- I've covered these tournaments when top teams meet in crucial games in tournament openers. The one that sticks in my mind was Canada having to face the host Finns at the '98 WJC on Christmas Day. I'm sure that that the Canadians prepared as best and lost to the better team (and eventual champions). Still, that outfit and other national sides (not just the Canadians) are still coming together, developing chemistry, getting acclimatized, while the tournament progresses. You're bound to see the stronger teams at their best when they meet at the end of the first round. No excuses are available at that point--no outs for jet lag or unfamiliarity. So it's the ideal situation today with the four best teams--clearly the best--meeting up.
- If only these four teams played in the same arena like they (almost certainly) will in the semis... I'm not talking about catering to the media or to the fans. No, there's a pretty cool scene that plays out in the stands and in the hallways of the arena when you've got the stars lining up like that. All four teams passing each other ... Teams in the second game arriving at the arena in time to eyeball Game 1 and opponents down the line ... The teams from Game 1 skating off the ice while the kids in Game 2 are kicking around a soccer ball or jogging and stretching in the halls ... The kids from the first game--usually just the winners--heading up into the stands to watch Game 2. I'm sure that they'll be watching each other via broadcast feeds and they'll see a lot of video, but still, there's more intrigue when it's live.
- One scout's take on Jordan Schroeder, the draft-eligible American kid from the University of Minnesota: "He was nothing special against Kazakhs but he's been great the rest of the time. I don't understand why the U.S. coaches have him playing on the wing. He was getting beat up out there even by the Germans." Jordan, have you met Stefan and Patrice ... and Colton?
- Spoke to Evgeni Grachev of Russia/the Brampton Battalion/NYR after the snuffing-out of the Slovaks the other day. "It's a different game with this team than in Brampton," he says. "It's puck possession, not dump in, chase, chase, chase." I asked him if it was an advantage to get a chance to play with some of kids on this team during the ADT Challenge. "I know a lot of them. We've played together many times. It's not tough to go from the Russian game to the Canadian game."
- I still think one of the cooler moments this season was the ceremonies after Challenge game in St Catharines. Grachev was named Russia's player of the game and his Brampton team-mate Cody Hodgson received the Ontario team's POG. "You know that Evgeni gets along with the Brampton guys, that he's got it figured out, the way Hodgson went over to him and gave him a big high-five at centre ice," New York Ranger scouting boss Gordie Clark says.
- I thought Sergei Korostin, a first- and second-liner with the Russian 89s, would be a pretty good pro when I saw him a couple of winters ago. And I thought that the Stars made a pretty savvy pick when they scooped him in the mid-rounds. Since then, though, he has yet to do anything special special. His team-mates have not been able to find him here, which is a problem. A bigger problem is that the Dallas crew has not been able to find him either. The London Knights gave up on him pretty quickly and threw him in when dealing with Peterborough for goaltender Trevor Cann. Have not been able to find him here and I have no idea what the problem is. Neither do the Stars. `Looks as tight as frog skin. It might be too early to give up on him but he shouldn`t count on the Stars being much more patient.
- Oh yeah, what would a TTFOOMN be without one reference to Switzerland. I'll leave this to Nikita Filatov, who scored an overtime winner against the Swiss the 2007 U18 quarter-finals. "I'm glad the Swiss aren't here," Filatov says.
- An IIHF official, not my usual fan base, collared me at the Russia-Slovak game yesterday and showed me the tournament guidebook -- yup, the 1987 U20s, there was Canada and Russia with a DQ in the final game of the round-robin. All the scores of their previous games in the tournament were typed into the record. He suggested that I had mis-stated the official IIHF position on said tournament in my book about the Punch-out in Piestany, When the Lights Went Out. Okay, okay, have it your way. Fact is, though, a few years back I asked for a copy of the game report from said game and the same felIow assured me that the IIHF did not have the document on file or in its archives.
- Ryan Ellis, the little powerplay quarterback for Canada, is getting love from the media here in Ottawa this week. The big "discovery." No need to remind him that your correspondent was calling him the most exciting player in the Ontario league more than two months ago. Have a look. The U.S. will be a real test for Ellis. In the first couple of games here, Canada's opponents played box-PKs that were soft (Czechs) or broken and staggering (Kazakhs). "The Americans play a more aggressive box, more pressure out on the point," Ellis says. "The Germans defended that way but it's going to be more intense." Oh yeah. It's one thing to be pressured by a German guy who would count himself lucky to get the puck out of the zone, who's no threat to go the other way. It's another thing to be tied or up a goal and risk giving the puck away to a skilled guy with finish. I thought it was interesting (if you care about these things) that Pat Quinn opted for Thomas Hickey and Colton Teubert on the blueline when Canada had its first PP vs Germany. Will Ellis and P.K. Subban bring it down a notch on the conservative side vs the U.S. (Why isn't P.P. Subban?) I think it might be situational ... Ellis and Subban operating without shackles if Canada falls behind, Hickey out there if up a goal and protecting a lead.
- Lots of media chatter here suggesting that Ellis will be a top-ten draft pick next June, maybe even a top-five. As much as I admire and respect the Windsor Spitfire phenom I think that's overstating it. Said one scout I spoke to: "I see him as a second-ten guy ... maybe he goes to a team that gets two picks in the first round. [The top ten or top five scenario] seems like a stretch unless you're projecting him to take a regular shift for you. If you see him as a specialist, a top ten is hard to justify."
