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World Championships Thread

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
I just realized we don't have a thread for the World Championships.

Today is the last round of group play. The top 4 teams in each group qualify for the quarterfinals, which will be played on Thursday. In Group A, Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have qualified. Russia plays Sweden later with the winner winning the group. In Group B, Finland beat the US today, 6-2 to clinch first. The US is 2nd and Canada will finish 3rd if they don't blow a late 3-0 lead over Germany. Latvia plays Denmark later with the winner getting the last quarterfinals spot. The US will play the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

Sebastian Aho is the leading goal scorer with 9 goals in 7 games. His 17 points tie him with Patrick Kane for leading scorer. It's also a record for Finnish players in the World Championships and they have at least 1 more game to play. Teuvo Teravainen is 3rd with 5 goals and 9 assists. Derek Ryan has 4 goals, 1 assist. Darling played the 3rd period against Norway and gave up 2 goals on 10 shots and played the whole game against Korea, giving up 1 goal on 13 shots. He's getting more attention for his pads than his play. He has a 2.25 GAA and .870 save %.

https://www.new-iihf.com/en/events/2018/wm/news/2944/yes,-the-u-s-beat-norway,-but…
 
Canes are to have to pay Aho a fortune, he's one of the best players in the world. Get ready Tom D., your favorite player needs to be signed to a long term big money extension. Better get that done before games are actually played this season because if he goes for 80+ points the price will just go up more....
 
I speed-watched the Finland vs. USA game and Aho sure looked confident out there. The goals were no flukes. Even the big rebound off the wall (second goal) was a goal only because he was opportunistically making a bee line toward the net and collected it on the fly to put it in before the goalie could come over that way. Third was an empty-netter, but again he was the one pushing the pace to collect the puck and score it.
 
Necas is looking more and more like a really speedy, dynamic center that is going to be a fine NHL player. If he can start putting a bit more muscle on and handle the grind of a full 82 game schedule, he looks like a real keeper as an eventual top line center or at the very least a find second line center.
 
CanadaCanes said:
Necas is looking more and more like a really speedy, dynamic center that is going to be a fine NHL player. If he can start putting a bit more muscle on and handle the grind of a full 82 game schedule, he looks like a real keeper as an eventual top line center or at the very least a find second line center.
Click to expand...

The thing I really worry about as we move forward is that we're putting a lot of load on Necas and Aho over the next, say five years. And they are SKINNY. We've got to be able to provide those guys some physical cover.
 
The Quarterfinals are set, all games tomorrow.

Russia v. Canada
Sweden v. Latvia
Finland v. Switzerland
US v. Czech Republic
 
US 3-2 Czech Republic. Kane had 2 goals, Cam Atkinson scored the other. Ryan had an assist on Kane's first goal, Necas scored the Czech Republic's 2nd goal to tie the game in the 2nd period. Darling did not play.

Russia 4-5 Canada. Ryan O'Reilly wins it in OT
 
Sweden 3-2 Latvia
Finland 2-3 Switzerland

Switzerland scored all 3 goals within a 3:55 span in the end period. Former Canes draftee Gregory Hofmann had the game winner, Aho had an assist on Finland's 2nd goal. As it stands, he's the 2nd leading scorer in the tournament, with 9g, 8a for 17 points; the 9 goals are still leading. He'll probably end up 3rd since McDavid is still playing. Kane is the leader with 8g, 11a for 19 points, McDavid is 3rd with 5g, 11a for 16 points. Teravainen is 4th with 5g, 9a for 14 points. He could get passed by Rakell who has 12 points.

Semifinals to be played on Friday:
Sweden v. US
Canada v. Switzerland
 
andyt said:
Sweden 3-2 Latvia
Finland 2-3 Switzerland

Switzerland scored all 3 goals within a 3:55 span in the end period. Former Canes draftee Gregory Hofmann had the game winner, Aho had an assist on Finland's 2nd goal. As it stands, he's the 2nd leading scorer in the tournament, with 9g, 8a for 17 points; the 9 goals are still leading. He'll probably end up 3rd since McDavid is still playing. Kane is the leader with 8g, 11a for 19 points, McDavid is 3rd with 5g, 11a for 16 points. Teravainen is 4th with 5g, 9a for 14 points. He could get passed by Rakell who has 12 points.

Semifinals to be played on Friday:
Sweden v. US
Canada v. Switzerland
Click to expand...

Saturday
 
It’s the US v. Canada...for the bronze medal.

Sweden 6-0 US
Canada 2-3 Switzerland

Gregory Hofmann scored for Switzerland, giving him 4 goals in the tournament. The Canes apparently still hold his draft rights from the 2011 draft. He had 22 goals and 38 points in 45 games for Lugano is the Swiss league this year.
 
US beats Canada for the bronze, 4-1, the last 2 were empty netters. Bill Peters takes a team with the best player in the world not playing in the playoffs and doesn’t medal. Yeah, I’ll miss him.
 
andyt said:
US beats Canada for the bronze, 4-1, the last 2 were empty netters. Bill Peters takes a team with the best player in the world not playing in the playoffs and doesn’t medal. Yeah, I’ll miss him.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree with this more. Have fun Calgary fans!! The only thing that would have made that better for Peters was if Darling was in net for the US win.

Kreider gave McDavid fits in this game. He scored the opener when McDavid misplayed the puck and then caught up to McDavid on a breakaway and delivered a high, hard hit to knock him off the puck.
 
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Funny how some fans continue to bash a coach even when he's gone. Any reason for that? I've seen it with other coaches too. You might remember a local guy by the name of Sendek. His "fan base" continued to rip him years after he left town.

Also why do I have this feeling that on this board I will hear about every game Calgary loses this upcoming season?
 
Paulie Walnuts said:
Funny how some fans continue to bash a coach even when he's gone. Any reason for that? I've seen it with other coaches too. You might remember a local guy by the name of Sendek. His "fan base" continued to rip him years after he left town.

Also why do I have this feeling that on this board I will hear about every game Calgary loses this upcoming season?
Click to expand...

Your Sendak comparison is inadequate. Sendak helped bring NCSU's basketball back to relevance, initially getting the team into the NIT, he went on to the NCAA tournament (5 times), advanced to the Sweet 16 and won ACC coach of the year. Not sure what Bill Peters has won at the present level or how his four years in Raleigh improved this team. Peters did nothing here and did little in the IIHF worlds. If he does the same in Calgary as he did here, nothing better than an "I told you so."
 
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