tomh009

Quite amazing that Dom is picking Hart over, say, Hill. But goaltending doesn't look to be a strength anyway.

Carolina is only three points ahead of Montreal, and the Habs have a game in hand. And only one of these teams is rebuilding! I would love to win this one.

Four out of five teams make it into the playoff round so the bar is not very high. 😊 Most likely Finland just needs to beat Latvia, but they might end up facing the US in the first round.

All the news items now are for the current tournament so a bit hard to find. I thought I saw a video of the 2022 play but can't find it now. The IIHF announcement is here though: https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2022/wm18/news/33244/sweden_s_salomonsson_suspended

Notably, he got a suspension in last year's U18 world championship as well, for another ugly check from behind. It seems that he did not learn anything from that one.

Mesar 18:01 TOI Hutson 22:56 Much better ice time than what Beck's third line got, in spite of scoring two of the three goals (excluding the two empty-netters).

Maybe not at full value, but recent games have shown that he can still be effective. I think GMs are, in general, less focused on recent short-term results than fans are.

The third line played well and was +2 in spite of limited TOI. No points for Beck, though, just a rather unnecessary boarding penalty.

6-2 win for Slovakia over the Czechs in the tournament opener. Mesar 2a in 12:01, fairly limited usage.

Two words: cap space.

I cannot see Hughes doing deadline shopping for veteran rentals this year. Even if they are in a position to make the playoffs, I expect they'll be more likely to be sellers at deadline.

I think Slafkovsky is showing that he's more than just a big body. "I'm not stupid" is how he put it to Arpon Basu, and he's showing that he has skills and smarts in addition to size. Reinbacher, I like the pick but we really don't know anything yet of what he can do. Another year or two, we'll be able to assign a grade to that pick.

We also don't know whether Bergevin went with Timmins' picks or whether he overrode his choices. Ultimately the GM is responsible for the choices, the scouting staff can only recommend. So, we may never know whether Kotkaniemi and others were Timmins or Bergevin.

Hutson 1g+1a including the 6-5 OT winner; Beck 1a and 2 minutes for charging. Fowler 14 saves on 16 shots, first 29 minutes of the game. (Canadian goaltenders combined for only 22 saves on 28 shots, will need to do better than that in the tournament.)

5 of 6! Don’t forget the win in the ‘peg!

Yeah. I think they were trying to tie up both players but the second linesman didn't get Entwistle. Result could have been bad.

I can't see that. Dobes is definitely not an NHL goalie at this point, and Kaskisuo is a huge unknown. Unless, of course, he decides to play Struble in net! 😂

Yes. NJD and CAR both have cap space enough to acquire a goalie ...

With St-Louis as the coach, I am much less concerned about that.

Danault is back on the second line now, PLD is on the third …

It's back-to-back Folignos for the Habs!

Dobes in net again today. I expect that we'll see Kaskisuo late next week, when the Rocket has three games in three nights.

He did not. EDIT: I completely forgot that he's Austrian, not Swiss, and Austria is not at the top level WJC.

The Athletic's Corey Pronman published his list of top 25 prospects at the world juniors. His top ten: 1. Macklin Celebrini 2. Will Smith (SJS) 3. Cutter Gauthier (PHI) 4. Gabe Perreault (NYR) 5. Konsta Helenius 6. Jiri Kulich (BUF) 7. Ryan Leonard (WSH) 8. Lane Hutson (MTL) 9. Jimmy Snuggerud (STL) 10. Axel Sandin Pellikka (DET) Celebrini and Helenius are the only draft-eligibles in the top ten. Neither Mesar or Beck fit into Pronman's top 25 ranking.

Oh, well. Need some possession to score ... 😢