- Sympathy for John Tavares I feel for JT. It's not that he's just ripping it up for the Canadian U20 ... he's doing that even though he doesn't know where he'll end up playing this year. Yup, all you need to know at this point is that the biggest star in the CHL is on the trading block--something that has been drowned out by the cheers here. You can say that it happens all the time and that this is what Steve Mason went through, Steve Downie before him, and others before that ... and you'd be right in saying that. Still, nothing 87 ever had to deal with, or Steven Stamkos or Drew Doughty. Yup, it's a fact of life in the CHL and an embargo on trades over the holidays only stalls what seems inevitable. Those in the know figure that the London Knights will be the likeliest to land him but even those who are betting on it can't figure out precisely what it is the Hunters will move to land JT. A look at their assets just doesn't reveal an easy fit for value to Oshawa. Windsor would have to look at getting in the running for JT just to pre-empt London from landing him but a couple of questions linger: Q 1: What would Spitfires GM Warren Rychel move to the Generals? Q 2: Why would he tamper with chemistry? A 1: Any trade for Tavares would just about scotch Windsor making a play for a goaltender. Much easier to see need and fit there. Guelph's Thomas McCollum, the U.S. netminder Tavares beat twice on New Year's Eve, would be the object of desire, likely with Brandon Maxwell and picks going the other way. A 2: I dunno why you'd mess much with a league-best team that should be even better next year. A goaltender, McCollum, could come in seamlessly, but a No. 1 centre would shift a lot of pieces around. Most in the know say that the surprising thing will be that JT will be moved for what doesn't look like a whole lot--a function of limited demand, only a few teams (London, Belleville and Brampton) looking like they could be competitive with the Spitfires in a short series and make it to the Mem Cup. Sherry Bassin, grand old man of Erie, holds the minority view: "I think [JT] is going to stay where he is," Bassin says. Bassin figures that it would be hard to get folks to come to the rink in Oshawa if they tear the team down completely and especially if it looks like the Generals gave away the CHL's best player. I think it would be sad to see JT wind up his junior career with a weak outfit that would get bounced and quick by a decent team in the first round in the O playoffs ... it might be his last chance at winning something until the Thrashers turn it around. If ever. (My soapbox .02: A lot of pundits and hand-wringers bash the CHL for the practice of trading kids on a GM's whim from Halifax to Val d'Or or from Seattle to Brandon. Please. Half the kids are being traded into better teams, contenders, while the other half are being traded into situations where they'll get more ice time. A far worse thing is to hold onto a kid and not play him or to mire a talent like JT without a worthy supporting cast and deny him a chance to win a championship. I just wish the deadline for trades was moved up but at least an embargo during this tournament is a start.)
- Taxi! Some starstruck scribe (okay, a guy with a home video camera) asked JT (and I breathlessly quote): "Is there anything you can't do?" Sigh. What is this, Tiger Beat? Canada's go-to guy as the new Leif Garrett? (I'm dating myself. Okay, the new Aaron Carter?) JT hemmed and hawed. Talk about putting the kid on the spot, not what Canada needs at this time, a star conflicted over his inadequacies. I interceded. "You can't drive, right?" I prompted. "Yeah, there's that," JT said. A while back he told me that he never learned because he was always getting rides to practice and wherever else he had to go. Next question ...
- The Oscar goes to ... the semi-finals I'm assured by folks in the Swedish press that Tre Kroners' first-line centre Oscar Moller will be good to go and that the shoulder injury in the win over Russia is not serious. It is, however, an aggravated pre-existing thing, so who knows? On the Canadian side, Zach Boychuk looked just fine yesterday, no limp at all.
- Bugged I mentioned the other day that scouts were puzzling over line juggling by the Swedes. In particular the late 90 Marcus Johansson was dropped from the first line. Turns out that a flu bug has claimed a kid or two in the gold and blue. Don't these kids get their shots?
- To Victor go the spoils The puck-punditry has conceded No. 1 in the draft to JT. Spoke to a NHL scout yesterday who hasn't quite let go of Hedman as a possible No. 1. "It's all about upside with him," the scout said. "There's so much growth left in the game for him." I can sorta see it. One thing about Tavares that's underplayed about Tavares is the degree to which he has improved from last year to this year. He's not simply the best player but also the most improved. (Cody Hodgson would be second on both counts.) Has JT much room left for improvement? JT vs VH comes down to performance vs potential, scouting's chicken vs egg. Given VH's wing-span the egg might hatch into one of these. Hopefully he doesn't just wind up like this survivor of Paul Reuben's playhouse. Players make the best scouts so here's Swedish forward Magnus Svensson-Paajarvi: "I've played against Victor in the Swedish league and in practice on these teams. He has such a long stick and he's so hard to beat. You come down the wing against him and, you know, you have to try but there isn't much you can do." The lingering questions for scouts is whether VH will ever have an offensive impact at the next level. "It looks like he could go the length of the ice any time he wants to, but that situation just hasn't come up here yet" said one scout keeping an open mind. "He had no reason to when Sweden's leading the Russians by four goals." He has shown flashes of it in the past (scoring the tournament winner at the summer 18s in 2007, jumping up and scoring vs Canada in the exhibition at the ACC a couple of weeks back). It'll be interesting to see if he's needed to do it im a semi against the U.S.
- Your call did not go through Overheard that Team Canada's voice in the skybox was relaying a message to Pat Quinn to pull Dustin Tokarski at 3-zip the other day. Good thing that PQ wasn't taking calls and everything was being directly forwarded to voicemail. Could have been the tournament right there.
- Panik attack Scouts have been eyeballing Slovakia games to get a read of Richard Panik, a big, thick forward who by some estimations is a first-round-worthy prospect. So far the reviews have been indifferent but a QF vs the U.S. is a great chance to showcase himself. Windsor owns his rights (tenth overall in the CHL import draft) but Panik chose to stay home based on the promise (empty as it turns out) to play in the senior league close to home. Now the Spitfires think there's a good chance to land him after the WJC. Great, a powerhouse loads up and we have a thousand bad-pun headlines to look forward to.
- Achilles Heels In my post Nikita Filatov piece the other day I mentioned that the Russians could give a good game to the Swedes if they had any goaltending. They didn't get any at all. (They were down 4-0 but I had the scoring chances five apiece at that point.) Brutal. Not the only issue though. Imagine Thetis holding both ankles while she dunked Achilles. Russia's very suspect on the back end. If it plays out to form, Mikhail Pashnin, an undrafted 89, will get spun like a top by speedy U.S. forwards. Just picking one name, could cite others. Count the cough-ups. Might not look too bad against very passive Czech forwards but it will be another story if/when they have to deal with Canadian forecheckers. One Russian D who looked good vs Sweden (as good as you could have fishing pucks out of your net) was Maxim Goncharov, a big, agressice Phoenix draftee, who took a run at everyone in sight. He might have started with his own goaltenders. Q: If a short tournament comes down to goaltending, why would the Russians leave their best goaltenders at home ... especially if you had brought them over previously to prep? Pittsburgh draftee Alexander Pechurskyi (150th overall last June) made a great impression on the ADT Challenge--his best game was the tour's last, stopping 42 of 44 shots in a 2-1 lost to a Dub team in Prince Albert. Pechurskyi split up games on the tour with Sergei Guyduchenko, who backstopped the Russians to their lone win (30 saves on 33 shots in a win over the Quebec vedettes). Either one would be a significant improvement on the stiffs this Russian team brought over: Danil Alistratov who let in four of 12 shots vs Sweden and Vadim Zlebodnyuk.
