I spent most of Boxing Day with my family, celebrating a belated Christmas. But in between exchanging presents, catching up on family events, and a turkey dinner that couldn’t be beat, I watched the Canucks prospects during the first day of the World Junior Championships.
Okay, so I watched some of it on the 27th, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, when I wasn’t snacking on so many honey-flavoured scrolls that I made myself sick.
The grown-up Canucks won’t be in action for another day, but four of their prospects took the ice for their respective countries, as they will for at least the next week. None of the prospects took centre stage, but each played well in their supporting roles.
Canucks fans are paying the most attention to Elias Pettersson, who lived up to expectations, even if he didn’t dominate as much as he might have liked. Sweden as a whole, on the other hand, definitely dominated Belarus.
Sweden out-shot Belarus 36-to-9 and were never in danger of losing this game, which allowed them to spread the ice time around throughout the lineup. Even with that in mind, Pettersson still played 18:18, second most among Sweden’s forwards, and third most when you include defencemen. Rasmus Dahlin, the presumed first overall pick, led the team in ice time.
Pettersson had four shots on goal and opened the scoring on the power play with a powerful shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. His shot deflected up off a penalty killer’s stick, hit the goaltender’s shoulder and went in the top corner. It looked like a perfectly-placed shot, but it had a lot more to do with the strength of his shot than its accuracy.
He added an assist with a nice cross-ice pass on the power play, then nearly had another goal later in the game on a great solo dash, but was stymied by the post on his wraparound attempt.
Pettersson with a nice dash, gets shut down by the post & isn't impressed. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/hWBcaiDr4I
— Canucks Prospects (@NucksWatch) December 26, 2017
A goal and an assist is a nice start to the tournament for Pettersson, even if it was only against Belarus. He also drew two penalties and you can see that he'll be a penalty-drawing machine in the NHL with his shifty moves. He draws defenders in, then forces them to trip, hook, or hold him to contain him along the boards.
Olli Juolevi and Jonah Gadjovich were both in action as Finland and Canada faced off. Juolevi played a quietly effective game, spending most of it in the offensive zone while playing 20:13, third highest among Finnish defencemen. Juolevi eliminated rush after rush with his sound positioning and he added three shots on goal.
Fans are hoping for a little more than “quietly effective” from Juolevi, unfortunately. It’s easy to claim retroactively that the Canucks always expected Juolevi to be a defensive defenceman, but it’s just not accurate. They drafted him after he racked up points in the OHL and had 9 points in 7 games at the 2016 World Juniors. He was seen as a complete, all-around defenceman with puck-moving and playmaking abilities that would allow him to contribute offensively.
There’s still hope, obviously, that Juolevi will pan out as a top-four defenceman in the NHL — his 14 points in 20 games in the Finnish Liiga this season suggest he’s on the right path — but it’s disingenuous to claim that Juolevi was always seen as defence-first.
This game was even closer than the 4-2 score would indicate, as Canada’s first goal arguably should have been disallowed and Cal Foote saved a Finnish puck off the goal line. But that two-goal swing meant that Jonah Gadjovich ended up assisting on the game-winning goal.
It was a lovely, one-touch pass from Gadjovich to Drake Batherson off a broken play. It’s great to see some heads-up playmaking from someone known more for planting himself in front of the net and banging in rebounds.
#Canucks prospect Jonah Gadjovich's beauty pass from the first period pic.twitter.com/1N0ydKOtjy
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 26, 2017
Gadjovich also played a key role on the penalty kill and late in the game as Canada defended the lead. One of the Sweden goals went in off his shin as he went down to block the shot on the penalty kill, but that was just some bad luck. He made a couple big shot blocks late that ensured Canada’s victory. Watching Gadjovich play, you can’t help but see a future NHLer. His well-rounded game combined with his size, I can’t imagine him failing to make the Canucks in a couple years’ time.
Finally, there was Will Lockwood for Team USA against Denmark. USA dominated this game so much that it’s hard to really judge any of the individual players. They out-shot Denmark 36-17, but out-scored them 9-0, so it’s understandable if they let up a bit and allowed some extra shots in the second and third periods.
USA was able to roll their lines, with even their 13th forward playing over 10 minutes. That 13th forward? Will Lockwood.
Lockwood made an impact in his limited minutes, if not always a legal impact. He received a two-minute minor for interference on a huge hit late in the first period and was a terror on the forecheck whenever he was on the ice. His speed is something to behold. He’s a superb skater, seeming to pick up speed with every stride, even when he’s changing directions.
This hit from Will Lockwood on Valdemar Ahlberg can't feel good. #WJC2018 pic.twitter.com/jS8P8tJyBu
— Cristiano Simonetta (@CMS_74_) December 27, 2017
Lockwood played a minor role, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get some more minutes as the tournament progresses, particularly if he continues to play such a physical game on the forecheck.
