2012 IIHF World Junior Championships

wprager wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Diddle yeah, Z-Bad again!

Huh? He scored the 3rd goal. It's 3-1 after 1.

My mistake, but it happened anyway.

The Russians scare me. Kuznetsov is a beast, Grigorenko is so calm and slick, and Yakupov is incredibly explosive. Plenty of other talents up front too. Forward is definitely their strength, though. And I don't know if they have the same leadership and resiliency sans Tarasenko.

I love the way Zibby's shooting the puck but for Sweden against the top teams I think he's gotta do more in terms of carrying the puck and beating players. He's got Hossa-esque ability but it's a mental thing for him.

Jonas Brodin looks awesome, though. Looks like another OEL.

Diddle Spezza gotta need to play with Stone. That one timer is a thing of beauty. Damn it's fast.
Huberdeau is something else. If anyone wants Couturier over this guy i'd laugh.

Several attributes of Z-Bad's game appear strikingly similar to Hossa's. Dare to dream...

Red flag to Sens management for picking Culek 3 rounds earlier than Stone

My Swiss did a very good job IMO against the Russians who were kind of underwhelming tonight. Their goalie looks quite good though.

One noticeable thing about Yakupov is that he plays the game at an extremely high tempo. Kind of like Karlsson. Whereas Grigorenko is more like a Rundblad slowing the play down (though he can also play at high speed). But it's hard to imagine the damage Karlsson and Yakupov could do together on a powerplay. The PKers would just have no time to react.

LeKid wrote:Red flag to Sens management for picking Culek 3 rounds earlier than Stone

Well, hold on, let's see how Culek does tomorrow.

SpezDispenser wrote:Several attributes of Z-Bad's game appear strikingly similar to Hossa's. Dare to dream...

Here's what I just posted on HF:

I'm interested in hearing more thoughts on Zibby but don't want to bump that old MZ thread. For example MoO, you've been critical of Paajarvi for his lack of hockey sense and I wonder what your assessment of Zibanejad's is. PRV and MZ both have pretty exceptional size/explosiveness although Magnus doesn't have Mika's shot or penchant for physical play.

My criticism in terms of what I've seen so far - which really is only large portions of the Sweden-Latvia game and the Sweden-Canada pre-tourney game - is that Zibanejad has a body like Hossa's but is almost playing like he has Heatley's limitations. Now that's an overstatement and obviously I'm thrilled that his shot is such a weapon, but if defencemen aren't worried about getting burned by him they're going to play him much more closely.

We've seen in practice and in in-game flashes that he owns a pair of pretty good hands, and he has explosive power in his skating. I wish he'd attack the defence more and try some more individualistic plays. It's not like there's a big risk when they're up by 6 goals on Latvia or that it'd be disobeying coaching orders - I mean, Friberg is dancing around out there and guys like Rackell and Karlsson are pulling t-drags etc. and aren't getting yanked off the ice.

You can't fault his production or how responsible he's been on the ice or his physicality, but to be a star in the NHL for the most part you have to make things happen yourself sometimes (exception: Heatley, but he was a level of pure finish that Zibby isn't). This is a guy whose contribution to the game doesn't have to be a just couple of highlights. He could absolutely own the puck in the offensive zone if he wanted to. There just seems to be some sort of mental hurdle/obstacle in front of that. Do you think it's hockey sense or just youthful timidity?

I will admit though that watching Hossa on the 'Hawks before this year and on the Wings I would sometimes see him sort of floating around/playing a similar style to Zibby and then when he really needed to step up he would just sort of turn it on. And I suppose Sweden hasn't really needed that from Zibanejad yet.

Very interesting take Asq. That was one thing that really stood out in pre-season and into the regular season for me. He seemed really reluctant to handle the puck in any zone, but particularly the offensive zone, as if he thought he'd be stripped of the puck and was afraid to take any chances. That led to a lot of dump ins and rims around the boards and the occasional weak shot on net instead of any kind of sustained pressure.

SpezDispenser wrote:Very interesting take Asq. That was one thing that really stood out in pre-season and into the regular season for me. He seemed really reluctant to handle the puck in any zone, but particularly the offensive zone, as if he thought he'd be stripped of the puck and was afraid to take any chances. That led to a lot of dump ins and rims around the boards and the occasional weak shot on net instead of any kind of sustained pressure.

Oh I agree. That's why I felt left wanting more in the pre-season despite his excellent production. But it wasn't an issue IIRC in the rookie tourney where he was just awesome. Or maybe it was that I didn't notice it. But I thought he was doing much more in the offensive zone then.

The thing is, I don't see why that can't be fixed, but I also don't fully understand why it's an issue now. Hopefully it's (as I kinda suspect) just a result of him being a young kid and defering to his team-mates. But on this team he's kind of middle of the pack age-wise. And certainly he asks for the puck, he just doesn't keep it very long. I just hope it's not an issue with his hockey intelligence because it'd be a shame for those tools to go to waste.

Still, always nice to see that shot at work. Guys like Foligno probably stay awake at night wishing they were a threat like that at long-range.

Playing in the SEL, Zib was likely used to deferring to his teammates and getting rid of the puck quickly. Might take time to break that habit.

tim1_2 wrote:Playing in the SEL, Zib was likely used to deferring to his teammates and getting rid of the puck quickly. Might take time to break that habit.

Why would you say that?

I mean the thing is, he knows how to get to space on the ice in the offensive zone to make himself open for a shot, and he's often a clever and astute passer, so in that regard there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with his hockey sense.

It's those other needless passes where I guess we have to find out whether it's a hockey sense issue or just an issue of him being young and defering too much. I hope - and kind of suspect - it's the second. How to help him get over that, though?

I'd just love to punch MoO right in the jugular.

Big Ev wrote:I'd just love to punch MoO right in the jugular.

Who?

wprager wrote:

Big Ev wrote:I'd just love to punch MoO right in the jugular.

Who?

Minister of Offence from HF. He's Evan's favourite.

He's a good poster not sure why the hate

LeKid wrote:He's a good poster not sure why the hate

Not a fan of the way he posts

Big Ev wrote:

LeKid wrote:He's a good poster not sure why the hate

Not a fan of the way he posts

What, he uses a font that's too flashy?

Love Mark Stone's tweet about yesterday (his *only* tweet):

Thanks for all the tweets from everyone yesterday.. Move on.. Game two tomorrow.