I got the chance to watch USA play Canada on New Year's Eve, and it turned out to be a great game.
The game was essentially a 2-2 tie, with Canada scoring an empty-netter. The US was supposed to be the favorite coming into the tournament, and I was interested to see how they'd handle that role. Canada was probably a little deeper than the US, but just the fact that the US could play Canada so evenly says a lot about how far US hockey has come.
That said, this year might be the US's best chance for a while to get past Canada. While Canada has some exciting players coming up through the ranks that could be superstars like Angelo Esposito and John Tavares, the US doesn't really have any superstar-caliber prospects for the foreseeable future. The USA U18 and U17 teams are solid, but don't have anybody that is going to be a top draft pick.
The one piece of good news for the US is the way that they've handled their goaltending situation. Cory Schneider played pretty well against Canada while Jeff Frazee is apprenticing under him.. Next year, Jeff Frazee should take over while either Billy Sauer or Joe Palmer is the back-up, and then they can take over the following year.
The Ducks GM Brian Burke supposedly said that if he had the first pick in the draft, he'd take Jonathan Toews or Erik Johnson over Phil Kessel. I personally think Kessel has stood out a little more this year than Toews so far this season. I was very impressed with Erik Johnson and think he'd be a good pick. One of the knocks on Kessel is that he doesn't get his teammates involved enough. Gopher fans like to point to his high assist totals, but where are those assists coming from? Kessel is leading the World Juniors in assists, but most of them came in a blowout win over Norway. Kessel's college stats look a little more pedestrian if you take out the cheap points he racked up in a 7-0 blowout over Anchorage as well. He's a great player that is fun to watch, but he's going to have to put up those types of performances in big games later in the season to really quiet the critics.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
You can dismiss Kessel's assists if you wish but I would point out that Toews played Norway as well. In fact, if you are so willing to dismiss stats against Norway, guess how many points Toews would have if you threw that game out? He would have zero points since his only two assists came against that team. Does that mean Toews doesn't get his teammates involved too? Or is this just a one sided criticism against Kessel?
Wow. A+ for reading comprehension.
In the *ONLY* sentence where I ever compare Kessel to Toews, I say I think Kessel has been better than Toews.
I simply said Kessel has racked up a lot of points against weaker competition and for him to live up to his hype, he's going to have start having big performances in big games.
Fair enough. It wasn't easy to see if you were trying to endorse Burke's remarks when you talked about Kessel's production. It seemed to me you were trying to validate the remarks by talking down his WJC stats.
As for big game performance, don't you feel it is also imperative that his teammates step it up so he doesn't have all the oppnoent's attention? It seems to me watching the USA games that Kessel is one of the few guys that is consistently a threat out there even though the other teams are constantly keying on him. His teammates need to make the other team pay.
I would also mention Kessel was the major reason why the USA team won gold last year in the World under-18 championship. Doubling the production of the next best player, being voted player of the tourney and leading his team to the gold medal. Is that not stepping up in a big time situation? It seems to me you may be judging him on half his freshman year and one WJC game vs. Canada as if it is a pattern of big game failure when his background does show success in big time games.
Since he has a goal and an assist after one period of the quarterfinal game tonight, I would hope this qualifies as stepping up in an important game.
I've seen both Kessel and Toews.
From what I have seen, Toews is a better all-around player, but Kessel's "upside", as much as I hate that word, is unbelieveable. If I had the first pick in the draft, I'd have a hard time passing Kessel up.
Personally, I thought TJ Oshie was the best freshman between UM and UND when the two played in Duluth in back-to-back weekends.
JM$.02.
I've seen Kessel a few times, his skill level is outstanding, but it doesn't seem to me as if he has much "hockey sense". He's basically a north-south skater who tries the same move every time on defensemen (the puck between the feet to himself). I'm he eats lesser players alive but the Canadian defensemen had him figured out. I agree that he needs to learn how to use his teammates more, I have a hunch a lot of his assists come off of shots that the goaltender saves and someone else cleans up the rebound on, rather than great playmaking vision.
Post a Comment