It’s the World Championship of Hockey, the most important event in hockey during the month of May! It’s all anyone in the hockey world is talking about.
Okay, let’s be honest, Canadian sports fans can barely bring themselves to care about the World Championships even when there are no Canadian teams in the playoffs. The Stanley Cup playoffs, Blue Jays, Raptors, Whitecaps, draft rankings, Leicester City, and Rugby Sevens are likely more at the forefront of people's minds than the World Championships right now.
But Canucks fans have multiple reasons to pay attention: 7 current Canucks are on national team rosters. Let’s take a look at the first day of World Championship action from a Canucks perspective.
Canada 5 - 1 USA
Team Canada wiped the floor with the US in their tournament opener, easily skating to a 5-1 victory. Neither Chris Tanev nor Ben Hutton, the two Canucks in the game, factored into the scoring, but the game may have an impact on another Canuck, Thatcher Demko.
The American goaltender, New Jersey Devils backup Keith Kinkaid, was mostly very bad. Despite his 6’3” frame, Kinkaid left massive gaps with his positioning and Canada’s snipers had a field day picking out those holes and filling them with pucks. His worst moment came on a weak wraparound by Boone Jenner that somehow found its way between Kinkaid’s skate and the post.
US head coach John Hynes, also Kinkaid’s coach with the Devils, kept him in for the full game, but you have to think that he’ll turn to backup Mike Condon for their next game, Saturday against Belarus. If Condon falters, and his .903 save percentage for the Canadiens this season suggests he might, next in line is Demko.
So, even if it’s a longshot, Demko could suit up for Team USA as early as Sunday against Finland.
As for Tanev and Hutton, they each had very different games. Tanev surprisingly played just one second over 16 minutes, which was fifth among Canadian defencemen. The only defencemen who played less were Hutton, who ended up with under 4 minutes of ice time, and Mike Matheson.
That said, Tanev was on the top pairing with Morgan Rielly, it’s just that Canada played 9:30 on the power play and Tanev, shockingly, didn’t get any time with the man advantage.
Tanev looked uncharacteristically nervous in the first period, chasing the game a little bit, and he was on the ice on the penalty kill for the only goal for the US, though he effectively boxed out his man on the scrum that led to the goal. He settled in as the game progressed and helped Canada's young defence contain the young American offence and quickly moved the puck up ice at every opportunity. He'll likely get more ice time in closer games.
It’s a shame that Hutton didn’t play much, as he didn’t look out of place in the few moments he did play. Matheson, a top prospect for the Florida Panthers who played this past season in the AHL, ended up playing on the bottom pairing instead.
Sweden 2 - 1 Latvia
Ronalds Kenins and Latvia nearly surprised the Swedes thanks to an outstanding performance from the outstandingly-named Elvis Merzlikins, who made 42 saves.
At the other end, Jakob Markstrom only faced 21 shots, but he had to make several tough saves, including a great toe save on a shot through traffic in the second and a game-saver in the final minutes of the third. He gave up just the one goal, a dramatic third period power play goal that tied things up for Latvia and gave them hope for a win heading into overtime.
Sweden snuffed out that hope just a couple minutes into the extra frame, however, but Latvia at least picked up a point with the overtime loss.
Kenins was on the ice for both of Sweden’s goals, though he wasn’t at fault on either of them. Really, it’s not surprising he was on the ice: Latvia relied on him heavily, as he played just short of 20 minutes, third behind his linemates on the top line in ice time for Latvian forwards.
Finland 6 - 2 Belarus
Just one note on this game, which featured a two-goal, one-assist performance from Patrik Laine. I only bring up this game because Granlund also had a two-goal, one-assist performance. Mikael Granlund, that is.
Markus Granlund, initially named to Team Finland back in April, was cut from the team when several top Finnish players, like his brother Mikael, became available after they were knocked out of the NHL playoffs in the first round.
It’s a tough blow for Markus, who has only represented Finland as a junior, and it raised questions for some about the character of Finland’s coach.
