Greetings once again from Paris!
The lead story from around these parts on Sunday: the French elected centrist Emmanuel Macron as their new president by a large margin after a dramatic campaign.
And—I'm not sure how loudly this resonated on a national level but around AccorHotels Arena, there was great jubilation as Team France beat Finland 5-1.
Even better, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare of the Philadelphia Flyers rejected the player of the game award, insisting that it be awarded to goaltender Florian Hardy.
On my beat, Nathan MacKinnon scored a hat trick as Canada cruised to a comfortable 7-2 win over Slovenia.
Next, Canada plays the back half of its first back-to-back series against Belarus, Monday morning at 7 a.m. PT.
Over in Germany, the Russians trounced Italy 10-1 on Sunday and Team USA beat Denmark 7-2. in the late game on Saturday, Alex Edler was a minus-one as Sweden beat Germany 7-2—that takes some doing!
The IIHF has also announced that its president, Rene Fasel, will be holding a press conference here on Tuesday. We'll get the rundown on how the tournament is progressing so far—and there are rumblings that we might get an update on the prospect of NHL players going to next year's Olympics in PyeongChang.
Word surfaced on Sunday through a German article that discussions might not be as dead as we had previously been led to believe.
According to TSN:
Fasel, who is currently in Germany for the 2017 IIHF World Championship, says he won't "sell his soul" for NHL participation, but desperately wants the league and its players in Korea.
"I am ready to swim across the Atlantic if it needs to be," Fasel said. "But there is a limit I can not cross. And if the NHL decides not to come, then so be it."
Fasel has to be aware that he'll be facing more questions about the Olympics when he meets the press on Tuesday.
As for the players, some of them are still holding out hope.
"It's definitely disappointing that they couldn't come to an agreement," said Team Canada's Tyson Barrie after Sunday's game against Slovenia, where he scored a goal and added three assists to move into the tournament scoring lead with six points. "I think a lot of guys are upset by it. It's always an honour when you get to play for your country and it's disappointing. But you never know, maybe they can turn it around."
Last week, I posted some quotes from my chat with Lucas Aykroyd of IIHF.com about the World Championship tournament. I have now posted our full conversation if you'd care to have a listen. As a veteran of 18 World Championship tournaments, he has seen a thing or two!
Over on the NHL side of things, the playoffs continue to deliver high entertainment. On Sunday, Edmonton bounced back with a huge win on Sunday to set up Game 7 in its second-round series.
After a crushing OT loss in Game 5, the Oilers have once again shown resilience as they did in the first round, when they bounced back with two convincing wins to complete their series against the San Jose Sharks after a nasty 7-0 defeat in Game 4.
Also on Sunday, Nashville advanced to the Western Conference Final for the first time in franchise history with a 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.
The Preds are an interesting case study in a team that has been on a slow and steady climb up the NHL ranks. Now in their 18th season, Nashville missed the playoffs for the first five years of their franchise history but since 2003-04, they've missed only three times in 13 seasons.
Of interest to Canucks fans,
Ed Willes points out in
The Province that the Preds have built their team without tanking. Their highest-ever draft pick was their first, when they christened their franchise by taking David Legwand second overall in 1998.
In the last eight drafts, they've picked in the top 10 just once—taking Seth Jones fourth overall in 2013, then flipping him to Columbus in exchange for Ryan Johansen, now their No. 1 centre, in January of 2016.
Elsewhere on the roster, per Willes:
Viktor Arvidson came in the fourth round in 2014. Roman Josi was a second-rounder in ’08. Mattias Ekholm was a fourth-rounder in ’09. Colton Scissons, another local kid, came in the second round in 2012. Pekka Rinne, for pity’s sake, was taken in the eighth round in 2004, a round which no longer exists.
In summary, says Willes:
OK, if it was this easy others teams would do it but the Preds have demonstrated you can still build through sound drafting and organizational acumen. Don’t know if that helps the Canucks. Do know where they should look for a model.
Back in Vancouver, the Canucks held their Reveal Gala to benefit the Canucks Autism Network on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
Erik Gudbranson, Ben Hutton and Loui Eriksson are all still in town and were on hand. Eriksson may still be rehabbing that knee injury that caused him to miss the last 17 games of the regular season, but he has a brood of four kids under the age of six that, I bet, makes it tempting for him and his wife Mikaela to stay anchored in one place.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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