2018 World Championship

[thecoffeecake]

The World Championship starts in a little under two weeks in Denmark, and it doesn't look like the United States has fleshed out its roster quite yet. Kane will captain the team and Blashill will coach. Shero is a part of the advisory board for putting the team together. Gaudreau, Eichel, Bjugstad, Anders Lee, Larkin, Keller, Hanifin were all there last year and available. 

Canada has released its first 18. McDavid will be there, along with guys like Barzal, Horvat, Pageau, RNH, Pageau, O'Reilly, Ekblad. I imagine Giroux will be going. 

I wonder what the Devils presence will look like. Taylor, Cory, Palms all didn't go last year. I wonder if Kinkaid gets a call. You know the Swiss will want Nico, and wouldn't be surprised if Zacha gets invited to play for the Czechs. Maybe there's a role for Blake Coleman, too. 

I love this tournament, and am especially interested in it now with there not having been legitimate best on best senior competition in over 4 years with no indication we'll see it any time soon. I really wish the IIHF would do this at a different time when all the NHLers would be available, but the NHL would find a way to sink their players' participation if it found any mainstream popularity doing that. 

[thecoffeecake]

If you're not paying attention to this tournament, you should be. The United States beat Canada 5-4 in a shootout today, Kinkaid started in net, stopped 40 of 44 and 5 of 6 in the shootout. Butcher, Gibbons and Coleman are all on the roster. Coleman saw time on a line with Kane and Johnny Hockey. Cam Atkinson pulled his best TJ Oshie/Troy Terry impression and embarrassed Kuemper twice in the shootout, and Dylan Larkin scored twice.

This year's tournament is gonna be a lot of fun. The US roster isn't as star-studded as Canada's, but the level of competition is lightyears ahead of where it was in the past. Only 2 college kids on the US roster, and one is Quinn Hughes. We're represented by 4 Devils and one Jersey native. There's no reason to not be watching!

Edited May 4, 2018 by thecoffeecake

[LittleBallofHate]

Devils Insiders Retweeted

[LittleBallofHate]

And a nice primary assist for Butcher

 

[thecoffeecake]

I'm surprised so few Danes went over to play being the hosts. It looks like only Freddy Andersen and Bjorkstrand went out of the 7 Danish NHLers. I think Ehlers is the only one in the playoffs.

Edit: Never mind, Boedker is in the playoffs, too. 3 guys decided not to go. 

Edited May 6, 2018 by thecoffeecake

[Daniel]

Check out Noessen’s comment.

[thecoffeecake]

Kinkaid just got a delay of game penalty for shaking his mask off.

[DevilMinder]

Kinkaid just got a delay of game penalty for shaking his mask off.

I was always afraid he would get one for us too.

[LittleBallofHate]

From an nhl.com writeup today, though the game was played yesterday: 

Switzerland was in action for a second consecutive day and posted their second victory of the tournament, defeating Slovakia 2-0. Leading the way for the Swiss was Devils' defenseman Mirco Mueller who had a two-point performance (1g-1a). Mueller assisted on the Swiss' opening goal and then scored their second goal of the game just 22 seconds into the middle frame. Mueller has three points (1g-2a) through two games at the World Championships. 

c/o Devils Insiders: 

 

 

[LittleBallofHate]

Kinkaid with another shutout - this time against Germany today - a 3-0 US win. 

[mfitz804]

1 hour ago, DevilMinder said:

I was always afraid he would get one for us too.
 

I AM always afraid he WILL get one for us, at the worst time. 

It definitely will happen eventually. 

[thecoffeecake]

2 hours ago, mfitz804 said:

I AM always afraid he WILL get one for us, at the worst time. 

It definitely will happen eventually. 

I don't think so. If a goaltender's mask comes undone, it becomes a danger, and they should do exactly that. A few games ago it happened to Rinne. He told the referee his mask was undone, they let play continue, and a goal was scored. The broadcasters were even saying he should've shaken it off. 

If the league wants to have a discussion about how often his mask is having problems, that's one thing, and if it keeps happening with Kinkaid more times in a month than it does to every other goaltender in the league over the entire season, maybe they can start to penalize him. But for him to get blown for it after a slapshot rings off the top of his head in the third game of the tournament, it's insane. You could see the strap snap off. 

[bobilly45]

19 hours ago, mfitz804 said:

I AM always afraid he WILL get one for us, at the worst time. 

It definitely will happen eventually. 

Prob have a better chance at the trapazoid being removed then seeing that.  As a goalie you can't play with any loose or broken strap as the helmet becomes loose and moves around, thus providing less protection and becomes a liability for the goalie. 

Now if you did that on a breakaway, having not faced a shot in a while you'd prob get a delay of game.

[SterioDesign]

So I got a good question...

is the World Championship a "legit tournament"?

I'm just asking BEFORE it ends cause usually, it seems to be depending on how team USA does... it's either a big deal if they win or it's a beer league tournament if they lose... lol

so is there any way to know prior to that? 

 

Edited May 10, 2018 by SterioDesign

[CommonDreads]

9 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

So I got a good question...

is the World Championship a "legit tournament"?

I'm just asking BEFORE it ends cause usually, it seems to be depending on how team USA does... it's either a big deal if they win or it's a beer league tournament if they lose... lol

so is there any way to know prior to that? 

 

I'm not a fan of it personally because the tournament is never going to be purely best-on-best (WJC is my personal favorite, for the record), but it doesn't mean it's void of good hockey. There's some entertaining games to get out of this tournament, the 1st game between Canada and USA was actually a great duel that went into a shootout.

My take is, it's entertaining and I don't blame people for liking the tournament, I just have a harder time tuning in for the majority of the games when it's not best-on-best. Also re: bolded, I hate this mentality between fanbases in international hockey, it's like people want to be insufferable either way: either their team wins and they gloat like insufferable pricks or their team loses and they try to devalue another country's achievement. Just take losses on the head and move on, I always hated people who do that, see it all the time with the World Junior tournament.

EDIT: Will also say this is a good year to follow the US team if you're a Devils fan, as we have Kinkaid, Coleman, Gibbons, and Butcher all on the team. Mueller is actually doing phenomenal for Switzerland too, and that guy Yegor Yakovlev that we're rumored to sign out of Russia has been good for Russia as well.

Edited May 10, 2018 by CommonDreads

[SterioDesign]

18 minutes ago, CommonDreads said:

I'm not a fan of it personally because the tournament is never going to be purely best-on-best (WJC is my personal favorite, for the record), but it doesn't mean it's void of good hockey. There's some entertaining games to get out of this tournament, the 1st game between Canada and USA was actually a great duel that went into a shootout.

My take is, it's entertaining and I don't blame people for liking the tournament, I just have a harder time tuning in for the majority of the games when it's not best-on-best. Also re: bolded, I hate this mentality between fanbases in international hockey, it's like people want to be insufferable either way: either their team wins and they gloat like insufferable pricks or their team loses and they try to devalue another country's achievement. Just take losses on the head and move on, I always hated people who do that, see it all the time with the World Junior tournament.

EDIT: Will also say this is a good year to follow the US team if you're a Devils fan, as we have Kinkaid, Coleman, Gibbons, and Butcher all on the team. Mueller is actually doing phenomenal for Switzerland too, and that guy Yegor Yakovlev that we're rumored to sign out of Russia has been good for Russia as well.

yeah personally i enjoy all those tournaments. Of course, there's always a "but" when you compare results of those tournaments as there's key players missing for those teams and it's absolutely fair.

But like you mentioned i just always love to point the hypocrisy from the fanbases lol 

And like you said i LOVE that our guys are playing and getting to know other players. As we know having friends around the league and good connection can actually help to attract players when free agency season comes

And also we all want to see "the best playing the best" but then if you just do a world tournament, then you're not getting that. Cause you'll play some countries like Latvia who has no NHL quality players... while other countries could have a B team that could beat most teams in the tournament.

Edited May 10, 2018 by SterioDesign

[Chuck the Duck]

9 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

So I got a good question...

is the World Championship a "legit tournament"?

I'm just asking BEFORE it ends cause usually, it seems to be depending on how team USA does... it's either a big deal if they win or it's a beer league tournament if they lose... lol

so is there any way to know prior to that? 

 

It's competitive hockey, but I don't take it seriously and don't go out of my way to watch any of the games or highlights.  It doesn't seem like a big deal to USA Hockey either, as they often ice younger teams stocked with no name players.  

[MadDog2020]

I AM always afraid he WILL get one for us, at the worst time. 
It definitely will happen eventually. 

Some of you guys really just like to invent sh!t to worry about, don’t you?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LittleBallofHate]

US won in OT - video highlights: 

 

[thecoffeecake]

14 hours ago, Chuck the Duck said:

It's competitive hockey, but I don't take it seriously and don't go out of my way to watch any of the games or highlights.  It doesn't seem like a big deal to USA Hockey either, as they often ice younger teams stocked with no name players.  

Have you looked at the roster, or are you just talking out of your ass?

[CommonDreads]

6 hours ago, thecoffeecake said:

Have you looked at the roster, or are you just talking out of your ass?

It's a fact that these rosters are often younger and have more role players than an authentic best-on-best squad, it just is. This year they have Patty Kane and Johnny Gaudreau which are two of the more authentic stars they've had in recent years, but don't be fooled into thinking this is one of the best squads USA can ice (which also isn't their fault, I'm sure they asked a lot of guys but they declined in favor of rest). They realistically have 3, maybe 4 players that would make a best-on-best USA squad, doesn't mean USA hockey doesn't care about this tournament though, they do the best they can with the pool of players that are both available and interested.

[Chuck the Duck]

7 hours ago, thecoffeecake said:

Have you looked at the roster, or are you just talking out of your ass?

Have you ever watched or followed this tournament before this year, or are you just clueless?  Look at the USA rosters from past years.  They are littered with young players and no name vets.  The 3 representatives from the Devils who are playing prominent roles this year are a perfect examples (Butcher, Kinkaid, and Gibbons).   Gibbons is barely a NHL level player and Kinkaid is a career backup.  Most fans outside of NJ don't have a clue who these 2 guys are, and that's for good reason as they both aren't high level hockey players.  I think the US has at least 1 draft eligible player on their roster this year as well.  It's hard for me to take this tournament seriously under those circumstances. 

CommonDreads is right, I'm sure USA Hockey would have wanted bigger name stars on its roster, but were turned down by certain players who just finished coming off a long season.  The timing of this tournament is a tough draw for the big name NHL guys.  

[thecoffeecake]

2 hours ago, Chuck the Duck said:

Have you ever watched or followed this tournament before this year, or are you just clueless?  Look at the USA rosters from past years.  They are littered with young players and no name vets.  The 3 representatives from the Devils who are playing prominent roles this year are a perfect examples (Butcher, Kinkaid, and Gibbons).   Gibbons is barely a NHL level player and Kinkaid is a career backup.  Most fans outside of NJ don't have a clue who these 2 guys are, and that's for good reason as they both aren't high level hockey players.  I think the US has at least 1 draft eligible player on their roster this year as well.  It's hard for me to take this tournament seriously under those circumstances. 

CommonDreads is right, I'm sure USA Hockey would have wanted bigger name stars on its roster, but were turned down by certain players who just finished coming off a long season.  The timing of this tournament is a tough draw for the big name NHL guys.  

Kinkaid was one of the hottest American goalies down the stretch. Butcher was a top rookie defenseman who QB'd the power play on a good team. Like I said earlier in this thread, the rosters have been looking significantly stronger in recent years for this tournament. I don't know what's difficult to understand about that. 

Kane, Gaudreau, Larkin, Kreider, Atkinson, Anders Lee, DeBrincat are all either stars or legit top 6 NHLers, so your quip about being "stocked with no name players" is entirely inaccurate. That one draft eligible player you're talking about is Quinn Hughes who has the potential to be a star NHL defenseman. 

You clearly have no idea what this tournament looks like in 2018. 

I agree with common dreads that it sucks that the tournament isn't best on best, but for now it's all we got. I'll take this over the world cup any day, which is an absolute joke. I would like to see the IIHF push this into July and make it biennial, but if it started drawing top talent, the NHL would find a way to end its involvement. 

The Danish fans were great today. Their anthem after their game was as loud as any O Canada I've heard in an NHL building. 

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

Great Britain qualified for next year's top ranking tournament. Very much looking forward to it. 

[LittleBallofHate]

US won 13-1 against Korea. Coleman scored... and pretty much everyone else!  Coleman interview, c/o Devils Insiders: