The Athletic Hockey Show - World Juniors: how has Canada looked after two pre-tournament games?

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

On a special Saturday night edition of The Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series, Corey and Scott give their quick thoughts on Canada’s 4-2 pre-tournament win over Sweden and discuss the standout play so far of Easton Cowan and Matthew Schaefer, how much of Sweden’s offense has to come from their big three defensemen, and more. Hosts: Corey Pronman and Scott WheelerExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show prospect series. Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show with a rare Saturday evening record. I'm joined by my colleague Scott Wheeler as we recap a couple of the World Junior pre-termining games. In particular, the first two pre-termine games for Team Canada and the game Saturday evening against Sweden in what could be a potential preview of a semifinal or maybe. even a gold medal game for the upcoming World Junior Tournament. And I think the early story for Team Canada has been to play. There's been a few main stories,

but I think for me the biggest story has been the play of Toronto first round pick. Easton Cowan has been their clear leader through the first two games. A hat-tricking Switzerland. The three-point performance, I believe, against Sweden. And just, for me, just completely stowed out whenever he was around the park. between his effort level, making plays, using his feet really well, a lot of pace in his game. I think coming into this turn, we didn't know who for sure was going to be the go-to guy for team Canada. And it's still the pre-termine games.

I've seen a lot of hot takes in pre-termine games that never aged well. But for me, early on, I think it seems like Cowan is going to be the leaned-on player for Canada going into this. tournament. Yeah, I think that's the big takeaway through the first two games is really sort of who's the guy for this team was the big question, the natural question that we were asking ourselves in advance of this tournament. They didn't have a Ryan Leonard or a Gabe Perra or a James Higgins or a Zeev Boyam or even on the flip side tonight. We were watching that Swedish team and it was pretty clear that they have that three-headed monster of Theo Wynstein, Tom Wander, and Axel Sandin Pelica, and those are their guys, those are their horses. And I think the big takeaway,

way through two pre-tournament games for Canada for me has been not just Easton Callan, but I think Calam Ritchie has been a real driver on that line. I think Bradley Nadeau has been fine on that line, but I think it's been pretty clear through two games that a lot of the offense is is going to need to come through Calum Ritchie and Easton Callan. They've had some nice chemistry, but Cowan in particular, you're absolutely right. Just his ability to drive the play, his skating, his energy level, loose pucks, retrievals, second chances. He's at the front of the net. He's around it. He seems to be, he seems to be the guy. And that's natural as a returnee. And they're going to mention that 56, Mark Masters is going to mention that 56 game

point streak on the broadcast, I think 50 times over the course of this tournament. But a testament to where his game has been at for a long, long time here. He's one of the better junior hockey players in Canada. And now he's got a chance to look like one of the better junior hockey players on the international stage at the U20 level. And they need, they need him and Richie to beat good. and they've been really good so far. I don't have any like the micro stats in front of me, but I think if you were to ask me who's been leading Canada in terms of a puck possession time,

I would guess Cowan has touched the puck the most among all their players. And if I were to guess who had the second most possession time, it probably would be Matthew Schaefer. The draft eligible defenseman, to me, has been arguably their best defenseman through the first two, games. He had one bad turnover in the game against Sweden when he was trying to rush the puck up. He coughed it up. Play goes the other way. Possession leads to a goal. But other than that, one little blip to me, just with how good a skater he is, with how intelligent and skilled he is,

he is making plays all over the ice, making a lot of stops defensively. He's getting up into the attack constantly, maybe even too much, quite frankly, but he is trying to attack. He is trying to attack. running their first power play. You don't say this a lot of a 17-year-old, particularly 17-year-old defensemen, but he is early up could be one of their very best overall players in this tournament. Yeah, I think Schaefer's been excellent.

I think they've defended well as a whole through two games. I mean, the Switzerland game is a bit of a write-off at this level, but I thought despite the fact that they trailed actually for a good chunk of the game tonight, and it was uncertain until late in the third when they really took over that they were going to win the game, tonight. I actually thought Canada's defended very, very well in front of Carson Vyarnison and Jack Havankovic. And not just Schaefer's been great and the skating is so obvious and such

an asset for him. But I've really liked it. I wanted to show some love to Andrew Gibson as well. I think's been really good in both of the games and really dating back to the one game that he played against U-Sports as well. So he's impressed me. I think coming into this, you were looking at some of the talent that they had on that blue line. also sort of wondering, okay, who's going to be the lockdown guy, who's going to be that sort of key penalty killer, late game situations guy. It really feels like they're comfortable with Tanner Mollendike and Andrew Gibson as their top pairing heading into the tournament. And then to your point, maybe Matthew Schaefer instead of being the fifth or sixth or even fourth guy on this blue line,

maybe he settles in as the leading candidate on a second pairing and kind of their number three defensemen here after that top pairing. So it's been, they're still working through that. I thought Sam Dickinson played better as the game went along tonight after sitting in the opening game against Switzerland, which I think is positive for them because he has the ability to make an impact at this level. But the blue line, I think, has been a positive. The real question for me has really been, where is the depth scoring going to come from? Like, watching tonight, certainly the chance, I believe it finished 44, 24, 24 in shots. So Canada heavily controlled possession and play tonight in a lot of ways. but you start to wonder, okay, if Richie and Cowan have an off night or worse,

if one of those guys gets injured, who's that sort of second layer of offense? Where's that depth scoring coming from? And I thought Gavin McKenna in particular stood out tonight and doesn't look like a 13th forward on this team. And they sort of lined him up on the second line. He made a lot of plays. He had the puck a lot, to your point about Schaefer having the puck a lot. I thought Gavin McKenna had the puck a ton on his stick tonight.

but after if it's not McKenna, if it's not Richie, if it's not Cowan, they're going to have to figure out who can make plays. And I think the number of sort of checking energy role player types that they brought to the tournament did leave them a little at risk of if an injury happens, what does the offense look like? Or if some of the top dogs aren't scoring, what does the offense look like? And I think through two games, that's still a bit of a question mark for this group. I know. He didn't get a point today. But Berkeley, Adam was named player of the game for Canada tonight. And I thought he looked excellent, the setter on that line with McKinn. I thought, quite frankly, I thought he stood out.

I thought he was driving the play. He was involved in a lot of offense. So I think he's a guy who's going to score in this tournament. He's going to get his points. Porter Martone got two points against Switzerland. He didn't play tonight due to the Maiden's Day. So we'll see how he looks when he comes back. I think he can be a place they can get offense from.

I do think your concerns are valid, though, in terms of the bottom six. There's a lot of very talented players, highly skilled players, in that bottom six, but not what we think of in terms of traditional high-end team Canada level skill in some of those roles. So it's not even if there's an injury. It's just what if one of those top guys just, you know, doesn't click.

What if you decide that maybe it's Bradley Nadeau, maybe it's Carson Rakeoff, maybe it's Martone, or maybe it is in the Kenner or Cadd. Somebody doesn't really work in that. top six. Who's the replaced in there? I don't really know right now to be proclos. It could be a Luca Panelli for all we know. But I think that is a question for Team Canada going forward. Turning the page to Team Sweden for a second, even though I think obviously our law for discussion is on Team Canada just to do you to how many high

profile players are on this team. This team Sweden kept the game close. You know, they got plenty of chances and they were leading for a decent stretch of the game too actually. But for me when I was watching this team, and Anton Wahlberg was going to be one of their better forwards. He still wasn't with the team yet. He's still in the American League. But I did feel like I was wondering like, where's the place coming from? I respected the skill like, you know, on some of these players and there were all, you know, there was a lot of good skaters, a lot of guys on size, guys who competed hard. But I didn't see a whole lot of high end touch with the pocket and see a whole lot of creative plays being made by this forward

group. And I always kind of have to wonder how much, you mentioned those three defensemen exosend and Pelka, The O'Instine, Tom Blander. I always wonder how much offense needs to come from those three guys for these guys to win the big games. Big time. I think it had, I mean, look at where their goals came from tonight and where their creation came from tonight. It was almost all driven from point shots, from somebody walking the line, from somebody putting a puck through to the net, I think that has to be the Swedish team's identity a little bit. I thought Felix Ungersorum had some nice touches on the puck tonight. Obviously, scored on a little bit of a redirect play in front of the net, but even beyond that, I thought he was at least semi-noticeable. But outside

of that, I think you're absolutely right. Is Felix Nilsson a high-end player at the Swedish junior level and capable of playing some pro hockey back home? Absolutely. Is he a high-end player at this level is Felix Undersoram a high-end player at this level. They've got to figure out who their guys are. Obviously, Otto Stenberg, David Edstrom, Felix Ungersorum, that top line needs to be excellent. And they've been together for years. And we've talked about them over the last couple of years,

a ton as a line for this Swedish age group. But you match that line up against the top dogs for Canada or the top dogs for the US. And I think they're at a competitive disadvantage. So really, where they might be at an advantage in any of those matchups is if they're playing those three defensemen a lot. And if those three defensemen are as good as they're capable of being, which is really probably three of the five or six best defensemen in the tournament,

if they're that good, if they play to that level, then I think Sweden has a chance. I thought Melkertelan, despite the fact that it did come sort of off the rails a little bit late, I thought he played well in net as well. And he's the presumptive starter. That's the way that they've talked about him,

at least, the Swedish ice hockey federation. But yeah, I think you're on the right track there. Like it has to be ASP. It has to be Willander. It has to be Lindstein. And I'll be interested to see what the time on ice skews look like for those guys in important games.

Like are they going to trust Burkrist and some of the fresher, greener defensemen that they have to play? Even Halquist as a 19 year old, are they going to trust those guys to play in big moments in big games? Or are we just going to see a heavy dose of those top three. defenseman over and over again and what does that wear and tear on them over the course of the tournament all of these things so but i i at the end of the day i think all three of those guys are going to make a huge impact on this tournament and be excellent for them and that that could drive them into a if not a gold medal game into the metal conversation for sure i don't really love how this team sweden matches up against team canada in that i thought when like theo lynstein and tombollander

were out there. I thought they were making a lot of stops, particularly in the first half of the game. I thought Tom Olander especially was standing out, which is how much he was breaking up plays and using his skating to either find a way to close on guys or get the puck going up ice really well. And it's why I think they match up well against Team USA because I imagine those two in particular are going to see the ice a lot against the James Hagan's line. But I really thought as the second half of the game went on, Canada just wore them down. Sweden was getting scoring chances in the first period or so, but they weren't really getting a whole lot of scoring chances afterwards.

Canada just started to pin them a lot in their own zone. So I do wonder in the games that are going to matter if this team Sweden can really roll lines with this team Canada. For sure. And to Canada's credit, we've talked a lot about whether they have enough skill in the bottom six and whether they have enough skill in their power play units and that kind of a thing. But to your point of wearing them down, that. is the identity of that bottom six group.

So maybe there's something to that of their ability to just get after it on the forecheck, to play with energy, to challenge defensemen, to sort of finish checks, get up and under sticks. All of that seems to be what they're looking for out of that bottom six. And maybe if it doesn't produce the offense that we typically see out of a four-line team candidate at this tournament, maybe it comes up big in a tight checking game against Sweden or against the USA where suddenly you free up the true offensive guys, the McKenna's, the Catons, the Port-a-Martone, et cetera. Obviously, Richie and Cowan, who we've talked about,

maybe it frees them up a little bit more. So I think that's ultimately the storyline for this Canada team. Are they constructed to wear teams down? And can they play that sort of physical, traditional hockey Canada style, that north-south sort of with speed, chip and jump? J's win battles style. It's the way Dave Cameron wants them to play. He wants them to play direct.

He wants them to play predictable. He keeps saying these things over and over again. And how does that look against the team Sweden if these teams meet again? And I think tonight over the course of the game, despite the fact that Canada trailed for a good stretch in the middle section of the game, it did feel like it was coming for Canada. And that even if the skill wasn't maybe high, high end from some of the Canadian forwards, like they were spending a lot of time in the offensive zone regardless.

So there is something to that. They'll get their share of bounces eventually. Thanks, Scott. Cool. We appreciate all the hockey nerds who have joined us on their holidays to listen to us, discuss pre-termine games at the World Juniors. Everyone have a great holiday season. And we'll be coming in regularly with shows over the course of the next two weeks from Ottawa.

Take care.