NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE WORLD JUNIORS, SJHL

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds

What a kick in the junk. You all watched it so I’ll save you the box score of the 2-0 American victory.

So, what went wrong?

How did a World Juniors Team Canada, that had outscored the opposition 41-5 heading into the Gold Medal Game, lose to an American squad missing two of its projected Top 6 (Thomas Bordeleau, and John Beecher, both to Covid protocols), and that did not even deserve to beat the Finns in the semis.

Sure, the Canadians weren’t really tested from Game 1 vs. Germany, all the way to the semis vs Russia. Sure, they missed the rocking crowd that undoubtedly would’ve greeted them in Edmonton that Tuesday night.

But those are just excuses, and excuses don’t count for a thing: they are just things that the losing team say.

So, what happened?

It’s pretty simple to me. Our super-skilled group of TEENS came out nervous, were tentative, and were second to far too many pucks, especially in the first half of the game. They got into a 2-0 hole by the 34-second mark of the second period, against a battle and adversity-hardened U.S.A. team, one that got magnificent goaltending from Spencer Knight. Canada quickly started gripping its collective sticks very tight.

They did plenty of good things. Quintin Byfield missed two open nets. Bowen Byram hit the post. Jordan Schneider had Knight at his mercy, and just missed after a great save. Connor McMichael had a breakaway. Connor Zary was alone in front. Our guys had chances, and the game could’ve looked very different, there is no doubt about it.

Certainly, they tried to be too cute, but when you score 41 goals in six games it’s probably human nature, especially by teenagers, to start getting cute. The goals they gave up weren’t Devon Levi’s fault: an Alex Turcotte deflection in front, and a funny bounce off the backboards right to Trevor Zegras.

Inches. Bounces. Puckluck. Inches.

The Americans deserve a lot of credit, but our guys fought hard and were the better team in the second half of the game.

So, just inches.

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AROUND THE SJHL

1. Princeton bound!: I have to start with a shout out to Kevin Anderson of the Notre Dame Hounds Junior A, a great kid who committed on New Year’s Eve to Princeton University (NCAA, Division I). People looked at me sideways when I said he’d be committed before the end of 2020, and I don’t often like to say ‘I told you so’, but I told you so. He’s as quick as anyone in the league, mature beyond his young years (he’s a 2003 birth year), has fantastic vision, and is extremely hungry to get better. It should go without saying for a kid committed to an Ivy League school, but he also really takes care of business in the classroom, carrying around a 95 average or so throughout his time as an ND high schooler…so that isn’t bad. So proud of this guy, who I’ve been watching closely since his first year of midget in 2017-18! Looked great back then too, and the Winnipeg Ice of the Western Hockey League were very serious about him until he made it clear he was serious about college. Excited to watch him continue to develop as a player, and a person.
2. Hope: So, let’s have a conversation about hope. More specifically, is there any hope that there will be any more Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League games, or even any games at all in Canada, before September 2021. Yesterday the Saskatchewan Hockey Association tweeted that there was no truth to the rumour that a nationwide shutdown from Hockey Canada is imminent, and that they’re still working to get kids back on the ice soon. So, that’s positive I guess. To what degree? Who knows. I do see progress in Covid numbers around our province with the exception of a short-term expected bump from Christmas/New Year’s stupidity, but it all goes back again to whether Dr. Shahab is happy enough. That being said, the number that would make Shahab happy enough to give us our really safe sport back is completely a mystery. All that to say, I chose to have hope for a resumption of the season until something official comes out otherwise. Fatalism and resignation is rampant, and I’ve felt that myself a lot too, but choosing hope is a far more energizing, constructive way to live one’s life. I certainly struggle to be a positive person at times, as I’m sure many of you do, but I encourage you to use this situation as a chance to practice that. It is easy to assume that these politicians don’t care about the young people at all levels of hockey, who are trying to figure out their lives given this situation, so I understand the ‘give-up’ feeling from many, but let’s keeping hoping together!
3. Advice from Rod: Have had a bunch of conversations with Rod Pedersen during this time, and many of his thoughts have stood out to me. One such thought is simply this: if your finances are okay, if you can eat, if you’re safe, then it’s important that you work on keeping perspective, and grow up just a little bit. I have to admit that I, like many, derive a strong amount of my identity from the game, and that it has been taken from me is hard; but we are all way, way more than hockey. You out there reading: you are not alone, you are loved, you are valuable, and that has nothing to do with hockey. If the worst happens, if Hockey Canada or the Sask Hockey Association, or Dr. Shahab cancel the season entirely, we will all be okay! If any of you reading this want someone to talk to about this stuff, I’d love to chat! Rod is a wise human being.
4. Team Canada SJ: Rory McGouran and I resumed our SJ at Noon show this past Monday and it was a blast once again. We put together our World Junior teams if we had to pick from only eligible SJHLers (no Major Junior loaners allowed), and I would love to hear your thoughts on which one of us has a better team. You can’t really blame us that there are some similarities on the squads, but I think there are enough differences for you to cast a vote! For the record, my squad did win the poll during the show asking that same question by about 60% to 40%. Here is a tweet with graphics of the two teams: https://twitter.com/Neugsie/status/1346175638177259526
5. Brilliant Ponomaryov?: I, being an international hockey nerd and also a hockey-starved person, tried to watch as many minutes of the World Juniors tournament as I could, and I wanted to mention a play made during the Russia-Germany quarterfinal. Here are the highlights and follow along starting at 39 seconds of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhmxk2cEmiQ&ab_channel=TaiwanHockey. The Russians are on the PK, Zakhar Bardakov calmly holds the puck along the half wall in the D-zone with a couple Germans around him, while Carolina Hurricanes second rounder Vasili Ponomaryov takes off down the ice. Semyon Chistyakov gets the puck from Bardakov crisply, then wires it to a wide open Ponomaryov around the German blue line, and it’s 1-0 Russia. Obviously, it worked out, but how about a kid jumping down the ice in a 0-0 elimination game on the PK like that. One bauble, and the Germans all of a sudden are gifted a 5-on-3 with the aforementioned Ponomaryov nowhere to be found. I guess that’s how the conservatives would look at it, but if it’s not MY team doing stuff like that, it’s kind of fun to watch a gamble like that! I was instantly conflicted about that attitude though, so I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is this ‘cheating’ or ‘intelligent offensive creation’? Don’t let the result cloud your judgement.
6. Russia’s style: Speaking of the Russians, I thought their style of play was pretty interesting. Coach Igor Larionov clearly wants to bring back the Soviet way, the soccer-esque focus on puck possession on 200-feet of the ice, even if it means losing the zone and going back to your own end to do so. I’m not saying it’s bad, I just think it’s a move made by a guy with no pressure for immediate results, with a Russian squad that was considerably younger than most that they sent under the old regime. You saw three Canadians stand them up at the defensive blueline every time, and when the Russians saw that while trying to enter Canada’s zone, they had no idea what to do, because they were basically forbidden to dump and chase. Was interesting. All you people yelling and screaming to give up on Nashville first rounder Yaroslav Askarov are nuts…He’s 6-foot-4, and mega-talented, and only turned 18 this summer. People always over-value performances at the World Juniors, positively or negatively, and I can tell you the Preds aren’t going to give up on him because of these two poor tournament showings. I got nervous when I was 18 a lot too, how about you?
7. My favourite player on Team Canada was…: Peyton Krebs. The Winnipeg Ice man and Vegas Golden Knights first rounder played his heart out every shift, impacted the game almost every shift, and I just thought to myself that his level of work ethic was just a treat to watch. I messaged ND Coach Brett Pilkington, who knows the family well from back in Alberta, and he said brothers Dakota (U Calgary) and Dru (Medicine Hat Tigers) pretty much work that hard as well. Bet that family had a lot of work to keep the fridge stocked!
8. Eastward exodus: In news to the east, many General Managers in Ontario Junior A are clearly giving up on the season, and there have been tons of kids from the Ontario Junior Hockey League (Toronto and area) and the Central Canadian Hockey League (Ottawa and area) already dealt to the one league that has promised some level of certainty, the Maritime Hockey League. It would be crazy if there was only one Junior A league out of Canada’s 10 running the rest of the year, presumably as kids would make a mad dash to get out there at an even higher rate than they already are. I do wonder if Hockey Canada would rather shut down everyone than have that situation.
9. A smaller SJ?: One possibility for the SJHL I heard from a reliable source was that if our league’s Board of Governors vote to have no fans in rinks but play games, the teams that vote against might opt out (like the U.S.-based Wenatchee Wild in the BCHL) leaving us with a smaller league for the rest of the year. I hadn’t considered that before, and you’d think from a league perspective SOME hockey is better than no hockey…but I kind of find it hard to believe at least as far as the 11 Saskatchewan-based organizations are concerned (sorry Flin Flon Bombers fans, I still have no idea how your club could fit into any of this).
10. Happy New Year!: Finally, Happy New Year! I encourage you to make a list of the many positive things that happened in 2020, instead of just making another tweet about how it stunk. The best thing that happened for me was that my baby girl keeps growing steadily and healthily, and is absolutely hilarious. When I ask her what her favourite anything is, be it colour, sport, food, etc, the answer is always “HOCKEYYYYYYY!!!”. My wife and I are raising her right 😉

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)