Day 1 of the 2017 IIHF World Championship got off to a rollicking start on Friday.
Over in Cologne, Artemi Panarin played hero as the Russians secured a 2-1 win over the Swedes. Canucks fans got invigorated over this old-school Alex Edler hit:
On a stacked Swedish blue line, Edler's playing on the third pairing with John Klingberg of the Dallas Stars. Sweden's coach Rikard Gronberg leaned heavily on his top pairing of Tampa Bay Lightning teammates Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman; Edler's 16:22 of ice time actually put him ahead of 14:19 for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, even though Edler didn't see the ice during the five-minute overtime. He finished the night with one shot on goal.
The late game in Cologne on Friday was a thriller, with the hosts from Germany holding off an American team that's made up primarily of dangerous young NHLers. Though the Germans were outshot 43-27, Thomas Griess outduelled Jimmy Howard, allowed Patrick Hager to score the late game winner in Germany's 2-1 regulation win over Team USA.
Meanwhile, here in Paris, the Finns looked like they were going to cruise to an easy win when they scored two goals in the first 5:09 of their opening game against Belarus. But Belarusian goaltender Kevin Lalande—originally from Kingston, Ontario—recovered from his early miscues and allowed his team to come back to tie the game 2-2 before Veli-Matti Selavainen scored what proved to be the game-winner midway through the third period.
Outside AccorHotels Arena, the streets of Paris were flooded with exuberant Czech hockey fans ahead of Friday's late game against Team Canada. Buoyed by thousands of rowdy supporters, the Czechs came out flying before Ryan O'Reilly opened the scoring against the flow of the play at the 6:09 mark of the first period. The Czechs kept pressing and were finally able to beat Calvin Pickard on a power play late in the third period, but Tyson Barrie quickly answered back for Canada and Jeff Skinner sealed the 4-1 win with a last-minute empty-net goal.
White you were sleeping, Saturday's early games have already been completed. Bob Hartley coached Latvia to a 3-0 win over Denmark in Cologne, while Slovenia channeled their inner Anaheim Ducks—rallying from a 4-0 first-period deficit against Switzerland to earn a single point for a tie before eventually falling in a shootout.
One other bit of Canucks news from the Paris media centre today. Word is, former Canucks defenseman and long-time Vancouver scout Lars Lindgren is in town. Looking for more undiscovered gems?
On Friday, word came out that the Canucks have cut ties with two of their draft picks from 2015.
Fifth-rounder Carl Neill put up some nice offensive numbers in the QMJHL in the two years since he was drafted by the Canucks, including 2-9-11 in 13 games for Charlottetown in the playoffs.
A month ago,
Ryan Biech of Canucks Army suggested that Neill might be in tough to get a contract offer, citing "the weakness in his game...his skating and defensive awareness."
Biech also points out that the Canucks have a bit of a logjam of defensive prospects, including Neill's Charlottetown teammate Guillaume Brisebois, who is already signed to an entry-level contract.
There's buzz that Vancouver is still pursuing undrafted OHL defenseman Darren Raddysh, whose Erie Otters just won Game 1 of their OHL final against Mississauga on Thursday. Darren is the top-scoring defenseman in the OHL playoffs, with 2-18-20 in 18 games so far.
“He had an excellent year this year,” Vancouver GM Jim Benning told Jason Botchford. “He got lots of points playing on a real skilled team.
“I don’t know that we’ll go down that road, but we’ve talked about it.”
One other note on Vancouver's defensive prospects. Like Jonathan Dahlen, Olli Juolevi is also working out in Vancouver this month. He has a special project lined up for the summer, when he gets back to Finland.
And finally—remember when Brock Boeser went to prom after receiving an Instagram request from Baylee Bjorge?
That wasn't a one-off. The two have forged an ongoing friendship.
One last note before I wrap up for today. I'll be on Hockey Unfiltered once again this morning—Channel 91 on Sirius XM NHL Radio or you can
click here to listen live. My segment is scheduled to air at about 9:45 a.m. PT.