, a replacement for Hudon, was brought in as a checker and PKer, and he played his role like he was asked. Unquestionably Murphy was played too much, but that was Spott's decision, and its on Spott to put his players in positions in which they can succeed. Subban let in one definite softie today, but its hard to place any blame on him for the first three, especially considering how good he was the previous two games. Still, Spott should have given him the hook at least after the 3rd goal, simply in an attempt to change the momentum.

For the first time in I don't know how long, we actually brought a lot of skill to this tournament, and deviated from the 2-1-1 (scoring-checking-energy) template; its rare to see one, not to mention two, 17-year olds up front, and our top-end skill level was off the charts compared to previous teams. Problem is, they didn't seem to give a **** today. We kept hearing about the "lockout line", how many of these guys would be in the NHL if not for the lockout, etc, etc. After a while, that gets in your head. RNH was fantastic, until today, but I expected a lot more in the way of leadership from the captain and a near-PPG NHLer (see: Bergeron, Patrice - 2005). Huberdeau was invisible the entire tournament - its hard to see how he'd be an impact player in the NHL right now. Scheifele showed flashes of why he he was a top-5 pick, but most of the time he was getting muscled around by lesser-regarded teenagers and again I now have a hard time envisioning him being an impact NHLer. Strome was poor defensively, and couldn't find any chemistry with his linemates. Hamilton was of course subpar. These are players who, consensus holds, should be in the NHL right now!

Deep down, I feel like this team, this group of players, were hyped up so much because of the availability of key players due to the lockout that they felt like they were entitled to not only win, but dominate - like the 2005 lockout team; problem is, the 2003 draft was one of the best of all-time, whereas taken for face value, this was simply a run-of-the-mill Canadian WJHC team that should have been considered in the mix for Gold, but not the prohibitive favorites. Like all Canadian junior teams, there will be a few guys that go on to stardom, a few that carve-out long, productive careers, and a bunch whose names you won't hear every again.

Going forward, hopefully they can grab a Bronze out of this fiasco. I'm certainly not one to offer any answers, but after we get past minor quibbles with team selection, at its core it starts with coaching and its on Spott that this team was simply not prepared to play today.

I think this total post is all good stuff. Obviously we seem to need to find the answers .
I guess we don,t like to lose, but it is the way we lost. WHen a team is looking for answers, there needs to be a leader. WHat I see is a team that lacked cohesion and leadership.
THis team was not ready to play in the biggest day of the tournament.
Was there some sort of team friction.All the press reported was how well they were bonding.
I do agree with the TSN buildup, but we the fans expect this coverage. WE actually crave it. I was one or two players off in picking this team in November. THis is the team we wanted. ONe that could compete on the big ice. we just need to find out why they were in quicksand and correct the problem for next year.

 

[sepHF]

Too many prospects from loser organizations?

Scheif - Jets / Thrashers, Strome - Islanders, RNH - Oilers, Huberdeau - Panthers

What does that have to do with anything? Most of these kids haven't even played with their respective teams.

I'm sure you could make a list like this for every team in the tourney (at least the big 4).

 

[Sticks and Pucks]

Team Canada's forwards for next year

Does anybody else think next year's Canadian team is going to be really short on top end forwards? Mac and Drouin will probably both be in the NHL next year. The 1994 crop of forwards is very weak - Shinkaruk and Monahan are probably the top two 1994-born forwards in Canada and both of them do not have much to prove in the CHL anymore and could probably make the NHL next year as well. So who's left? Connor McDavid? I think if Canada has to rely on a 16-year-old forward to lead the team in scoring next year then they are in real big trouble. If you guys thought that they had trouble scoring this year then just wait until next year. Thoughts?

 

[MXD]

Does anybody else think next year's Canadian team is going to be really short on top end forwards? Mac and Drouin will probably both be in the NHL next year. The 1994 crop of forwards is very weak - Shinkaruk and Monahan are probably the top two 1994-born forwards in Canada and both of them do not have much to prove in the CHL anymore and could probably make the NHL next year as well. So who's left? Connor McDavid? I think if Canada has to rely on a 16-year-old forward to lead the team in scoring next year then they are in real big trouble. If you guys thought that they had trouble scoring this year then just wait until next year. Thoughts?

The only lock I see is Charles Hudon. Obviously, MacKinnon, Drouin are locks if they're in the C. Monahan and Shinkaruk will probably make it as well, though they aren't locks at this point. Curtis Lazar will certainly be given a long look. Tom Wilson and Scott Laughton are IMO likely as well.

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

Does anybody else think next year's Canadian team is going to be really short on top end forwards? Mac and Drouin will probably both be in the NHL next year. The 1994 crop of forwards is very weak - Shinkaruk and Monahan are probably the top two 1994-born forwards in Canada and both of them do not have much to prove in the CHL anymore and could probably make the NHL next year as well. So who's left? Connor McDavid? I think if Canada has to rely on a 16-year-old forward to lead the team in scoring next year then they are in real big trouble. If you guys thought that they had trouble scoring this year then just wait until next year. Thoughts?

I doubt Drouin, Shinkaruk, and Monahan will be in the NHL next year. The 1995s are a much better pool of forwards than the 1994s (except Shinkaruk and Monahan). I think next year's pool will be pretty good.

This year's forward pool would have been horrible if there wasn't a lockout.

I think next year's forwards will be heavy on 18 (rather than 19) year olds - players who i think will be available include Drouin, Shinkaruk, Monahan, Domi, Lazar, Mantha, Dickinson, Rychel - also guys like Laughton, and Wilson. I think it will be fine.

 

[Sticks and Pucks]

I doubt Drouin, Shinkaruk, and Monahan will be in the NHL next year. The 1995s are a much better pool of forwards than the 1994s (except Shinkaruk and Monahan). I think next year's pool will be pretty good.

This year's forward pool would have been horrible if there wasn't a lockout.

I think next year's forwards will be heavy on 18 (rather than 19) year olds - players who i think will be available include Drouin, Shinkaruk, Monahan, Domi, Lazar, Mantha, Dickinson, Rychel - also guys like Laughton, and Wilson. I think it will be fine.

Right, I did forget about Domi. As for the other guys you mentioned after Domi, I believe many of them are better suited for a checking role which I don't believe will be a problem for Team Canada. I think what they lack are top end forwards who can score, especially if some of the guys do end up making the NHL.