By JIMMY D / World Junior Hockey | Jimmy's archive
Hey, snap out of it!
Now that your little Canadian flags are put away for another year and your feelings of smug superiority over the Yanks and Ruskies have subsided somewhat, it’s time for puck poolies to analyze what they saw at the World Junior Hockey Championships.
Yes, everybody saw a well-coached, focused crew of Canadian lads execute to near-perfection in claiming gold again for the Great White North. But poolies need to focus on individuals and how to project and profit from what they witnessed.
Because while you saw a dominating team performance, you didn’t see a whole lot on the Canadian roster that projects to superstar fantasy value.
Justin Pogge – Like him
Jimmy was convinced goaltending was going to be trouble. Jimmy was wrong.
He sure doesn’t come across as the sharpest tack in the drawer in an interview, but if he’s sharp enough to earn shutouts in the semi-final and final of a world championship event, then he’s smart enough for Jimmy D.
He’s big, moves very well (occasionally reminded Jimmy of that Fleury kid in Pittsburgh) and you can’t ask a whole lot more of your goalie with the pressure of home ice at the world championships.
The Leafs have relic Ed Belfour manning the cage and an assortment of mediocrity-soaked goalie prospects and pretenders in the system. Why do you think the Leafs were busy signing Pogge halfway through the tournament?
NHL ready? 2007-2008
Marc Staal – Like him
With big brother Erik the new stud on the block and younger brother Jordan tearing up the Ontario junior circuit, Canadians should be cheering for Mom and Pop Staal to fire up the baby-making machine to churn out a few more little Staals.
Marc was voted the tournament’s best blueliner and the Ranger prospect earned it ahead of high-profile competition like American Jack Johnson, who showed composure, made some dumb-dumbs, was minus 4 and showed a bit of volatility.
Like any good barbecue sauce, blueliners almost always need some seasoning, as in a year or two in the AHL.
NHL Ready? 2008-2009
Luc Bourdon – Like him
Canuck first rounder is solid on his skates, sound positionally and can zoom with the puck. Add another Maritimer (Shippegan, N.B.) to the NHL ranks.
NHL ready? 2006 playoffs
Steve Downie – Like him
A poor man’s Rick Tocchet, Flyer pick will be a good – and annoying NHLer – but only valuable in pools where penalty minutes count as positive stats. Tightly wound, picture a slower version of Jordin Tootoo with some hockey sense and you have Downie, plucked by the brilliant and forthcoming Bob Clarke and his pacifist deputy Paul Holmgren.
Philly often manages to pluck quality talent – that plays right away - late in the first round. Mike Richards and Justin Williams spring to mind as recent harvests.
NHL ready? 2007-2008 Other Canadian forwards – Not sure
Coach Brent Sutter had everyone playing roles and singularly focused on defense-first. So there was no razzle-dazzle from hotshot prospects Guillaume Latendresse, Jonathan Toews (still trying to figure out why this sounds like ‘Taves’), Benoit Pouliot and Andrew Cogliano. Just work at frazzling their opponents.
The Americans – Disappointing
Maybe it was coming in as favourites that spooked the Sons of Uncle Sam. Whatever the reason, they lost to Canada (tied really), the Russians and the Finns.
Still, the Americans had four 2006 draft-eligible kids in the lineup, including tournament scoring leader Phil Kessel and highly touted blueliner Erik Johnson.
Kessel tried to do too much, tried too many individual rushes. Not big, but creative and projects as a poor man’s Pat Lafontaine or a middle-income man’s Steve Sullivan.
NHL ready? Top 5 draftee in June, first liner by 2007-2008
Johnson was smooth with the puck, tried to be too composed sometimes. No. 3 pick in last draft to Carolina, good on power-play, poor man’s Chris Pronger.
NHL ready? 2006-2007
Goalie sch-ure things
Czech Marek Schwarz (Blues) and American Cory Schneider (Canucks) played very well and schape up as better keeper-league talent than others because the teams holding their rights are both in bad shape for goalies.
Alex Auld has struggled in Vancouver behind the always-injured Dan Cloutier and the Blues – a netminding disaster since Curtis Joseph left – are currently auditioning Curtis Sanford Reinhard Divis and Jason Bacashihua. Ugh! Pool-pourri
Leaf fans saw another goalie prospect of note, Finn Tuukka Rask faced nearly 60 shots in the win over Sweden. Quick and lanky, he reminds Jimmy of Marty Biron. But it took Marty seven years to nail down a starting gig and is still waiting for an indisputed No. 1 situation (expect him to be traded, possibly to Edmonton, shortly, now that Ryan Miller is back from injury). BlackHawk fans enjoyed the action, watching seven Chicago picks. But they always have high picks and never seem to develop them. When they do (Eric Daze, Tuomo Ruutu), they are always hurt.
Still, Canada had a Windy-City quality about it with Cam Barker, Dan Bertram, Michael Blunden (who scored twice in the final) and David Bolland all Chicago property.
Nathan Davis and last year’s No. 7 pick Jack Skille of the Americans are also future Chihawks as is Czech Jakub Sindel (who is not to be confused with Red Wing prospect Jakub Kindl).
Which brings Jimmy around to other types of sounds-the-same and déjà vu.
Bourque – Chris, son of Ray, played well for Yanks. Washington draftee, small but skilled.
Sinisalo – Tomas, son of Illkka, scrawny 80’s Flyer sniper who had 39 goals in ’86.
Backstrom – Niklas, no relation to former Hab and King Ralph, but fun to include.
Leppanen and Seppanen – No relation, and no real point to including these two Finnish defencemen – Erkka and Timo - except that their names rhyme and Jimmy likes that kind of stuff.
Boston Pizza contest update
John Chapman won the final regular-season week of Jimmy’s Boston Pizza Pick ‘Em contest.
This week’s four playoff games and next week’s conference title games also count towards the title and you can still win a weekly prize by picking the most winners (Jimmy has thrown in some player wrinkles to keep things interesting).
In the meantime, stay busy and stay lucky.
Jimmy D |
