It could be a game for the ages. Or, the Americans could get blown out of the water. Either way, it’s going to be a party for somebody. Let’s hope for the former, as Team USA faces the overwhelming tournament favorite, Team Canada, in Tuesday’s World Junior Championship (WJC) gold medal game.
Monday’s semifinals were a tale of two contests. In the early game, Russia—which opened the WJC with an impressive win over Team USA—was spanked 5-0 by the Canadians. That game even made the world’s best under-20 goaltender, Yaroslav Askarov (Nashville Predators prospect), look downright beatable. Team Canada coasted through the third period and never looked under duress.
In the late game, USA ultimately came out victorious over Finland in an intense contest that went down to the wire. After the US allowed the tying goal at 16:17 of the third period, Arthur Kaliyev (LAK) rifled the game winner with just over one minute remaining. It was an emotional game that took every American player giving just about everything to get past the pesky Finns, who nearly overcame their second consecutive two-goal deficit of the knockout stage.
Both teams will need to quickly reset as we turn our attention to the gold medal game, which will be played Tuesday between David Team USA and Goliath Team Canada at 6:30PM Pacific on NHL Network.
Team Canada Lives Up to Hype
On paper, Canada should probably win just about every WJC. Yet—by their standards—the Canadians had a bit of a down decade, earning three gold medals between 2010 and 2020, including last year’s championship. Another win tonight would prove that the dip in dominance was simply an anomaly.
In this WJC, Canada has lived up to its pre-tournament billing in every way. Despite its best player and captain, Kirby Dach (CHI), fracturing his wrist in an exhibition game and forcing him out of the competition, Team Canada has dominated every game it has played to this point. In fact, the star-studded squad has outscored its opponents 41-4 in six games, and netminder Devon Levi has allowed zero goals at even strength.
You read that right. Canada has not yet allowed an even-strength goal in this tournament.
Speaking of Levi, goaltending was perhaps the one area coming into the WJC in which Canada did not appear to hold an advantage over the field. Russia’s Askarov and USA’s Spencer Knight received the bulk of the ballyhoo, while our neighbors to the north questioned who would get the nod in their nation’s goal crease.
Levi—an unheralded seventh-round draft pick of the Florida Panthers—has answered any and all questions to this point. The Northeastern University freshman has stopped 120 of 124 shots through Monday’s semifinal, good for a .975 save percentage. Still, one could argue that he hasn’t been tested that intensely, as Canada has allowed few grade-A scoring chances.
Meanwhile, after losing the odds-on favorite for tournament MVP in Dach, Dylan Cozens (BUF) took the reins as the offensive leader and shined from the jump. Cozens—who has traded off wearing what was supposed to be Dach’s “C” with stud defenseman Bowen Byram (COL)—is tied for the WJC scoring lead with 16 points (8-8-16).
Connor McMichael (WAS), Quinton Byfield (LAK), Alex Newhook (COL), and Peyton Krebs (VGK) are other players that we at Sound Of Hockey have noticed as particularly outstanding on a roster full of potential future NHL superstars.
The Americans Are No Slouches
So if Cozens is tied for the tournament scoring lead, then who shares that honor with him? Why, it’s none other than USA’s Trevor Zegras (ANA), of course!
Zegras has been incredible for the Stars and Stripes, scoring from everywhere, setting up teammates, and finding ways to be dangerous just about every time he’s been on the ice. In all, Zegras has six goals and 10 assists, and if USA shocks the world Tuesday, he has all but secured the tournament MVP award.
Others that have wowed for the Americans have been Cam York (PHI), Matt Boldy (MIN), and Cole Caufield (MTL).
Local Pacific Northwest hockey fans have been clamoring to see Everett Silvertips goaltender Dustin Wolf (CGY) receive a real chance to show what he can do on this global stage. He frankly has been buried on the bench behind Knight, despite not giving up a goal in a game and a half during the preliminary round. USA head coach Nate Leaman has clearly hitched his wagon to Knight, though, and almost certainly will give the start to the 2019 first-round pick of the Panthers.
In fairness to Knight, he has played very well in this tournament, aside from a couple opening-game blunders against Russia that landed him on the bench. Knight boasts a .922 save percentage and was named one of USA’s three best players of the tournament following Monday’s semifinal.
But Do The Americans Actually Have a Chance?
It’s not quite USA versus USSR in the 1980 Winter Olympics, but Canada will be heavily favored on Tuesday. The US will have to play a close-to-perfect game and will still have to get some breaks to beat the Canadians.
So how can they actually do it? Most important for Team USA is that it wins the special teams battle. On Monday, the Americans took five penalties against Finland and relented two power play goals. They aren’t going to score much at five-on-five against Canada, but they do have the best power play in the tournament with Zegras, Kaliyev, and Boldy forming a truly elite forward unit. As a team, USA has scored at a 43 percent clip with the manpower advantage.
Drawing power plays while playing a clean game and receiving stellar goaltending from Knight is how the Americans can pull this off.
Still, it’s a huge long shot.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The Blackhawks are probably not going to be particularly good this season. A team already in full re-build mode, Chicago has been dealt a series of maladies that will leave it without its captain, Jonathan Toews, and without two of its up-and-coming young players, Kirby Dach and Alexander Nylander, for the foreseeable future. But how does all this affect the plan for the Chicago Blackhawks in the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft?
Well, it doesn’t. Nylander will return in time for the Expansion Draft and will be protected, Dach is exempt, and Toews has a no-movement clause. As far as Expansion is concerned, there’s no impact, but as far as the Blackhawks are concerned, this could be a tough season.
Chicago did surprisingly make it into the postseason bubble in 2019-2020. In fact, it even got through the best-of-five qualifying round with a 3-1 series win over the Oilers before being quickly dispatched by the Golden Knights in the first round of the real playoffs.
Notably, the Blackhawks—despite their core group of remaining veterans from the Stanley Cup teams of yore—were the youngest team to make it into the bubble. So, there’s some hope for the future.
But with the recent news that Toews is dealing with a mysterious medical issue and with the departure of Corey Crawford, there’s just no way that this team contends for at least a couple of years, barring some miraculous signings and trades.
While there may be some real talent to select from Chicago, there are no obvious cornerstone pieces that will be available. So, here’s hoping the Kraken can uncover a diamond in the youthful rough.
Assumptions
The big question is whether or not Brent Seabrook—who will almost certainly be asked to waive his no-movement clause—will actually waive his no-movement clause. If he were to agree to waive it, being that the Kraken wouldn’t touch his contract with a 10-foot hockey stick, it would allow Chicago to protect an extra player.
We will assume for the sake of this exercise that Seabrook will not waive his no-movement clause, and he will have to be protected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the Expansion Draft.
Chicago Blackhawks Protected List for Expansion Draft
Forwards
Patrick Kane (Lock, NMC)
Jonathan Toews (Lock, NMC)
Alex DeBrincat (Lock)
Dylan Strome
Alex Nylander
David Kampf
Lucas Wallmark
The thing about the Blackhawks forward group is that there isn’t a super obvious way to decide on which guys to choose in the last couple of protection slots. General manager Stan Bowman could go in a variety of directions, including exposing Kampf—who only had eight goals and eight assists last season but played all 70 games—in favor of, say, Brandon Hagel. Hagel has only played one career NHL game, but is still only 22 years old and posted 19 goals and 12 assists in 59 games with the Rockford IceHogs.
Defensemen
Duncan Keith (Lock, NMC)
Brent Seabrook (Lock, NMC – unless he agrees to waive his NMC to help the team)
Nikita Zadorov
As we mentioned in the assumptions, there is a chance Bowman will be able to get Seabrook to waive his NMC, in which case the ’Hawks would be able to protect either Connor Murphy or Lucas Carlsson.
Goalie
Collin Delia
The Blackhawks also have Malcolm Subban and Kevin Lankinen, but unless one of the three netminders emerges in mythical fashion this season, then move along, as there’s nothing to see here.
Chicago Blackhawks Targets for Expansion Draft
Forwards
Hagel is intriguing, just because of his age and the fact that he’s been a productive AHL player on the verge of becoming a regular NHLer. There is definitely a chance that he will be protected by Chicago, though, so his consideration for the Kraken could end up moot. If Hagel is protected and Kampf is exposed, then Kampf would be worth at least considering.
Defensemen
The play for Seattle is likely on the blue line. Connor Murphy, 27, has proven himself a reliable NHL defenseman. He doesn’t score many goals, but he does chip in anywhere from 15 to 20 points per season.
Another option could be Lucas Carlsson, a 23-year-old blue liner who has yet to solidify an NHL role. The Swedish defenseman played six games for the Blackhawks last season, but has put up good numbers with AHL Rockford over the past two seasons, and is certainly knocking on the door of the highest level.
Side Deal Scenarios
There’s no question that Bowman would love to get out of Seabrook’s contract, but it runs until 2024 at a cap hit of $6.875 million annually with a no-movement clause. We just can’t come up with a scenario in which Chicago is able to sweeten the pot enough to make Seattle Kraken GM Ron Francis take that on.
The Chicago Blackhawks are poised to lose just one replaceable player in the Seattle Expansion Draft and will have more cap space after this season. So, side deals seem less likely here than with contending teams.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
It’s been a weird year, no doubt. Amidst everything else that has happened in 2020, hockey has played out in a very strange way. After shutting down in March, the National Hockey League completed its playoffs in a late-summer bubble. That late-summer timeframe is usually when NHL general managers go into their annual hibernation, and hockey news – trades, signings, and the like – becomes non-existent.
But with everything being thrown off the usual cycle by the pandemic, this year’s hibernation period came much later than normal. The lull that we typically see in August instead came in November and early December.
That’s over now. The GM’s are awake. NHL hockey is back on the horizon, and the lingering business is now being executed.
Here are some highlights from a recent flurry of activity around the NHL, as teams prep for the opening of training camps this week.
Unfinished Business
A hockey-related side effect of the pandemic is a decrease in money coming in for the league. After all, no fans means no gate revenue, and the NHL – which averages north of $1.3 million per game in ticket sales – certainly relies on this stream.
Everyone expected the league’s salary cap to go up this offseason, but the revenue losses instead led to a flat cap at $81.5 million for the upcoming 2020-21 campaign. The flat cap meant that general managers who were already feeling the pinch now were in even more of a bind, and in some cases desperately needed to shed salary prior to the opening of the season in January.
The pinch on teams across the league also left a pool of respected NHL veterans without jobs, including the likes of Mike Hoffman, Mikael Granlund, Anthony Duclair, and many others.
Trades
The salary cap dominos have started to fall. Of the teams that were cap-strapped, the situation for the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning seemed the most dubious.
News broke just before the Christmas holiday that former Hart Trophy winner, Nikita Kucherov, would go onto LTIR after undergoing hip surgery, and is expected to miss the entire regular season. That’s certainly not how Lightning fans hoped the team would achieve cap compliance, but the announcement was quickly followed by the re-signing of restricted free agent center, Anthony Cirelli. So, the team was obviously getting closer.
Then, GM Julien BriseBois performed some more voodoo accounting, dumping Braydon Coburn, Cedric Paquette, and a 2022 second-round pick to the Senators for the contracts of Marian Gaborik and Anders Nilsson, both of whom will be placed on LTIR and will not play this season. It’s shifty work by BriseBois, but the moves make his team cap compliant, at least to start the season.
The Senators were also involved in a trade that brought in Derek Stepan from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a second-round pick. Ottawa… is… a team.
Signings
The most fascinating “signing” (wink wink, nudge nudge) of the past few weeks is definitely Hoffman heading to St. Louis, at least for training camp. He has agreed to a professional tryout deal, which technically means that any team can still sign him. The hockey Twittersphere seems to be assuming that he will ultimately play for the Blues this season, though, despite the fact that he is currently not under an actual contract.
Hoffman will be in Blues camp and the plan is he’ll sign a 1-yr deal = $3.5-4.5m.
“I’m extremely thrilled to have the opportunity to possibly become a member of the St. Louis Blues. I’ve heard nothing but pleasant things about this team and organization.” https://t.co/3ry3v2Em4o
The expectation is that Vladimir Tarasenko – who underwent yet another shoulder surgery and is expected to be re-evaluated in February – and Alex Steen – who has retired citing back injuries – will be placed on long-term injured reserve. The team will wait to make these moves, however, until just before the season to maximize the amount of cap savings that they will receive for the LTIR designations. It’s at that point that it will have enough space to sign Hoffman.
Fascinating that we already seem to know how much Hoffman’s contract will be worth, even though he hasn’t technically been offered anything yet, isn’t it?
Hoffman has never been known for his defensive prowess, but he definitely packs an offensive punch. The 6-foot-0 forward has never scored fewer than 22 goals in a full season and has notched 65 goals and 129 points over the last two years with Florida. Assuming he actually spends the season with the Blues (sounds like he will), Hoffman will prove to be a pretty great eleventh-hour replacement for Tarasenko.
Nashville brought back Granlund on a one-year deal worth $3.75 million, and also signed his old Minnesota Wild teammate, Erik Haula, for $1.75 million. After his deadline acquisition by the Predators two seasons ago, Granlund was horrendous down the stretch. He did bounce back a bit in 2019-20, though, with 17 goals and 13 assists. He’s better than his stat lines the past couple years, so $3.75 million could work out to be a bargain.
Other Recent Signings:
Anthony Duclair to the Panthers for one year at $1.7 million
Andreas Athanasiou to the Kings for one year at $1.2 million
Corey Perry to the Canadiens for one year at $750,000
Editor’s note: This is exactly what the North Division needs—Perry running around poking guys in the nether regions.
Carl Soderberg to the Blackhawks for one year at $1 million
Ryan Miller back to the Ducks for one year at $1 million
Craig Anderson to the Capitals on a professional tryout
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
That probably wasn’t the start the Americans wanted in the World Junior Championship. The first WJC game for Team USA against Russia on Christmas Day ended 5-3 with the Red Machine getting the better of the play for most of the evening.
USA was sloppy with its puck management, committing dangerous turnovers it its own end and at both blue lines, and that really was the ultimate difference in the game.
If you’re rooting for the Stars and Stripes in this tournament, though, there was some silver lining. After falling behind 4-1 in the second period, Team USA did fight back to make it a one-goal game before conceding an empty net goal in the closing minutes.
So, there’s some fight in the Americans. Even in a game with careless puck play and as high as a three-goal deficit against a talented team with the world’s best under-20 goalie, there was still a chance for victory late in the game. And that is something upon which to hang your red, white, and blue hat.
Despite the disappointing American performance, it was ridiculously fun to drink a few glasses of Christmas cheer and watch elite-level hockey. Here are the three things we learned from USA’s opening loss to Russia.
Thing 1: America’s Got Talent
Montreal Canadiens’ draft pick, Cole Caufield, got minimal playing time in the opening period Friday. Why? We have no idea.
The Wisconsin Badger was dangerous every time he touched the puck and looked faster and more shifty than anybody else when he was in control. The problem was that he didn’t get that many looks, and when he did, it was too frequently on the perimeter and trying to create opportunities for himself.
Caufield loves finding a quiet spot on the ice away from the puck and then quickly striking when a teammate finds him through a seam. That didn’t happen Friday.
Trevor Zegras (ANA) also showed why he’s considered one of USA’s top offensive threats with a late power play rocket off the post and in.
Meanwhile, Matt Boldy (MIN) was strong everywhere on the ice and Cam York (PHL) had USA’s first goal and added an assist.
There are kinks to work out for Team USA if it wants to have a chance in this WJC, and Russia exposed that. But there is real talent here, and despite the loss, there’s no reason to think USA can’t end up on the podium on January 5th.
Thing 2: Goaltending Controversy?
While Russia’s Yaroslav Askarov (NSH) has earned top billing for goalies in this tournament – and showed why on Friday with some remarkably athletic saves – Spencer Knight is one of the other netminders that has received plenty of hype and praise, including from yours truly.
Yaroslav Askarov’s legs move quicker than Ginsu knives
It probably wouldn’t have looked that bad for the Florida Panthers’ first-round draft pick, if it weren’t for his puck play outside of the crease. And frankly, Knight made a good pass on one of the his two gaffs before defenseman Jake Sanderson (OTT) turned the puck over and hung Knight out to dry.
This one was pretty bad, though, and this goal – Russia’s fourth – landed Knight on USA’s bench.
In all, Knight was credited with just four saves on eight shots Friday. Oofda.
In came Everett Silvertip and friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Dustin Wolf (CGY). The 2019-2020 CHL Goalie of the Year came on in relief and looked solid, stopping all eleven shots he faced, including two Russian breakaways.
Knight has long been considered the de facto starter for USA, but the team would have had a better chance to win if Wolf had played the whole game.
One has to wonder now if Wolf will get more chances to start as we get deeper in the tournament. He has already been named the starter for Saturday’s contest with Austria.
Dustin Wolf (CGY) will start for Team USA tonight. #WorldJuniors
While USA head coach, Nate Leaman, has maintained all along that he plans to use both Knight and Wolf in the WJC, the preliminary round games are absolutely auditions for the quarterfinals and beyond.
Thing 3: Execution Wins Games
Execution was the achilles heel for Team USA against Russia, and that has to improve as we move along in the WJC. Turnovers in bad spots on the ice ultimately did them in against a more opportunistic and more crisp Red Machine.
A sequence four minutes into the second period summed up the contest pretty well. Bobby Brink (PHL) found himself with the puck on his stick in the slot and a gaping net in front of him, with Askarov nowhere to be found.
But Brink shanked a snap shot wide of the net. A goal there would have given USA a 2-1 lead.
Just seconds later, Maxim Groshev (TBL) hit Zakhar Bardakov with a glorious stretch pass that Bardakov promptly deposited behind Knight.
The US goes right back to work at 6:30PM Pacific on Saturday against a lesser opponent in Austria. Perhaps that will be a chance for the Americans to ramp up the execution that escaped them on Friday.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Wow, big-time episode this week on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast! The guys welcome Lamont Buford, VP of Live Entertainment and Game Presentation for the Seattle Kraken, and his interview is worth the price of admission.
With Lamont Buford, the guys discuss his rise from “Puck Head” with the AHL’s Hershey Bears to where he is today, planning the in-game fan experience for the Seattle Kraken. He also humors John, Andy, and Darren with some mascot and goal song discussion and shares his opinions on some tried-and-true game presentation gimmicks. Andy also pitches to Lamont that he believes *this* should be the team mascot.
Apparently this is Sigmund the Sea Monster. Andy says he’s cool.
Also on this episode, the guys consider the huge news from earlier in the week that the NHL is officially returning to play on January 13th and what that means for Seattle.
Plus, a WHL Update, Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
With Lisa, the guys discuss the Kings’ plans for the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft, their deep prospect pool, and how long the team might stink. Great interview.
Also in this episode, John, Andy, and Darren discuss some of the travel woes that have been experienced by teams trying to get into the World Junior Championship bubble and consider some of the rosters that have been released.
Segments this week include a controversial Goalie Gear Corner, You Don’t See That Every Day, and Weekly One-Timers. Also, Let’s Get Quizzical makes its triumphant return from a long hiatus.
