Scouting Reports from the
Canada-Russia game in the round robin. Yes, that game is old news, but it takes me a few days to watch the games on tape and make notes about some of the players.
In all I watched this game (on TV) three times, once for fun, once to watch Canada, once to watch Russia.
I paid more careful attention to the Russian prospects (whom I was watching for the first time) so I only list my impressions for them (and some general impressions for the Canadians). I was primarily interested in certain players, not necessarily the top prospects.
I'm just a fan so take it with a grain of salt. If anyone finds them helpful let me know. I would be happy to post some more impressions as I get to watching the other games over the next few days.
Russia:
Maxim Goncharov:
I was surprised by how little ice time he seemed to be getting, although he seemed to get more as the game progressed...Was able and willing to compete physically with the Canadian forwards, hard to knock off the puck, looked strong...Showed an eagerness to jump into the rush on more than one occasion...Showed some creativity with a couple of risky backhand passes, once in his own zone...his other backhand pass was on the offence and almost led to a scoring chance...was too soft on Turris, alllowing him out of the corner and to the net, just laying a useless/lazy stick on him...tried a couple of homerun passes, one missed, one didn't...
Vitaly Karamnov:
Stuck his leg out and drove for the net on the rush...took a penalty for punching Couture after whistle in an attempt to defend his goalie, did the same thing later but didn't get a penalty that time...was always involved in the defence but seemed to be lurking in the slot waiting for loose pucks, didn't make phyiscal contact with opposing forwards, allowed Stamkos to skate past him unmolested leading to a goal for Canada...made a nice turnover with a poke check and gained the zone only to give it back by telegraphing his pass...
Sergei Korostin:
quick stickhandler...carried the puck a lot and showed an ability to avoid the first check or two but then would get knocked down and lose the puck, this happened several times...his shots came from outside near the boards...turned the puck over in the defensive because he shied away from a check...showed quick hand/eye to deflect the 2nd Russian goal into the net
Egor Averin:
Showed an ability to shake a checker with shifty moves...grabbed a puck in the slot and got the shot off quickly...carried the puck into the zone a lot like Korostin, but didn't get knocked down so much, but still didn't really make plays...on the PP he liked to skate toward the blueline, spin into the middle of the ice and shoot on net...
Evgeni Dadonov:
A mature response to getting hit, bounced right back up and usually kept the puck...fought hard for the puck on the boards...kept his feet moving all the time...picked up the puck in his own zone past a pinching Negrin, gained the zone, dragged the puck and used the dman as a screen to score the first Russian goal with a nice shot...
Canada: General Impressions
Negrin was a pleasant surprise for me, playing a very solid game in his own end it seemed to me. Gillies, Couture, Sutter, all do a bunch of things well, they seem like smart players. Gillies really
loves to hit, I hadn't fully realised that before. Cann is good positionally but seemed to lose the puck after he made his saves.
Very impressed with Boychuk and Stamkos, although I'm not concentrating on the 2008 players. Schenn also impressed me. Doughty even moreso.