The Sheet with Jeff Marek - World Juniors Day 1 in Ottawa ft. Steven Ellis

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

Jeff Marek is LIVE from FANFEST at day one of the World Juniors in Ottawa, Ontario. Joined by Steven Ellis in-person discussing upcoming prospects, how the tournament will shape up, and much more.Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at one you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, depending on when you're watching slash listening. Welcome to Ottawa, welcome to the World Junior Hockey Championship, welcome to FanFest, and welcome to the program to kick it off. For someone who just saw an exciting for maybe a period and a half game between Slovakia and Sweden, Stephen Ellis. We're going to get into what we're about to see in this tournament. And today we're going to talk a lot about the Detroit Red Wings prospects and new coaches. Today, Derek Ballone loses his job fired officially by the Detroit Red Wings. Tom McCollum takes over. He will be behind the bench tomorrow as the Red Wings welcome to Detroit. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Jason York

from the Coming In Hot podcast will be aboard here in a little bit. In the meantime, before we get to NHL Detroit, let's talk a little bit, Stephen, about Prospect Detroit and Axel Sandin Pelika with the hat trick. Kind of a little bit of a scare for Sweden in the opening game. They win 5-2 over Slovakia, but it was kind of a bumpy road getting there early. By the way, welcome to Ottawa. Yeah, well, thank you very much. I love Ottawa. This is a great city. When it comes to Sweden, yeah, that first period was not good. They seemed to be shooting more from the point,

shooting from the corners, just weren't getting anything done. Slovakia's goaltender, Samuel Urban, looked really good. It wasn't until Axel Sandin Pelika really started to figure it out and started shooting the puck that it worked out. He gets a hat-trick. He assisted on another goal. he was all over the place it wasn't his shot that was most impressive because that second goal was a little weak it was actually his physicality that really impressed me behind the net you know on the in the offensive zone this is a player that was sacrificing the body whenever he needed to to go out there and create plays and

hard to beat a four-point first game. Four-point first game. Big win for Sweden, as expected. I want to sort of handicap the entire tournament. As we speak right now, if you're watching this live, James Higgins has the goal. That's a name you're going to hear a lot of. USA leading Germany 1-0.

We will get on the USA page. And what this tournament could mean for draft eligible players. We've seen, I can remember Eric Johnson once upon a time with Team USA. This tournament really helped propel him to number one overall status. But before we get there, Team Canada. And we're going to watch Canada a little bit later on this evening. They'll face off against the Finns. It's their home country. It's their home fans. It's their home fans.

But are they the favorites in this tournament? Or could we be looking at a USA repeat? A lot of people are pointing in USA's favor here. I'm saying I think people are underestimating Canada's scoring depth here. Carson Rakoff is not playing for Canada tonight in his first game. He had 50 goals in the OHL last year. He could do 50 again this year. If you're able to sit a guy like that and then not even bring Michael Misa

to a tournament like this, who's going to have close to 70 goals in the OHL, same per act, everything he does, I think people are underestimating just how good off Canada is with the puck. The pre-tournament, a bit of a feeling out process, especially in that game against Sweden where they struggled. Czech check here it almost felt like they were checked out they were just kind of ready for christmas at that point i i'm still putting my money on canada united states i think the big thing here is how good is trey augustine going to be is he going to be the x factor i think so he's the best goalie in this tournament so far he hasn't been very busy against

germany but that's a team that's got a lot of experience. They know how to win. So here's how I look at this, because I think a lot of us are crossing our fingers. We've talked so much about the future, the present of international hockey is Canada versus the United States. You know, previous it was Canada versus the Soviet Union, Russia, but now it seems as if the matchup that everybody dreams about is Canada and the United States.

Am I looking at this too simply? The USA has maybe the best goaltender in Trey Augustine, the best defenseman in Zeeb Boyum, the best line in Leonard, Higgins, and Perrault, but Canada has the depth. Is that the way you would handicap these two squads? A hundred percent. I feel like this is a situation here where if Cole Iserman's not scoring for the Americans,

if Trevor Connolly's not producing for the Americans, you're putting a lot more pressure on a guy like Oliver Moore to do all the rest of the work. And then you've got a lot more defensive forwards. That's the thing about this American team. While Canada, it's a bit more of a skill team, the American team's got a bunch of bottom six guys that know how to play bottom six roles better than anybody else. That's where they're going to beat them. Scoring depth, I'm still giving that to Canada. Let's drill down

on a couple of players specifically. And listen, you and I talk so much about prospects and what this tournament could mean for someone's draft, stock, et cetera.ew schaefer is someone who's been turning heads uh we're gonna hear a lot about james haggins we're gonna hear a lot about porter martone etc uh how much can this tournament like this one specifically in ottawa do for some of the high end guys or are is the cement starting to harden around draft positions essentially is it fluid or do we know where guys are going to go? It's very fluid. This is one where, if you throw Michael Misa into the mix,

obviously not at this tournament, you've got four legitimate candidates for number one. And then you've got Victor Eklund on Sweden, who is a potential top five prospect for this year. In a tournament like this, it's a small sample size, right? It's a seven-game sample. We've seen a lot of sample sizes for these guys different points of the season for someone like james hagan specifically this could be what puts them back in the first overall conversation because a lot of people a

lot of scouts a lot of teams don't think he's number one anymore a dominant tournament and he's already off to a great start as we've seen yeah could really propel him back into that conversation for number one but i think if this one, of all the drafts that I've covered, this feels like one that's going to end up going to the wire. Like, it could be whatever that team that picks first just truly likes a bit more instead of a Macklin, Celebrini's the clear number one, Conor Bedard is number one. Does it kind of have a Montreal, Slavkovski, Cooley, Nemech, Wright,

to a certain extent David Juracek as well? Does it have that kind of feel to it? Like we're not going to know until we get there who's going number one. And it's not even going to be like a 2010 Taylor Tyler. It's going to be three or four guys and maybe even five. Yeah, like it's been a while since we've seen that like i'd say it's almost better on the high end than what we saw in 22 because it felt like every player there was trying their hardest to find a way to not be taken first overall

through you know it was in the wake of covid and everything and a lot of those guys missed a lot of time with this like everyone's finding new ways to thrive like you look at martone he looks like a matthew kachuk player up there yeah matthew schaefer you see some of the same qualities that makes kale mccarr and adam fox so good then you look at michael misa trying to set like a scoring record in the last 20 years in the ohl and then james haggins is one of the best two-way centers i think we've seen a long time like this is a situation here where there's four players putting up an incredible argument to the number one. We're going to see three of them here.

They're all going to play pretty key roles here. But none more than I would assume James Higgins is the number one center for USA. You know, we always say whichever team has the best slash most 19-year-olds tends to do well and generally win this tournament. USA is returning 10 players from the gold medal team from last year. But I'm real curious to see Gavin McKenna and see what he can do. We've seen players like this before start as the extra forward. And then by the time the tournament's done, they're close to smashing records and they're playing 90 seconds on every

power play and they're playing on the top line listen every tournament we've seen gavin mckenna playing every game we've seen him play in the western hockey league this guy is like if you compare it to a hurdler he's not just skimming the top of the hurdle he's like leaping over it with space to spare like every single hurley you put in front of him he leaps over it no problem what do you expect though in this one this is like the finest collection of 19 year old hockey players no russia in the world competing against gavin mckenna how good can this guy be it's i don't think it's going to be conor bedard 23 levels of incredible but i wouldn't be surprised if he gets 20 points in this tournament and i wouldn't be surprised if

he's the top scorer overall like what we saw in the pre-tournament was a player that the more comfortable he got the more dominant he got the u18s and i'll give a free coaching tip here to dave cameron put him with porter martin We saw what they did at the U18s. Throw in Berkeley Cat in there. That line is going to be scary good if you make that happen. But when it comes to McKenna, no player's got the pure skill that he has, the way he moves the puck, the way

he thinks the game. This is an elite level talent. I hate using the word elite to describe a prospect. I didn't even want to use that to describe Macklin Celebrini last year. You've got to be the best of the best. Gavin McKenna is an elite prospect. He's going to be a superstar.

This is going to be where he shows just how good he is to the whole hockey world. You just gave out a coaching tip. I'm going to give out a trainer tip. All you trainers out there, Stephen just talked about the word elite. We're on to you. We know that if you put elite in your description for your program, that's just a way to add 20 or 30 extra dollars to the session. We're on to you. We know when you say elite, it just means give me an extra 20 or

30 dollars. But I digress. When you look at Canada, and we look at the Canadian blue line, I want to get further thoughts on Matthew Schaefer. I want to get some thoughts on Tanner Mullendyke as well. Some thoughts on Bonk. When you look at this back end, I mean, it's the back end that's got to contain with that BC line from the United States. How does this blue line look for Canada? I think the one thing that they're truly missing is a Brant Clark guy that could go out there and just dominate with the puck. You've got a lot of guys who could do a lot of great things with it. Matthew Schaefer, obviously.

Tanner Molendijk, we expect to play a lot of key minutes. Sam Dickinson already feels like he's being underutilized. I think we're looking at him being a potential third-pairing defenseman on this team. But then you go out there and you look at guys like Bonk and be that two-way threat. Andrew Gibson's actually been really good offensively for a guy who doesn't score goals.

His job is to go out there and block shots. Sawyer Mineo, Caden Price, just guys that just get in the way. So maybe not an elite group defensively. Again, to use the word elite. I would say, say arguably defense is probably canada's biggest weakness but it's not a weakness because they do have a little bit of everything there's there are two defensemen one canada one united states that didn't make their teams that had a lot of people scratching their heads for canada and sorry calgary flames fans

that's zane correct and the united states sorry Rangers fans that's EJ Emery did those two kind of give you a what kind of feeling Emery specifically yes like that just felt like at the very least even if you had the worst you know selection camp possible which it was two days of practices I was there I could tell you not exactly a lot to go by even if he played horrible the fact that just on merit, he played so good of Cole Hudson last year at the U18 level, he'd want to keep those two together. So I was surprised there. With Parekh,

obviously a late addition to the team, I thought he should have been a training camp to begin with, but then he didn't play well in those selection camp games. As simple as that. He was good in that scrimmage against Canada, but then when they switched to the U sports games, he wasn't very good. And I feel like that really hurt him there, and they're probably going to miss him, but then when they switched to the U Sports games, he wasn't very good. And I feel like that really hurt him there, and they're probably going to miss him.

But you're competing against everyone else in the same environment and you don't show up, that hurts. Go-to guys. We always wonder who the go-to guy is going to be for Canada. Is that going to be, pay attention Maple Leafs fans, Easton Cowan? The way the pre-tournament looked, 100%. Easton Cowan should be there. Playing of Kyle Ritchie and Bradley Nadeau, two guys with NHL experience.

Those three just seem to be clicking right off the bat. Three guys that have never really played together before. I think that's really good. I'll throw one other name out there. Cole Bodwin. Not a guy that's going to be playing high in the lineup. He's so strong, physical, very cold. I would say outside of maybe Easton Cowan and maybe Gavin McKenna,

the most impressive forward since the selection camp, has to be Cole Bodwin. And so people would ask you, like, why is this guy on the team? He doesn't score a lot of points. He hits everybody, like you said. Very difficult to play against. He's so energetic, and he's great defensively. You put that all together, and you've got a guy that is extremely valuable, and you need him so that that's an interesting point that you've got us to here

so dave cameron is a veteran nhl ohl veteran um coach uh he's an old school guy yeah do we expect to see that from canada i'm not saying like old school like it's going to be as we tend i do anyway when i hear like oh he coaches old school, I tend to think table hockey. And everybody's got their lane and that's it. And, you know, if your stick can't touch the boards, you're out of position if you're a winger. So I don't mean it like that.

But do we see more of an old school straight line approach from Canada in this tournament because Dave Cameron's behind the bench? There's a lot of really talented players there that I feel like in the selection camp and then again at the pre-tournament games, maybe weren't using every bit of skill that they could have. We weren't seeing Easton Cowan flashing some great moves. We weren't seeing Cal Ritchie going out there and making the fenceman look silly. It feels like his message here is to keep things simple.

Be smart. Don't make mistakes. It'll be interesting to see what happens if he kind of lets these guys just go wild and see what happens because they got the skill to go out there and do so much with the puck, especially Gavin McKenna. But, you know, I will say, very physical group. A lot of guys who know how to hit guys, who knows how to play defensive and play tough. I think that's an underrated aspect of this group. Quick question from the chat here on this Boxing Day in Ottawa in advance of the World Junior Hockey Championships. The first game's already out of the way right now. USA is

playing Germany. Mark Carvalho submits this one. Why is Michael Misa not at this tournament? Great question. I think everybody would love to know that one. You know, when it comes to Misa, it felt like there were other guys that were going to play top six roles that would have made him almost a bit redundant and that's my best way of explaining it because he's the best goal scorer in the chl why would you not want him there but they have a lot of other guys who could do that or maybe a bit better defensively a bit stronger you know he's a big guy but if you need a guy to be a physical presence out there you know you throw a guy like cole baldwin out there you throw a guy like ethan goche for him not to be a physical presence out there. You throw a guy like Cole Baldwin out there. You throw a guy like Ethan Gauthier. For him not to be invited to camp, I think, was a mistake.

He should be on this team. I've tried to convince myself why they did it, and I can't convince myself, to be honest. If Canada doesn't win gold, and USA looks great, if Canada doesn't win gold, will Michael Misa be the person that everyone points to and says, that's why Canada did it? Maybe say the same thing about Zayn Parak, too, but more specifically, Michael Misa be the person that everyone points to and says, that's why Canada do it? And maybe say the same thing about Zane Perak too,

but more specifically, Michael Misa, that's the reason Canada didn't win gold. I'd say so, 100%. I think Michael Misa should have been at camp, should have been there. Again, any projection, roster, anything, look, everyone was looking at Michael Misa for a reason because this guy could shoot the puck. And I've been saying it time after time this year. You know, he might not go out there and be the play driver every night,

but he's always in the right spot to finish. And what's the hardest thing to do in hockey? Score goals. He's good at it. That's how you make your money, folks. You make your money scoring goals, not back checking. Coaches do love those back checkers. There's a couple of players.

One, Cal Ritchie, you mentioned, and also Bradley Nadeau. Casual fans may not know them. One of the wonderful things about the World Juniors is you get to know the players that are this close to joining your NHL team full-time. Ritchie with Colorado, Nadeau with the Carolina Hurricanes. What should people know about them? Cal Ritchie, that's a guy that I've seen from a very young age because he's from Oakville, I'm from Oakville,

saw him growing up and the speaker's going off. But when it comes to Ritchie, unbelievable two-way threat. This is a player that I remember watching at 14, 15, and the big thing about him was he could drive the net, make these great plays with the puck, and score a lot. But when he got to Oshawa, it became clear he needed to do more than score to become the overall threat that he could become. And now we're seeing one of the best 200-foot forwards,

I think, outside the NHL right now. I wish he played a better role in the NHL. I wish he got an opportunity to play a bunch of key moments for the Avalanche because I think he would have been able to thrive there. That's a tough top six to crack. For sure. If you're going to crack it, it's not as if, with all due respect, Anaheim, Columbus, Buffalo,

he's not walking in... It's Colorado Avalanche. It was also a team that... The reason he made it was because there were so many injuries to begin with. Yeah. He could have gone out there and played some power play. That's just my opinion.

But when you come to Bradley and Nadeau, that's a guy who's just so smart. That's the thing. His hockey brain is so good good he was a star player in the bchl it's hard to become a bchl first round player um to go to the nhl but as quick as he did like he went to college he's awesome looked great played his nhl debut last year having a very good year in the ahl this year that's a guy that could be playing full-time in the NHL in a year or two because, again, just so smart. All right. So, Colby Cohen from Morning Cup of Hockey texted me this one. A couple of things. Tell Ellis Celebrini was an elite prospect and also Canadian prospect homer. So, we'll shift gears then from Canada to the United States. And we

started off by talking about Trey Augustine. mentioned the goaltender we've seen some great goalie performances John Gibson comes to mind uh right away uh from USA goaltenders Trey Augustine is uh is special uh Red Wings uh you have a new coach and this guy's going to be your starting goaltender somewhere down the road uh quick thought on Trey Augustine here this is not his first tournament Stephen I've interviewed him many times over the years and that when I first talked to him he was a bit more reserved a bit more quiet you know almost nervous to a sense but you could tell that that was a guy who's again just so dialed in so focused nothing bothers him and then you see the most recent interview he's making jokes he's having a good time this guy is coming with so much confidence right now and you know as a goalie myself not a

good goalie but as a goalie myself not a good goalie but as a goalie the one thing that can drown you is if you're not confident yourself he's he's got it in spades he's got a great glove hand not a big goalie but he's easily the best goalie in this draft a top five goalie prospect in the world right now you know but given how many other top goalie prospects have become full-time nhlers dustin wool woolstead's not far away like we could be talking about augustine being the undisputed number one goalie prospects have become full-time NHLers. Dustin Wolfe, Wolstead's not far away. Like, we could be talking about Augustine being the undisputed number one goalie prospect this time next year. You know, when you mention, like, confidence and having a swagger

and carrying yourself like you're the king of the tournament, listen, speaking of Colby Cohen, him and Johnny Lazarus are always talking about Ryan Leonard, and for good reason. I look at him and I say, what are you still doing in college? Like you talk about making the jump to the NHL. This guy should be playing on the Washington Capitals. Like I know he's come back for unfinished business, et cetera. But when you look at Ryan Leonard,

I want to go through all three on that line. Do you not look at him and say, what are you doing here? He should be in the NHL. And I'd say the same for Gabe Perreault. If James Haggins was a little bit older, I'd say the same for Gabe Perrault if James Haggins was a little bit older I'd say the same thing and the same thing with Zee Booeyum when it comes to what Leonard does I remember him watching him a lot at the U18 level and was just like he was able to finish plays he was driving the net he was a power forward style guy and he's just taking it to totally new levels like I made an argument that Leonard didn't even need college to be good with.

He could have gone straight to the NHL because a player that does so many things as well as he does, he can play the wing, he does some experience at center, but can go out there and just play with anyone and look good. And I know that's ironic given he's typically played with the same line mates almost his entire career. He can go out there, play in any role, in any situation, and look good. We saw him in the World Championship, didn't play a lot, but he was good there when he was on the ice.

And it's because he's so competitive. That player wants the puck at all times. You see the results. He can be playing with Alex Ovechkin by the end of this season. You know, it's funny, too. Whenever I think about Ryan Leonard and I think about his draft, Philadelphia and Washington were picking right beside each other and it's almost as if each team went out of their

way not to take their stereotypical draft pick because if I wouldn't go to that draft said okay one of these two teams Philadelphia Washington is going to take Matt Bay Mitchkoff and one's going to take hulking Ryan Leonard which Which one do you think Washington would have picked? And which one do you think the big bad, the broad street bullies, the Philadelphia Flyers would have selected? I think I know what you're talking about there. Yeah.

It's, it's Leonard would have been amazing player for the Flyers, but I think, I think they're okay with who they got. Mitch Koff's having a pretty good season. I don't know. How's he scoring five? He's looking for another health bomb.

I don't know about you. Deal with Tortorella. He should have scored that lacrosse ball against Detroit a few weeks ago. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What

matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Peloton.ca. You mentioned Gabriel Perrault. He's a Rangers prospect, one of their finest prospects in a pipeline that isn't exactly the deepest, folks. But nonetheless, they have a good one there. I remember another draft story.

I remember watching the Nashville table when the Rangers took Gabriel Perrault. It was one before Nashville, and I was told that that was the player. They ended up getting Tanner Mullendike, who's a wonderful defenseman. But that was the player that Nashville coveted. Watching the Nashville table, when the Rangers took Perrault, you just see all the shoulders of the table. And there may have been a few F-bombs around the table as well and for good reason this guy's outstanding yeah gabriel i i was one of the people who were very tough on his skating in his draft year because it felt like there was a lot of games where he didn't need to

do a lot of skating he would just stand there take the pass from ryan lennar take the pass from will smith you know yeah he had great line mates but you don't go out there and set a national team scoring record by accident. You don't go out there and beat Patrick Kane and Austin Matthews, Cole Coppell, Jack Hughes by accident. And that's because he's always in the right spot. Again, to go back to another point there, but with him, his skating is not a problem for me anymore. I feel like it's at least good enough that when he goes to the NHL,

it's not going to be an issue. He's going to be able to produce. And another player I think that could have easily been in the NHL right now because he's always in the right spot. He's a good puck distributor. He's got a great shot. He can play on the power play, all roles there. Absolute steal for the New York Rangers.

We talked about James Higgins off the top, and that's the Troika. That's the number one line. That'll be the number one line, let's face it, in this tournament. Will Gabe Perreault lead the tournament scoring? Will James Higgins lead the tournament scoring? Will Ryan Leonard? Odds are it's going to be one of those three. The question about USA is, do they have the depth?

When you look after that first line, Cole Iserman certainly, Trevor Connolly, the Vegas pick as well, I do wonder what's happening down the middle. I do wonder what's happening at the bottom of that roster. But before we get there, Iserman and Connolly, what should we expect? And by the way, does Iserman have the best shot in this tournament? He does, and he's got one of the best shots of any prospect outside of the nhl casper halton might say something differently from finland uh san jose sharks prospect eisman i you watch him in warm

ups and that's obviously can't take anything about a player's ability to warm up but that is someone where if he doesn't score on a shot he's taking 20 more shots and trying to figure out how to get the best shot possible that he works so hard to perfect that but he's taking 20 more shots and trying to figure out how to get the best shot possible. He works so hard to perfect that, but he's a lot more than that. He's out there hitting guys. He's out there. Actually, I'd say he's a better playmaker than most people suggest. I was still very high on him.

I think the Islanders, to use the word steal like the Rangers, the Islanders stole him. It's unfair to the rest of the NHL that you guys let Cole Eisenman. But is that because he had so many knocks on his game other than the shot? It is, but I also don't know how much I subscribe to that. I feel like he was better defensively than people gave him credit for. He was out there throwing as hard of a hit as anyone. Not the world's greatest skater, but I feel like the stuff he brings to the table still should have pushed him at least higher, 20.

But, you know, look at him and you look at Trevor Connolly. They played together at the USA Top Prospects game last year. Instant chemistry. I really wish we could have seen those guys again together at the U18s last year when they called up Connolly to play. But, you know, Connolly's a great puck distributor. Iserman's got the great shot. You put those two guys together, that's a dominant second line there.

Iserman's got the great shot. You put those two guys together, that's a dominant second line there. Anyone else we should pay attention to with USA before we move on here? We kind of hit a lot of the heavyweights. Anyone that really catches your eye? Oliver Moore, for sure, the Chicago Blackhawks prospect, probably the best skater in this tournament. And, you know, if you want to go for more of a defensive defenseman,

Drew Fortescue, a Rangers prospect. Returning. Yeah, returning player. Easy, easy putting him there with Booyam because they play together. They got a lot of chemistry. They know how to use each other's strengths and weaknesses together. And I think that, you know, he might not be flashy, but he's good. Okay, over under Zee Booyam in competitive games.

Over under, 30 minutes. He he's gonna get 28 minutes i'm gonna go i'll be i'll i'll be a bit quieter there i think they got to give some ice to cole hudson too there very good um okay so quick little uh poll right now uh in our chat who's winning tonight canada finland uh 78 78 canada 22% Finland on this one. There has to be an upset somewhere here. Maybe a period and a half. I got a text from Steven about goaltenders standing on their heads in the Slovakia-Sweden game, and then Sweden tilted the rank.

If you're looking for a spoiler in this tournament, if you're looking for someone that can change things around, shake things up, who could it be? And could it be Finland? It could be Finland, but we kind of expect them to do well. Although the one thing is Finland typically plays really good hockey, against Canada, no matter the level. I know they lost today, but I'm still giving Slovakia a bit of love here.

I think if that's a team that can actually figure out how to shoot the puck and have guys more than just Dalibor Dvorsky try to generate offense, Slovakia could be this potential medal candidate. I will point out that they looked really bad at the beginning of the U18s two years ago with a lot of this same group.

They played for bronze one goal away from beating Canada for that medal. Last year, they almost got sent to the relegation round. They lost the bronze medal game. So these are guys that have a lot of losing experience, but a lot of experience of showing up when they need to. And that's a team that I would not want to play in the quarterfinals.

How long do you have? Do you have a little bit longer? Whatever you want. Houston York was going to come, but for various reasons can't make it. You got a little bit of time? Let's do it. Okay, Johnny Lazarus sends in this one. Interviewed Oliver Moore after he was drafted.

Here's the quote. I just got drafted to the same team as Conor Bedard. That's so sick. You know, one of the things that... I'd say that too. One of the things that I kind of love about this tournament, one of the reasons why I love junior hockey, I love college hockey, all of it, it always seems to be as if it's

the last there's still like a glimpse of innocence with a lot of players i know even by now it is sort of business oriented but it's that sort of last glimpse my personal theory why you see a lot of nhl players go back and buy junior teams is because it's a time when hockey was fun and not just a business. Like part of this tournament is as much as we make it to be like a be-all and end-all, really, first of all, it's a development tournament. It's how the players look around their peers. And from the players, sure, it's a lot of stress. And sure, look, TSN's done a wonderful job with this thing.

In Canada, everything's wrapped in a flag and maple syrup poured all over it. It's heartstrings at Christmas time and the kids and all that. Nookie's in the parking lot. But a lot of this too is, and you saw that with that Moore comment at the draft, there's still like a glint of optimism. Like all the fun hasn't been sucked out of it for the kids yet. That's the thing. It's like, you know, this is not the only big international hockey tournament

for prospects. We've got the U18s, U17s, all these other events. But for a lot of guys, this might be the last time they ever represent their country. Or it might be the last time they ever play with players that they grew up playing with since they were kids. And that's what kind of makes these stories really fun. Like, this isn't just a bunch of players

thrown together for one tournament. Like, these are guys that that in a lot of cases, there's special connections that just make it so much fun. When you look at, you know, the excitement of this tournament and how important it is for so many players growing up, when they score a goal,

Axel Sandy Pelican, every goal he scored today, he celebrated like he was playing in a gold medal game. That's awesome. I know. Even, even that third goal, that lazy wrist shot from the point.

You know, it's fine. The thing I'll say that lazy wrist shot from the point. It's fine. You know, it's fine. The thing I'll say about when it comes to this tournament is, like, I know a lot of people say, like, oh, celebrate like you've done it before. No. Hockey's a fun game. Go have fun. You want the players to be excited.

You want the fans to be excited. You want the kids watching to be excited and think, this is cool. Like, one of my favorite memories growing up, watching all those great world junior games games was the 2009 world juniors. Obviously it makes sense that we're here, but that game against Canada USA where they were taunting each other at the bench. It's great.

You know, the, the excitement from that, the Takarski save, everything like that. Those moments are what makes a tournament like this so special because there's so much emotion on the line here that you just kind of lose when you get these guys playing, you know, pro players playing like, okay, I'm just, you just kind of lose when you get these guys playing,

you know, pro players playing. Like, okay, it's another game for me. But these guys, it might be the last major time they ever played for their country. It's great. The crest tugging. Yeah. And now that's standard everywhere.

Remember it was the U.S. team that brought out, like, the garbage can with, like, the Team Canada logo out a couple years ago? Oh, yeah. I thought that was hilarious. And, like, Cutter Gauthier being, like, the enemy of everybody. I love that.

Let's find these more villains. It's fun. This is hockey. Question from the chat. Doogie says, how good can Eklund be? William Eklund, Victor Eklund, sorry. Seeing him play top six was a guy that, it's a position born for him because he's so competitive.

He's got a great shot you can put him on the power play and today he didn't score but i did feel like he was one of sweden's better players because he brought so much energy he hit everybody that moved but in that competitive nature that non-stop motor he put that together with the ability to put pucks in the net like i expect him to be one of sweden's better players in this tournament for a team that's missing someone like jonathan lecarimacki to go out there and score um also here's one uh from quality remember ovechkin fist pumping on a breakaway empty netter was that the halifax tournament was that was that halifax that sounds like it yeah see like again things like that are great it's kind of why I like hot take. I love the Ridley Gregg slap shot breakaway goal.

It's funny. I loved it too. It's like, again, why not just have fun with it? I want to see CanUSA. I want to see nastiness. Not going out there and killing each other, but I want two teams that don't like each other going out there, knowing that that's probably going to be what decides the winner of Group A,

which matters for the playoffs. Again, no matter what conversation we have at the World Juniors, it'll swing back to Canada versus USA. We're going to see them on New Year's Eve. We hope we see them in the final as well. Who's going to be out there? You're Dave Cameron. Who do you put out there against the BC line?

Who's out there against Leonard Perrault and James Higgins? Andrew Gibson should. Because Gibson is looking really good right now. You want him going out there throwing hits. When you want to match a line forward-wise, I don't know. You got to get guys out there to make them have to move around the ice. Someone like a Cole Baldwin, a guy like Matthew Cataford. Might not be the flashiest players

out there, but make them move. Make them have to be creative because they're so dangerous when they're out there on the power play, standing still, passing to each other. Make them so they have to work that extra level to make those passes. I think Canada is the only team in that group that can make that happen.

I didn't really ask you much other than Axel sandin pelica and maybe it wasn't the great game to pull any solid information out of but what did you make of sweden this afternoon it's a game that they're expected to win listen i got excited too and alibor devorski scored the st louis blues traffic i'm like oh hold on a second here we got some spice early in the tournament but are you able to pull anything out of that game for Sweden? First off, I feel like this is Dalibor Dvorsky's 40th World Juniors. It's his fourth, right?

Yeah, but it feels like he's been in a million. Every year, Dalibor Dvorsky's. Yeah, this is going to be the Dalibor Dvorsky Cup next year for the 50th anniversary. But no, when it comes to Sweden, I think I saw them a couple of days ago play against Germany. It was like an 11-1 game, not really competitive. My biggest gripes about that team early on was they were trying too much on the power play. They were trying to just pass the puck, see what happens, and eventually it worked out. But when they started simplifying it and started using that blue line,

because it is a good blue line to go out there and generate offense, it worked. And that was the thing. In that preterm game, game tom wheelander scored um grass is breakfast the habs prospect scored uh it's actually axel sandy pelican did a lot like that's a group that what everything's working well and they're passing the blue line that's just two extra guys who know how to score probably better than any other blue line on this team in this tournament and that's why you saw four of those five bulls today coming from blue liners so it'll be interesting to see which swedish players go out there up front and generate like you need auto stenberg to score you need anton walberg to

do that but the good sign is that the blue liners are getting the job done at least so we talked about with uh leonard perot and hagan's hagan's draft eligible but they could be playing in the nhl who on that sweden team and i going to nudge you right towards Pelican. It's a Detroit Red Wings day. Derek Malone is no longer the coach. Tom McClellan is in, et cetera. Trey Augustine is going to be a star of the tournament. How close is Pelican to being an NHL?

I don't know his contract status, but I won't be surprised if he's in the NHL next year. It's Detroit, though. You start in GR. You always start in Grand Rapids. I think, man, he should put up an argument there. For me, obviously a different player than, let's say, Simon Edmondson a couple years ago. But when it comes to ASP, I was very concerned with how often he gave the puck away in his draft

here. The guy that was willing to rush the puck up and do great things with it, but would try to get too fancy. I feel like he simplified his game, and by simplifying, he's just better offensively, because he's not going out there and just throwing the puck away. He's making the right plays, and his shot is as good as I've seen. He should be in the NHL

pretty soon. Again, I know Detroit's kind of development path here, and that's not a bad thing at all, but I don't want to watch him at Coca-Cola Coliseum when they're playing the Marlies next year. I want to see him when they're visiting a Scotiabank arena. I'm always curious about who needs to have big tournaments. And listen, the draft eligible is always, you know, they'll get, okay, what's going through Schaefer's mind, Hagen's mind, et cetera, Porter Martone.

I will look at players that have been drafted that need a push in their season. I think about Michael Harabel. You know, I can recall him, and I'm sure you have the same, like getting to a point where this guy's going to be the best player, best goal in the draft, best goal in the draft, playing in the USHL, UMass. First of all, where are you at on Michael Harabo? And how much does this guy need a really good tournament? So I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning, and I kid you not,

thinking about Michael Harabo was legitimately the first thing on my mind this morning. You woke up thinking about Michael Harabo? People tell me to get a life. Well, I'm like, man, this guy needs to have a good tournament. Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. There's so much potential there. Every team wants a 6'6 goalie, right?

But it's a goalie that seems like he was unsure of how to play to his giant frame. And that really hurt him last year. A lot of goals down low that just are so odd for a goalie his size. But watching him at college this year, it feels like he's a lot more focused. He doesn't let bad goals bother him anymore. Last year, you'd see him allow a goal and he's smashing his stick. He's mad. That doesn't

happen anymore. It feels like he's more focused. Other than that goal where he was backwards against Canada a few days ago and looking the wrong way, which don't do that against Kevin McKenna because McKenna will make you pay. I thought he looked excellent. And you just need him to be, like, my opinions on him are a lot weaker than they were at his draft year.

But this is a tournament where he could go out there and really prove himself and show like, you know what, I can do it. I can get the job done. I'm a future NHL star goalie. If not, you know, he's a Utah prospect. Melker Thelen was Sweden's goalie today. He's a Utah prospect. Who do you think,

who else do you think needs to have a big tournament? I would like to see Samuel Urban have a very impressive tournament and do this Adam Gayon thing and become, you know, this, this next overage goalie drafted to the NHL because I've watched him a lot of international tournaments and outside of last year where he got shelled in his one game,

I thought that he's always found a way to give slovakia a chance he's not big i think he's listed as six foot one now he was six foot at the u18s but his glove hand is maybe one of the best in this tournament very athletic having a solid season in the uh ushl i would love to see him play well enough to not only give slovakia a, but to earn a spot on the NHL draft this year. Johnny Lazarus, who's doing part-time production of the show today. Thank you, Johnny. We thank him for it. Greg Carville has raved about how much Michael Harabel has matured this year.

If anyone's going to know, it's Laz. Yeah. For the obvious reasons. And I believe it. That's a guy that watching him, even when he let that go backwards, it didn't seem to bother him. He was ready to go. He looked focused.

He was always energetic. He is the X factor for Czechia. When you look at the United States, if Trey Augustine completely falls apart, that's going to be bad for the Czechs. I don't think they're contending for a medal if Harabo's not playing at his peak performance. Okay, but here's the thing. If Harabo's playing at that level, do they have a shot at being that team?

So we saw that game against Canada where they, at least in the middle of the game, they really forced Canada to play from the outside. There's been a lot of question marks about how they put this team together. Dominic Badeka is their best prospect. They didn't bring him to the team. Radomirka is a potential top 15 prospect in the NHL draft this year. They didn't bring him. They obviously didn't bring –

drawing a blank on that really small player, Adam Benach, another guy that probably should be on the scene, given how good he plays whenever he plays for Czechia. They don't – if Edward Schaller is not performing up front, they don't have a guy who can go out there and perform. Do you like him? I don't know, man. I don't know.

I'm so torn on him. But he's great. He's great. Can we pause? Yeah. I love the skill, but when the skill is that soft, and I hate saying this about a young player, but here we go. When the skill is that soft, I say to myself,

you can have all the skill in the world. Give me something. Give me some bite. Like, at the 200 by 85, there's nowhere to hide out there. And you saw that when he came over to North America. I think I wrote in my scouting report on him in his draft year was he'd be a really good bandy player. He would love that extra 50,000 feet of ice because he could do great things in open ice. But in a tournament like this, smaller ice, he's going to get pushed around.

He's having a good year in the AHL. I think in Coachella Valley, the numbers are good, the performances are good. But Coachella Valley has also shown they can develop everybody because they've made it to the finals in both of their years of existence. I think with him, he's got to be able to take over. I thought he actually was very good defensively in the game against Canada, but we'll have to see just kind of how much of a complete player he could be because, I don't know, I'm not convinced.

Okay, I think I know where this answer is going to go. I'm just going to start counting in my head and see how long it takes Stephen to get there. This is from Richard Chung. How good is Canadian goaltending this year? Not as good as the United States. Are we going better than last year? I'm waiting for one name.

Oh, well, Jack Ivakovic is great. 11 seconds! 11 seconds for the Brampton goal. I thought you were going to go right away. Ivakovic is going to get the starting gig. He won't, unfortunately, but he should. I'd say when it comes to Canada, like Carter George, he had a couple of weaker goals against Czechia,

but he's been outstanding for Owen Sound this year. He even scored a goal. So if Canada needs a late goal, throw it to Carter George. What about power play? He'll probably be the starting goalie next year's World Juniors too, unless Jack Avakovic has something to say about that. I love him, man. I know he's smaller.

He's 5'11". His dad, I believe, is 6'4". There is hope that maybe he'll grow to be that size. When it comes to him, so competitive. Not great stats in Brampton, but I watched him in Brampton. I remember it was the first game of the year. They won 8-0, but it felt like

despite winning that, the Brantford Bulldogs had more high-quality scoring chances because Brampton's defense just is not great. Very competitive, skilled goaltender. Just a lot to love him there, just not big. But we saw him at the Olenka Gretzky, one of the best goalie performances I've ever seen in that tournament.

The fact that he's starting the tournament as a backup shows you how confident they are in him. And I will say, as much as I also like Carson Bjarnson, the two goalies that have been best ever since that initial scrimmage at selection camp are the two goalies that are be addressing tonight all right uh that is tonight Canada faces off against Finland I'm going to spend a couple of more moments here before we uh before we get going so we got to get a game to get to if you have any questions in the chat send them in uh in the meantime uh this is day one of the fan fest

and one of the things that's why as I as as I walked in a couple hours before the FanFest started, the one thing I wanted to go check out was the synthetic ice. Some teams are going to be practicing on there. I saw a number of goaltenders practicing on there. The one thing that I believe Hockey Canada is looking at is, given the cost of ice is ridiculous, $400, $500, $600, $700, $800 for an hour of ice. No one's suggesting we play games on this yet, but as far as development, as far as practices, as far as providing some financial relief for parents,

for teams, et cetera, synthetic ice is at a place where you can play on it. You can practice on it. It's not exactly like ice, but it's getting there. Do you think, and this is sort of off the junior hockey page, more onto the youth minor hockey page, do you think that there could be something there with synthetic, synthetic ice being used as a compliment to realize as far as training goes? So you don't have to spend $800 a sheet every time you want to get your team

playing together. A hundred percent. I had a good discussion when I was at this, this major hockey event of the summer with Jamaica, Greece, Puerto Rico, and Lebanon. And it was playing in Oshawa, Ontario. I kind of talked to all the teams.

I'm like, what's the big... Obviously, you guys don't have rinks. That's part of the issue. None of those teams have rinks. So what do you have to do to kind of go out there and make sure you can actually develop? Because without a rink, you can't really play, right? Yeah. And they all said, like, we sent that to guys. ice and supposedly i don't know the ins and outs of it but what they were telling me

is the technology of what makes synthetic ice as good as it is now is a lot better than it was 10 15 years ago yeah yeah and well fun fact to kind of go off topic for a bit but puerto rico they they played an nhl preseason game there back in 06. The attendance was so bad that they actually just stopped playing hockey there. Hockey didn't happen. People that wanted to keep hockey alive started sneaking into this rink and playing in the basement just so they had somewhere to play. Eventually, they were able to build their own rink. Then a hurricane destroyed it.

To my knowledge, I believe they rebuilt it. I'm not completely sure where they are at that status right now, but that's a group that really wants to play hockey. But talking to these teams, the synthetic ice gives them an opportunity to at least play and show to their federations or their government, like, hey, this is what we want to do. This is how we want to grow because it's kind of a catch-22. You can't play without ice, and these governments aren't going to spend

the money in these areas if you don't play, right? So it's kind of a difficult thing and it's so expensive and i'm a big fan of things like ball hockey and roller hockey oh yeah and things like like roller hockey i wish that that was a bigger thing like i wish i remember the double chef used to have their own tournament there i wish we saw that again and you get some good players like guys who had some nhl connection conor bradar talks about how valuable it is ken johnson andrew costal these guys take it like to be so valuable and i wish there were so much more focus on developing those things

but when it comes to ice like yeah like synthetic ice is not the same but i've also seen situations where teams in brazil and columbia use that to train and then go play this one tournament in florida every year uh the florida panthers help. And that's like their only time on the ice. But their experience on the synthetic ice allows them to at least get that experience. And that's, you know, at the very little, just if it opens up more people to play, why not? I'm just waiting for someone to open up.

Like we've seen rinks now, like the way rinks get made now, you don't just make one arena. It's like a four pad and a bar and like et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That seems to be the only way you can make it work. I am really curious to see when someone, and maybe someone has that I'm completely unaware, probably in the United States, not so much in Canada,

takes the plunge and opens up like a four pad, two ice, two synthetic, as a complement. And obviously you don't need chillers, no Zamboni, temperature's not as much of a factor. I'm wondering when someone takes that plunge. Because the one main issue that we, one of the main issues that we have in Canada is lack of arenas. And the last time there was a major initiative to build arenas was centennial year 1967. That's why there are so many centennial arenas from coast to coast to coast. That's not going to happen again.

If anything, it would have to be a marriage of federal funds, private business, sponsors, et cetera. But as far as like the Canadian government saying, we're going to open up rinks all over the country as a way to induce unity from coast to coast, that's not happening. I'm wondering when someone takes the plunge and says, we're opening up a quad, two synthetic, two ice.

It kind of takes, it's going to require someone to throw a lot of money at it and knowing it's probably not going to pay off, but it's for to require someone to throw a lot of money at it and knowing it's probably not going to pay off but it's for the betterment of the sport and that's the thing like we've seen at events like this where they'll have you know shooting pads out here and just opportunities to get people to play anything that can get people playing the game again i don't care if it's ball hockey or roller hockey and it looks like someone scored. Germany just scored. Oh, 1-1 or 2-1. That's a good sign. 3-1.

3-1. Okay, well, sorry, Germans. That happened today. But when it comes to, you know, just, again, the sport's fun. We love it. We're talking about hockey because we love it. We want as many people playing it. I want to see the people who've got the power to make it happen make it happen again. Like, if the NHL started their own roller hockey league, that'd be awesome.

Listen, man, I'm old enough to remember really hot roller hockey international. I went to every single Toronto planets game at varsity arena. Dan Dow, all NHL was on that team, Lou Francis, Getty,

and the starting net minder was Manny legacy. And there were some wonderful names that floated through that league. Whether it was Bernie for Durko, whether it man, Ray own play whether it was Mano Rayon who played with the New Jersey Rock and Rollers. Jerry Sincere would have been the leading scorer there. I'm with you. I would love to see a summer roller hockey league that the NHL

or someone gets behind because I think it's flat out fun game. Let me end on this one. So a couple of weeks ago, as the World Juniors were sort of approaching, I picked up a book that I haven't read in a long time, and that is Garrett Joyce's When the Lights Went Out. And that's all about the World Junior Hockey Championships in Piazzani, 1987. The Russians play in the Canadians. Major brawl breaks out. Gunter Sibetsky, who would have been the head of the IIHF at that time, making the bold move as the kids are brawling to turn the lights out

as a way to get them to stop. Both teams were banished. Canada could have won gold. And it's a lot of NHLers on the team. I think that junior team, that 87 team, produced more NHL players than any other U-20 Canadian junior team ever, nonetheless. One of the things that got me wondering about, considering how popular this tournament is and how many future NHLers go through it, we don't have any books about this

thing. Have you ever wondered, aspiring writers, if you're looking for, here's a free topic, here's a free one for you. The history of the world of Junior Chains. I can already hear the hamster wheel going in your brain right now, Stephen. He's just saying, Merrick, shut up.

I'll write this book. Where's the world of Junior books? I was thinking about that literally last night too, before bed. I didn't wake up thinking about Michael Harabal. well you know what else you're gonna do a couple years ago i started writing just an outline of all the most interesting stories i could find so i just scooped your idea no no no no no no so this i wrote a story one year about uh it's not world junior related but it was about the pan am ice, a tournament no one's heard of, back in 2014.

Canada participated in it. It was mostly, like, beer league guys. And they went and played. It was against Argentina, Colombia, Mexico. The rink in Mexico was falling apart in the middle of one of their games. The Canadian players took out ladders with their skates, climbed on their ladders, and started, like, fixing it, like, nailing things back into the wall so they weren't just having boards falling off.

No way. And I remember the broadcasts were someone's cell phone streams in 2014. They were terrible. I remember watching these games and thinking, like, this is truly for the love of the game. Oh, yeah. And that's more at a grassroots level. But then you go and look at a tournament like the World Juniors,

such a big event. If you look at some of the greatest moments, obviously as Canadians we'll think about a lot of things like Eberle Goal and Mason McTavish a couple of years ago. I'd say maybe my favorite World Junior memory was watching Dennis Godla, Slovakia. That was my first World Junior game I think I ever attended that wasn't a relegation game.

And got $4 tickets with my friend. We were sitting in the millionth row and watching him play the game of his life knowing that probably was never going to play a game anything like that ever again and he hasn't he's never really turned into anything much watching that and being there to see a young kid's biggest moment i think was so special john slaney for me what you're describing is john slaney with the with the winning goal from canada like this tournament it goes deep. You see the stories about the players and things

like the unique places they've come from and all that stuff. There's so many stories that can be told from this great tournament. I love it. It got underway a couple of hours ago and we're off to watch a couple of more games. Finland and Canada later on. Thanks for spending more time with me than you bargained. Really appreciate it. What else am I going to do right now?

You probably would have been watching USA Germany. You probably would have already been at Canadian Tire Center. Thanks, Paul. Really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks so much. Okay, we'll get Jason York on at another time, I swear. In the meantime, on behalf of Zach Phillips and where is Nick? Where did Nick go?

Oh, Nick's gone. Okay. Nick, thanks, buddy, for getting us to air here. Thanks to everyone on the Nation Network for putting this together on short notice here on Boxing Day. We are back tomorrow at FanFest. It's part of the World Junior Hockey Championships tomorrow at 3 o'clock Eastern.

Thanks to everybody in the chats. Rate, review, like, link, spread the word. We're here in Ottawa until New Year's Eve. Enjoy your day. Canada, Finland coming up later. USA, Germany right now. We'll talk to you tomorrow on The Sheet. I slept 16 hours last night.

Every day this week. Every day this month. I can't get out my head. Lost all ambitions day to day. Guess I can call it a rut. I went to the doc, man. He tried to give me a little medicine. I'm like, nah, man, that's fine.

I'm not against those methods, but I knew. It's me, myself, and how that's going to be fixed in my mind. I do want a bracket. I turned on the music. I do want to back it. I turned on the music. I do want to back it. I turned on the music. It's enough. I don't get you sometimes losing.

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