If you're planning to head downtown to take in the Pride Parade on Sunday, make sure you keep an eye out for Erik Gudbranson, Troy Stecher, Fin and the rest of the Canucks contingent.
The Canucks organization has continued to expand its presence in the parade since Manny Malhotra first marched with a local hockey team back in 2012. This year, expect to see about 30 people representing the Canucks in the parade.
"Everyone is very open-minded in the hockey community and it's good to be out there showing that and supporting that," Gudbranson told Kevin Woodley of NHL.com.
The parade gets started on Sunday at noon. There's also a live stream available on YouTube
at this link.
Now, back to the on-ice action.
The World Junior Summer Showcase wraps up today—with a couple of important programming notes to mention. Game 1 between Sweden and Finland will run live at 1 p.m. PT, but is only on TSN3 and TSN5 today.
The last game of the tournament, between Canada and the U.S., takes place at 4 p.m. PT but if you want to follow the game live, you'll need to do so on Twitter. TSN has other programming obligations, so the game won't air until 8 p.m. tonight, on TSN3 and TSN4. It will also re-run on Monday evening at 5 p.m. on TSN2.
Canucks goaltending prospect Michael DiPietro had a solid outing on Friday in Canada's 7-4 win over Sweden. He stopped 14 of 16 shots in 31:47 of ice time during the first half of the game, showing good positioning and tracking the puck well.
DiPietro didn't have much chance on Sweden's two goals. The first came through a multiple-player screen:
The second was a beautiful Lias Anderson tip on the power play:
Jonah Gadjovich didn't dress for Canada on Friday. Kole Lind was quiet—minus-1 with no shots on goal. He was a late addition to this camp roster and hasn't done much to make an impression this week. Of the Canucks' three Canadian players, I'd say he has the smallest chance of making the World Junior team at this point—though that could change based on what he does when he gets back to Kelowna for his third full WHL season this fall.
On the Swedish side, Elias Pettersson was moved to the third-line centre spot on Friday after playing his earlier games at left wing and right wing. He was noticeable—and recorded three more shots on goal—but once again he failed to pick up a point.
I did see Pettersson get knocked off the puck a couple of times by bigger Canadian players, but he was quick to bounce back up when he was flattened after positioning himself in front of the net. His defensive awareness also looked impressive, when he hustled back to break up a Canadian rush while playing the point on the power play and at other moments of five-on-five play. His hockey smarts were on full display.
I was interested to hear Craig Button mention that Pettersson has put on 10 pounds since last Christmas to get to his current weight of 165 pounds.
It's true—well, just about. He's listed at 157
here, on the IIHF's World Junior roster from the 2017 tournament.
He's on the right track. It'll be fascinating to see how much more Pettersson is able to bulk up over the next year.
Pettersson's best moment on Friday may have come courtesy of a conversation shared by play-by-play announcer Gord Miller:
I wonder what position he'll play against Finland today. Defense, maybe?
The other comment that jumped out at me during the broadcast was Craig Button's emphatic insistence that teenagers should not play in the AHL.
Earlier this week, I was pondering where Jonathan Dahlen would land this year. I was leaning in favour of Utica, where the Canucks could keep a close eye on him and recall him if he does well and/or when the seemingly inevitable injuries start to pile up.
That's the way Jim Benning was thinking after the draft, too.
Dahlen doesn't turn 20 until December but is AHL-eligible because he was drafted out of Sweden. I imagine he's one of those players that Button believes should stay in Europe for one more year—with the glut of forwards on the Canucks roster, I think it'll be next-to-impossible for him to make the big club out of camp.
While Pettersson is going straight back to Sweden after this tournament, Dahlen is planning on attending September's Young Stars tournament in Penticton and will take a run at making the Canucks.
Where would you like to see him play next season?
survey software
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»