World Juniors Right Around the Corner...

[cbrooks]

NHL network will be broadcasting games on TV and NHL.com will be providing the internet stream. See link below for more info and schedule.

World Juniors TV/Streaming Coverage Info

Awesome Solbes

[cbrooks]

USA beat the Swiss in exhition play last night 7-3. I also read that the US outshot Russia the night before 37 to 23 shots against the defending gold medal team. Souded like Russia's goaltender played really well. I like our chances this year from what I've been reading.

[Bear55]

That Russia game was kind of interest, sounds like we may have had the better of the play, they also scored two shortys so that has to get fixed. They also rested their entire top line and we had a couple of our better players out as well so its hard to take anything away from it. I think we will only see them in the medal round but I think it was good to get a taste of their game and get some ice time against their skill guys.

[Bear55]

Final roster announced.

G 1 Jack Campbell*^ 6-2 182 1/9/92 L Port Huron, Mich. Soo Greyhounds (OHL)

G 35 John Gibson 6-3 200 7/14/93 L Pittsburgh, Pa. Kitchener Rangers (OHL)

G 29 Andy Iles*% 5-9 180 1/30/92 L Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell Univ. (ECACH)

D 5 Adam Clendening 5-11 190 10/26/92 R Niagara Falls, N.Y. Boston Univ. (HEA)

D 4 Derek Forbort* 6-5 200 3/4/92 L Duluth, Minn. Univ. of North Dakota (WCHA)

D 12 Kevin Gravel 6-4 190 3/6/92 L Kingsford, Mich. St. Cloud State Univ. (WCHA)

D 28 Stephen Johns 6-4 221 4/18/92 R Wampum, Pa. Univ. of Notre Dame (CCHA)

D 15 Jon Merrill* 6-3 209 2/3/92 L Brighton, Mich. Univ. of Michigan (CCHA)

D 24 Jarred Tinordi 6-7 215 2/20/92 L Millersville, Md. London Knights (OHL)

D 8 Jacob Trouba 6-2 191 2/26/94 R Rochester, Mich. U.S. NTDP U-18 (USHL)

F 21 Josh Archibald 5-10 170 10/6/92 R Brainerd, Minn. Univ. of Nebraska Omaha (WCHA)

F

14 Bill Arnold 6-0 215 5/13/92 R Needham, Mass. Boston College (HEA)

F

27 Nick Bjugstad* 6-4 204 7/17/92 R Blaine, Minn. Univ. of Minnesota (WCHA)

F 23 Connor Brickley 6-1 195 2/25/92 L Everett, Mass. Univ. of Vermont (HEA)

F 3 Charlie Coyle* 6-2 207 3/2/92 R East Weymouth, Mass. Boston Univ. (HEA)

F 2 Austin Czarnik 5-8 152 12/12/92 R Washington, Mich. Miami Univ. (CCHA)

F 10 Emerson Etem* 6-1 197 6/16/92 L Long Beach, Calif. Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL)

F 11 J.T. Miller 6-1 195 3/14/93 L East Palestine, Ohio Plymouth Whalers (OHL)

F 20 Kyle Rau 5-8 172 10/24/92 L Eden Prairie, Minn. Univ. of Minnesota (WCHA)

F 22 Brandon Saad 6-2 206 10/27/92 L Gibsonia, Pa. Saginaw Spirit (OHL)

F 19 T.J. Tynan 5-8 170 2/25/92 R Orland Park, Ill. Univ. of Notre Dame (CCHA)

F 26 Austin Watson 6-3 195 1/13/92 R Ann Arbor, Mich. Peterborough Petes (OHL)

F 16 Jason Zucker*^ 5-11 180 1/16/92 L Las Vegas, Nev. Univ. of Denver (WCHA)

[Heartman]

Give Grimaldi the same kind of NCAA ice time Rau has had this year and he'd be left behind by now - don't forget he had two full years in the USHL while Rau was playing MN HS hockey - I stand by my statement.

[scsavre]

Your excitement around grimaldi is not with out cause. The guy can be electric. But laving rau behind is a little ridiculous. I could careless who the better player is. But if your leaving one of the top scoring players in colege hockey way behind, where does that put him......I suppose he'd have 50 pts by now. Get real. You can compare there pasts and think grimaldi would be doing better, but heisnt leaving any top freshman far behind. Who knows, maybe grimaldi already hit the top of his game, rau seems to be improving each year. Either way both are good players and only one of them has proven anything at the college level. Ad as far as rau, he's a good player on both ends, hussles and has a nack for the net, but he does benefit from bjugstedt out there. Hopefully grimaldi gets healed up and plays soon so he can display his talent. Or maybe he isn't durable enough for college. I'm assuming he's tough.

[cbrooks]

Heartman-I hope your right about Grimaldi. I haven't seen enough of him but maybe a couple games this year which he was playing while injured. I'm guessing he will be back for the Minnesota series at the Ralph. We can settle this argument that weekend. I think I see a bet in the future. Bear, Scott your in?

[scsavre]

I like bets

[Heartman]

Put Grimaldi on the ice with almost 13' and 450lbs of linemates that can skate like Bjugstad and Budish and you'd see how he compares to Rau. Just hope he gets over the injury soon.

[RK]

Pretty excited for this tournament. Getting to be one of the highlight of my hockey year.

Going to be fun to watch all the Wild prospects playing big roles. Wild prospects are captains on 3 teams - US (Zucker) Sweden (Brodin) and Finland (Granlund), Coyle on top US line with Zucker, Larsson playing a major role with the Swedes. Really excited to see Larsson play. Sounds like he's the real deal...

[Bear55]

US rolls Denmark 11-3. Probably a short list of players who didnt' register a point. We play Finland tomorrow, it should be a good test. They got smoked 8-1 by Canada so they should have a little extra motivation for this game. Sounds like they have a very good offense but not much for D which is kind of odd for Finland as they usually play sound defense.

[cbrooks]

Here's what team USA had for there forward lines against Denmark

1st line-Charlie Coyle,Jason Zucker,&Brandon Saad

2nd line-Austin Czarnik,Kyle Rau & Nick Bjustad

3rd line-Bill Arnold, Emerson Etem & Josh Archibald

4th line-TJ Tynan,Austin Watson & Connor Brickley

JT Miller was the 13th forward. Wasn't he suppose to be a "the big deal" this year .I guess that OHL isn't paying off for him

[Bear55]

Miller is doing pretty good in the CHL, not tearing it up but he is over a point per game. He was a pretty big loss for the Sioux no matter how you slice it.

[scsavre]

The wild seem to have an awesome amount of talent in this tourny. How does it compare to other nhl teams. I have to believe others are represented quite well too. Anybody have any info around this.

[Bear55]

It is nice, I am not sure on other teams but we should be up there with the best of them. Bulmer and Phillips were also some of the last guys cut for Canada too. Lots of talent in the system. Here's to a USA win and a good showing for Grandlund.

[Bear55]

Well the Finns pulled off the upset 4-1. We outplayed them for long stretches of the game but just couldn't find the back of the net. Getting blown out by Canada might have been the best thing for Finland as they came ready to play tonight. Not sure what the deal was with the US today, I didn't see very much of the game but we just didn't look dangerous on offense and were making dumb mistakes in the D zone. Hopefully a wake up call for the boys, lots of tournament left.

[cbrooks]

Didn't catch any of the game. Wander why John Gibson got the nod to start over Jack Campbell ...Its a must win for us now. I think the US can certainly beat the Czechs. Czechs beat Denmark 7-0. I'm sure Blais will shake up lines again.

[Bear55]

Pre-tournament I think Gibson was playing better than Campbell so good to get him some experience. He didn't play amazing but was not the reason we lost.

The US kind of has a history of choking against bad teams, not a great habit to get into. We do alwasy play Canada hard so that is a positive, I also have faith in our coach to turn things around. The Czechs game is a must win.

[Bear55]

Must win for USA, here is a stream for the Czechs game.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=616&id=144594&navid=DL|NHL|home

[Bear55]

Not sure about us this year, currently 2-2 in the 2nd and we just don't seem to be playing well. The are moving their legs and creating scoring chances but something is missing, not sure what.

[Bran32]

They are terrible defensively!!! Sad to say but this is one of the worst Juniors teams i have seen in recent years!! Hopefully we can somehow beat Canada!!! And why in the He<< do companies here in Minnesota fly the Canadian flag???? That bugs the [PoorWordUsage] out of me especially when it is at the same height as ours in the air!!

[yakfisher]

As to why companies fly a Canadian flag maybe they have, or are, a subsidiary with ties to Canada. As to your height issue. It is would be an insult to fly the flag of another country that is either smaller or at a lower height that's just international flag etiquette.

[Bear55]

I think Bran nailed it, very weak on D and just not many high end finishers on offense. Team looked a lot better on paper than on the ice. We saved a little face by giving Canada a game the last two periods but there wasn't much on the line for either team at that point.

Just wasn't our year I guess, reload and get after a medal next year I guess.

[scsavre]

I dont get why we fly Canadian flags either, unless of course they are Canadian companies etc. Im actually a little sick of showing them any respect. I have many Canadian friends, I have lived with no less then a dozen Canadians. I dont think any of them have ever showed the USA any respect. Not sure why we tolerate it. Ive never understood why they come here or why they put so much effort into to booing us, etc.

Tough tourny, hopefully we can reload. Sounds like our best teams are going to be in 2 and 3 years. back to back golds....

[Bear55]

The good news is the future looks bright, more than ever we have the skill and depth to compete with the best in the world. Some years it might mean going for gold, other years we should just be happy to advance to the medal round but at least we are considered a serious contender, that was not alwasy the case.