World under 18 year olds hockey tourament

[cbrooks]

The tourament starts april 13 to 23 in Belarus. The roster for team USA are:

1 Jack Campbell G major jrs

3 Derek Forbort D UND

4 Tyler Biggs F Miami OH

5 Adam Clendening D Boston U

7 Luke Moffatt F Michigan

10 Bill Arnold F Boston College

12 Bryan Rust F Notre Dame

13 Chase Balisy F uncommitted

14 Austin Watson F major jrs

15 Jon Merril D Michigan

16 Jason Zuker F Denver

17 Frankie Simonelli D Wisconsin

18 Austin Czarnik F major jrs

19 Matthew Nieto F Boston U

20 Conner Brickley F Vermont

21 Rocco Grimaldi F uncommitted

22 Brandon Saad F uncommitted

23 Nick Shore F Denver

24 Jared Tinordi D Notre Dame

27 Justin Faulk D Duluth

28 Stephens Johns D Notre Dame

29 Andy Iles G Cornell

[scsavre]

Not a gopher on the squad. Is that a first.

[cbrooks]

I was kind of disappointed that there's only five WCHA recruits in there. Seems low.

[cbrooks]

USA took gold beating Sweden 3-1. Second year in a row.

[scsavre]

Crazy how the US does so well at the young age.

[cbrooks]

It sounded like that goalie Jeff Campbell really played well. That was the same guy on the JRs team. He was a Michigan recruit but decided on playing up in Canada instead.

Maybe US hockey is catching up with Canada and Russia.

[Bear55]

USA hockey is very successful at this level because of the development program, they have owned this tournament lately because they play as a team all year and everyone else sends their best players but they are not use to playing with each other.

It should also be noted that Canada does not send their best team to this event (See: USA 5 - Canada 0) many of their best players are still playing Jrs. In other tournaments at this level Canada usually sends 3-4 teams and they can all hand with the best from other countries.

The US may have surpassed Russia as Canada biggest rival, we have come a long way the past 10 years and I only see that continuing. Sweeden is also right up there with the US and has been producing a ton of talent. Russia has kind of been hit or miss lately.

[OnAFly]

US hockey does seem to have a bright future ahead of it. We've been winning a lot of these under 18 tourneys and other young tourneys lately. The 2014 Olympics will be really fun to watch. GO USA!!!

Russia better pick it up if they want to be considered a contender for the Gold. They seemed to be way over rated during the Olympics. Their stars never really showed up and they didn't seem to play well together.

Canada will always be Canada...good at hockey.

[Bear55]

You are right OnAFly Russia is slowly tanking, they will always be a hockey power but as a country they need some work. There is no doubting their skill but you saw in the Olympics they just don't have any heart/grit to their game.

There was some good discussion on a hockey site I visit about how Canada/Russia hockey has evolved over time. Canada has always been very good at hockey but the Russians back in the day had great skill/euro style hockey that was superior to most other countries.

We all saw when the Russians and other Euros joined the NHL back in the 90's, they had some of the best players and dominated many aspects of the game. Canada took notice and started to focus on the skill side of things while still sticking true to the checking/physical side of things. Russian was still trying to play that old Euro hockey during the Olympics and while it is effective against less skilled teams they are not going to beat a team that is just as skilled as them and willing to out work and out hit them and take them off their game.

The US has basically mirrored Canada and had some limited success throwing their own game back at them. As the old saying goes hard work beats skill when skill doesn't work hard.