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Slovakia tried as hard as they could to keep pace with Team Canada. In the end, they realized in the first period that they were in over their heads.
St. Louis Blues prospect Robby Fabbri scored 2 goals and added 2 assists. Nick Petan scored an goal and added two assists. Samson Reinhart chipped in 2 assists. Brayden Point scored a goal and added an assist.
It was all Canada from the opening faceoff to the final horn.
Fabbri scored two first-period goals and added two assists in the second period. Petan had a goal and two assists, while Anthony Duclair, Max Domi, Brayden Point, and Jake Virtanen each tallied a goal and an assist. Nick Paul chipped in a single, while Samson Reinhart earned a pair of helpers.
11 different Canadians hit the scoresheet.
The good news is that Connor McDavod didn't have a point in an 8-0 win over the Slovaks.
The bad news is that Connor McDavod didn't have a point in an 8-0 win over the Slovaks.
It was total domination by the Canadians. At one point I tweeted as to whether or not the Slovaks are tanking for McDavid. It sure looked that way.
Zach Fucale’s earned his first career WJC shutout. Shots on goal were 34-12 for Canada.
The brilliant @PeteBlackburn has summed up Canada's 8-0 win with this awesome video.
Connor McDavid was held scoreless in the 8-0 rout of the Slovaks.
Canada will play Germany on Saturday night.
Fucale will not start the game against Germany. Comrie will.
I would ride Fucale to the very end .
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Samson Reinhart collected his second assist of the game with a pretty headman feed to Max Domi, who unlike his father, gained the line, toe dragged, and ripped a rocket blocker high for the 6-0 Canada lead.
Thanks, @PeteBlackburn
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Team Canada's first goal of the 2015 World Junior Hockey Championships had a distinct Buffalo connection to it.
Anthony Duclair (NY Rangers) played on the same line as Sabres prospect Mikhail Grigorenko while with the Quebec Remparts a couple of years ago,
The Buffalo Sabres selected Samson Reinhart second overall in the 2014 NHL Draft. Look at this saucy pass to Fabbri for the goal!
Thanks @PeteBlackburn
Then, Duclair strikes via a surgical scalpel swipe by Max Domi. Damn!
Fabbri lit the lamp again moments later with their beautiful back door goal
Slovakia better move their feet or they will lose this game 20-0
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It was a frantic third period between the Americans and the JC champion Finns,whose structure and discipline frustrated USA for large chunks of clock time in the first 65 minutes of play.
Penalties galore sent both teams to their respective power plays. The Finns crushed a crossbar late on the PP in regulation. Still no goals.
Therefore, OT ensued where Demko and Husso battled each other to a draw to force OT.
The the dying moments of OT in a 1-1 tie, USA D Will Butcher took this bullet to the back when he blocked this shot to for OT
Jack Eichel scored a sweet goal to start the shootout.
Kasperi Kapanen was folied by Demko.
Then, Califoirnia kid Chase DeLeo ended it on this beauty.
Eichel added the assist on Tuch's regulation goal and also scored a shootout goal.
The U.S. has now won five out of the last six meetings between these two nations. Finland won 4-1 the last time they faced off at the World Juniors on December 28, 2011. Overall, Finland leads the U20 series with 16 wins, one tie, 11 regulation losses, and three losses in extra time.
Finland faces Slovakia next on Saturday, while the Americans take on Germany on Sunday.
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So, Team USA began the WJCs with an unfortunate bad break. Just 90 seconds into its game with defending champions Finland, Team USA gave up a fast goal against.
Moments later, USA went on the power play and captain Jack Eichel create a huge hockey buzz heard round the puck world when he passed the puck to himself then found his teammate Tuch in open in the slot for the PPG.
Just. Wow!
Thanks, @PeteBlackburn
The Tuch PPG tied the game 1-1 after one period of play in the first game for both teams at the WJCs.
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The New Jersey Devils have fired head coach Peter DeBoer.
The Devils have been plagued by inconsistent play, the mumps (Larsson, Zajac, Elias) and old age en route to their 12-17-7 record. They have only one win in their last eight games. Lamoriello's offensive wagon is being pulled these days by forty something golden agers Jaromir Jagr, Patrik Elias, and Scott Gomez.
It was time for DeBoer to go.
Devils GM Lou Lamoriello is at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Montreal today and won't name a successor to DeBoer until tomorrow.
Its fitting that Lamoriello took DeBoer behind the woodshed on the first day of the World Junior Hockey Championships. Before the firing it appeared certain that Lamoriello was content to watch his team plummet to the NHL abyss so that he could get an inside track on the top one or two picks in the NHL Draft in June.
Now, there will be one less contestants in the McEichel sweepstakes. Lamoriello is now focused on climbing the NHL standings, not diving to the ocean floor to improve the chances of selecting Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel with the first or second overall pick in the NHL Draft in June.
Lets assume that Lamoriello and his new head coach will be urging their team to win more games and to fix their inconsistencies in order to earn an Eastern Conference playoff berth this season. Lamoriello is a proud man and doesn't strike me as a man who is willing to sit idle while his team crashes and burns.
Here are the NHL standings as of the time of DeBoer's ouster from the swamps of Joisey:
New Jersey- 31 points
Buffalo- 29 points
Arizona- 28 points
Carolina- 24 points
Edmonton- 21 points
Source: TSN
***
Bright lights. Big cities.
Samson Reinhart was born and bred to play high stakes hockey. The stakes don’t get any higher than having to snap Canada’s five year gold medal drought at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships while playing on home soil in Montreal and Toronto.
Reinhart has been here before. Don’t let his 19 years of age mislead you. In his hockey lifetime, he has skated and battled for Canada at all of the top tourneys (U16, U17, U18, and U20s). Now, he and his teammates get the opportunity to buck the trend of mediocrity that has befallen Team Canada in recent years. Reinhart played on the squad that finished fourth overall in Malmo, Sweden at the 2014 WJCs.
Since that disappointing outcome in Malmo, Reinhart was drafted second overall by that Buffalo Sabres in the NHL Draft. He was the top forward selected in the 2014 NHL Draft because Tim Murray and the Buffalo Sabres did their homework on him and they grew infatuated with his suite of supreme hockey skills, and more importantly, for his wisdom and maturity that is uncanny for a 19 year old kid. You will often hear people describe Reinhart as being mature beyond his years. He and his brothers Griffin and Max have earned the psychology of the game from his father Paul, a former long term NHLer.
After signing his entry level NHL contract, Samson spent the summer in Buffalo, working out and bonding with his Sabres teammates. He participated in Buffalo’s rookie and prospects development camp where he showed glimpses of why he was selected second overall. In September, he showed well for the Sabres at the Traverse City Prospects Tourney here he competed against some of the best players his age that are on their way up to the NHL. Then, in October, Samson fared well in his nine game NHL tryout with the Sabres. He only registered one assist in his nine game NHL audition so the Sabres sent him back to Kootenay. What point was there in keeping Reinhart in Buffalo where the Sabres were mired in a nasty losing skid in October and November?
An emotional Tim Murray told the Buffalo media that he felt that Reinhart would be better served in his long term development if he were to skate back to Kootenay where the scoring and playmaking would come more naturally to him. Murray and Sabres head coach Ted Nolan instructed Reinhart to hit the gym both early and often. The Sabres brass want Reinhart to add muscle and strength to his frame so that he’s more difficult for NHL centers to play against. The only knock on Reinhart was that he was easily knocked off pucks and was not so difficult to play against. The then 18 year old was too young to be sent to Buffalo’s AHL development team in Rochester. Therefore, Kootenay was the only other place for the kid to play other than in the NHL. He took the demotion like a pro. He has adjusted to the junior experience wonderfully. He scored 36 goals and added 69 assists for The Ice last season. In his 15 games played in junior since his demotion, Samson has scored 8 goals and added 19 assists.
When the NHL door closed, the World Junior Hockey Championships door opened. Team Canada benefitted greatly from Tim Murray’s decision to send Reinhart back to Kootenay. Now, Reinhart and Connor McDavid form a formidable 1-2 punch down the middle of Team Canada’s roster. Reinhart and McDavid might be teammates again in Buffalo next season. You never know. For now, they will do their dead-level best to assist captain Curtis Lazar to pull Canada up by its skate laces and to lead them to the WJC gold medal ceremony.
Redemption is the operative word. Redemption for Reinhart. Redemption for Canada.
Samson wants to win gold. He also wants to prove to the hockey world and his Sabres organization that he has taken his game to the next level.
“I think sometimes when you don’t have success, you learn a lot more than when you do have success,” Reinhart told IIHF earlier this week. “So, we’re trying to have a different approach this year and focusing on every practice leading up to the tournament.”
Reinhart will be bringing the heat and the same urgency that he brought to Kootenay from the NHL.
“I think the tough part mentally is to convince yourself to keep playing at that higher level of intensity,” Reinhart explained. “I realized when I came back to junior, that when I did play with that same intensity, I had success. The biggest thing is to motivate yourself and force yourself to use that intensity and to maintain it. That being said, I am taking what I learned at the professional level, the intensity you need to play at that level, and making the most of it here. My focus right now is solely on the team here, nothing else.”
Reinhart and his teammates know full well that 31 million Canadians will be riveted to the WJCs beginning this afternoon when Slovakia will be the first opponent on the dance card.
“We’re viewing this as home-ice advantage every time we step on the ice,” he admits. “Everyone on the team is excited to be playing at home. We know what comes with that, the pressure and the support. We’ve all been on the fan side growing up when Canada won so many times in a row, so we’re all familiar with the frenzy that surrounds the tournament. We’re prepared, and we’re comfortable, and we’re going to take it as a positive, for sure.”
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