Canada’s Boxing Day 16-2 drubbing of Germany was pretty much expected. The question entering Sunday’s 2021 IIHF World Juniro ChampioHow will the Canadians follow it up?
The team hits the ice Sunday for Game 2 of its 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship against a much more formidable foe and will do so without two players: Braden Schneider (suspension) and Dylan Holloway (upper-body injury). As for Slovakia, unlike the Germans (through no fault of their own), it has a full roster and will not be playing on the second day of a back-to-back. The Slovaks also have a deep roster.
Between the pipes will be Samuel Hlavaj, who posted an impressive .915 save percentage and a league-best 2.25 GAA in 39 games for Sherbrooke (QMJHL) last season. While he didn’t have the best showing the last two tournaments (.861 save percentage in 2020, .872 in 2019), the 6-3 goalie covers a lot of net with his quick reflexes and is coming off a year he helped the Phoenix win the Jean Rougeau Trophy (most points in the QMJHL).
Anchoring the Slovakian defense is Blue Jackets 2020 third-rounder Samuel Knazko and a couple of players who would have been playing in the CHL if not for COVID-19 (Marko Stacha with Vancouver of the WHL and David Mudrak with Oshawa of the OHL). Slovakia may have won its opener against Switzerland just 1-0, but it put 32 shots on net and has players up front who can bury the puck, including Kings prospect Martin Chromiak, who suited up for Kingston (OHL) last year.
As for the Canadians, they’ll look to replicate Saturday’s offensive output, with 17 of 20 skaters getting on the score sheet and all four lines rolling. While head coach Andre Tourigny believes his team has a few things it can work on — he specifically mentioned net presence and faceoff routes during Sunday’s availability — it doesn’t hurt that a few of the players know a thing or two about Slovakia’s goalie. Jakob Pelletier (two assists), Dawson Mercer (one goal), Jordan Spence and Justin Barron have all faced him in the QMJHL. Spence will draw into the lineup on Sunday after Schneider was handed a one-game suspension for a hit to the head of Germany’s Jan-Luca Schumacher.
Devon Levi, who turns 19 on Sunday, will be between the pipes again. He got some rest Saturday when he was pulled after two periods to give Dylan Garand some minutes. Garand will serve as the backup again as Canada goes for its 14th straight win against Slovakia.
Sporting News had all the action as Canada secured win No. 2 at the 2021 IIHF World Junior championship.
(All times Eastern)
Final shots on net: Canada 23, Slovakia 18
8:17 p.m. — GOAL. Jack Quinn capitalizes on the misplayed puck at the blue line and scores an empty-net goal. Canada leads 3-1.
8:15 p.m. — GOAL. Not long after the penalty ends, and with an extra attacker, Martin Chromiak skates into the left circle and rips it over the glove of Levi. Canada leads 2-1.
8:12 p.m. — Dawson Mercer gets called for hooking with just over three minutes left in the game.
8:10 p.m. — GOAL. Canada gets a must-needed insurance goal. Dylan Cozens with the poke-check and then headman’s the puck to a streaking Philip Tomasino. The Predators prospect skates in, cuts to the middle and after getting bumped by a defenseman coming back goes top shelf. Canada leads 2-0.
8:08 p.m. — Levi coming up big on the penalty kill and in the seconds following the power play. Great stuff from the Northeastern netminder.
8:06 p.m. — Under seven minutes left in the game and Peyton Krebs called for holding (FYI — Tourigny did not agree with the call).
8:04 p.m. — Connor McMichael with another good shot on net and Samuel Hlavaj with another good stop.
7:59 p.m. — At the other end Levi makes another quality stop as he fights through the traffic to see the puck and get into position.
7:59 p.m. — Canadians swarming the net but can’t bury the puck. That top line of Perfetti, McMichael and Krebs is putting in some work in the third period.
7:55 p.m. — Devon Levi makes a stop on a save up high to keep Slovakia off the board.
7:53 p.m. — Connor McMichael. My goodness.
7:49 p.m. — Third period is a go.
Some stats — Shots total (second period): Canada 16 (7), Slovakia 8 (4).
7:29 p.m. — Great save by Devon Levi with just 10 seconds left in the period. Canada turns the puck over in their own end and Juraj Slafkovksy (who is just 16) fires the puck from the slot. Levi stones him as he reads it perfectly and comes out to make the save at the top of the crease.
7:24 p.m. — Samuel Knazko takes a high-sticking penalty as he hits Dylan Cozens in the visor. Canada back to the power play and after all is said and done they miss the net a few times and end up with one shot on net with the man advantage.
7:23 p.m. — Slovakia with a 2-on-1 and it looks like Devon Levi just got a piece of the shot from the right circle. Canada counters with some good work deep in the Slovakia zone.
7:21 p.m. — Canada can’t get anything going with the man advantage — zero shots — as they struggle with zone entries, getting set-up and making poor passing choices in the offensive zone.
7:19 p.m. — Canada gets a power play as Jack Quinn is pulled down while skating into the offensive zone.
7:16 p.m. — Jakob Pelletier with a good chance short-side. The Flames prospect has been flying in this one. He’s looked good with Quinton Byfield and fellow Calagry draftee Connor Zary.
7:11 p.m. — We’re halfway through the second period and the shots in the frame are: 1 for Slovakia, 1 for Canada. The Canadians got their shot at 9:57.
7:03 p.m. — Martin Chromiak (LAK) with a nifty move by the corner and tries to go high, short side but shoots it over the net.
7:00 p.m. — Not a good start to the period as the Slovaks sustain pressure. Cole Perfetti (WPG) called for tripping. Slovakia would not score with the man advantage.
6:58 p.m. — The second period is underway. Against Germany, Canada scored seven in the middle frame.
Some stats — Shots: Canada 9, Slovakia 4. Blocked shots: Canada 2, Slovakia 8.
Thomas Harley (DAL) led everyone with 9:22 of ice time. Jordan Spence skated the fewest minutes (1:56) but made it count the most with the goal.
6:39 p.m. — Canada breaks out after Thomas Harley (DAL) blocks a shot but Jack Quinn (BUF) can’t finish right before the buzzer on the cross-slot pass from Dylan Cozens (BUF).
6:33 p.m. — It’s a much different game tonight. Against Germany it seemed as if every shot went in; Hlavaj is a much more formidable foe.
6:27 p.m. — Slovakia’s Robert Petrovicky seems like a very talkative coach on the bench. The ex-NHLer played 208 games (27 goals, 38 assists) between 1992-01 for the Whalers, Stars, Blues Lightning and Islanders. He wrapped up his career in 2016 after a number of seasons playing in Europe and his son Rayen is on the junior team.
6:18 p.m. — Almost six minutes in and Slovakia gets their first shot on net as Levi with the stop through traffic. Canada outshooting Slovakia 7-1.
6:14 p.m. — GOAL. Hlavaj makes a good stop but the rebound jumps out to defenseman Jordan Spence who buries it into the open net. The Kings prospect taking full advantage of the opportunity to get into the lineup as he scores in his first world juniors game. Canada leads 1-0.
6:08 p.m. — Game on. I believe the referee said “Shake and bake.” Fantastic.
5:51 p.m. — Dylan Cozens gets the “C” tonight. Bowen Byram and Connor McMichael are the assistant captains.
5:42 p.m. — The birthday boy getting ready.
5:15 p.m. — Canada will only have 12 forwards for the game due to the Holloway injury. Jack Quinn moves up to take his spot on the second line while Connor Zary slots in with Quinton Byfield and fellow Flames prospect Jakob Pelletier. Dawson Mercer moves up from the extra forward spot that he started in for Game 1 to the fourth line with Ryan Suzuki and Philip Tomasino.
Tournament
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Canada
The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower in Paris.Michel Euler/The Associated Press
In the middle of a record haul at the Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s women’s swim team had one letdown – the 4×200-metre freestyle relay.
Canada had taken bronze in the event at Rio 2016 and again at the 2019 world aquatics championships. The team looked good for another medal.
On the day of the final, a Chinese team that was not considered a contender surprised everyone, winning in world-record time. Canada came fourth.
A battling result, but still disappointing. It looks a little worse than that now.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that nearly half the Chinese swim team failed a drug test seven months before the Tokyo Games. Twenty-three swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ.
TMZ is a synthetic substance. You’re not going to pick it up because you’ve chosen the wrong hot-dog vendor.
China was allowed to do its own investigation into the mass positive. That probe determined the athletes had been exposed to TMZ in tainted food at a team hotel. How exactly so many of them ingested it, while others did not, wasn’t explained.
Unusually, no announcement was made about the positive tests, and no one was suspended while the investigation was under way. The World Anti-Doping Agency knew what was going on, but decided the best way to determine if China had done anything wrong was to ask China to look into it. When China gave China the all clear, WADA signed off.
One of those who tested positive was Zhang Yufei. Zhang won three medals in Tokyo, one of them as part of the 4x200m relay team.
The swimming world is now playing doping leapfrog throughout those Games. The Canadian relay team is on a long list of unlucky losers. Had China’s violations stuck, the medal table would look very different.
It would also have pushed a Games that was on the edge closer to the drop. Few in Japan were super stoked about the world dropping by en masse during what would become that country’s first mass COVID wave.
The main reason the Tokyo Games happened was that so much money had been spent, much more was still owed, and insurers were not willing to write down 10 or 15 billion.
Picking a fight with China in that precarious moment could not have seemed like a great idea. Even more precarious – the next Games, to be held six months later in Beijing.
As an event, at absolute best, Beijing 2022 was going to be a very expensive bummer (which it absolutely was). That’s the sort of party that’s easy to call off.
You don’t need to be a Reddit obsessive to see what happened here. The Chinese swim team got caught mid-purge, and the people in charge had to prioritize their response.
Priority No. 1 – the Olympic business.
Priority No. 2 – the Olympic ideals.
They picked money over fairness.
It’s easy to lash them now, so plenty of people are. The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called it “a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes.”
(Is it possible to be undevastatingly stabbed in the back?)
The stickiest criticism involves Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. She also tested positive for trace amounts of TMZ before an Olympics. She also had one of those ‘maybe the dog gave me steroids’-type excuses.
But since everybody hates Russia, Valieva did not get the benefit of an in-house probe. She was dragged upside-down and backward through the global press and stripped of her medals. There’s your fairness.
It’s fitting that WADA take a reputational beating here. That is its most useful function – to absorb stakeholder rage after another own goal has been scored by the Doping Police.
But out in the real world, no one cares. Of course the Olympics is dirty. The Olympics has spent the last half century repeatedly reminding us of that.
Between Games, the Olympics makes news only two ways – ‘Upcoming host city X is having serious second thoughts’ and ‘So-and-so cheated their way to gold.’
These stories have become so numerous that the only people registering them are the ones who make their living in an Olympics-adjacent business, like sports administration or media.
Those people are happy to complain – complaining is good for trade – but they don’t want things to change. Change is dangerous. Who knows where change will land you?
In this specific instance, real change in the form of zero tolerance could have hobbled one Olympics and gotten the next one cancelled. Then what?
You start cancelling Olympics and people learn to live without them. Sponsors find new things to sponsor. Broadcasters move on.
Better to compromise. Chinese swimmers did a little TMZ. So what? Figure skaters, tennis players, breaststrokers – everybody’s doing it nowadays. It’s like weed for the Marx and Engels crowd.
With all that in mind, here’s something you won’t often read in this space – WADA made the right call.
It’s not like it was going to go swanning into Guangdong province in early 2021, right in the teeth of the pandemic, to figure out what was what. The only way to get any sort of answers was to rely on Chinese investigators. How do you know if they’re on the up and up? You don’t. WADA had two choices – take China’s word for it, or go scorched earth right before the two most tenuously assembled Games in history.
The proof that WADA made the correct choice is that those Games happened. Maybe it would make a different call now, and that might be right, too.
As far as fairness goes, it doesn’t belong in this conversation.
If a Belgian or a Tanzanian gets caught cheating, don’t even bother asking for consideration.
An American? Probably not.
An American everyone knows? Maybe.
A lot of Americans everybody knows? Let’s talk.
This can’t be discussed because once that discussion gets going, it points toward the sort of change no current stakeholder want to think about. If someone who tests positive can negotiate their way out of it and fairness is the goal, isn’t it fairer to stop testing altogether?
Was it an alley-oop? A Hail Mary? A Jerry Rice post route? Catch and ReLeaf?
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Whatever it was, it was the goal Toronto Maple Leafs fans were waiting for.
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If the Leafs go on to beat the Boston Bruins and make it out of the first round for the second year in a row, fans will look back at Max Domi’s flip pass and Auston Matthews’ catch and finish as the moment it all became possible.
Matthews’ 70th goal of the season (69+1 if we’re splitting hairs) was maybe his finest.
The play: Incredible. The catch: Immaculate. The finish: Nasty. The timing: Perfect.
Social media had plenty to say about Monday’s game-winning goal, but first let’s listen to calls of the play from every corner of the playoff series:
Chris Cuthbert on Hockey Night in Canada:
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Retiring voice of the Boston Bruins Jack Edwards:
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Of course, nothing can compare to Joe Bowen’s call on Toronto radio. Any Leafs moment isn’t complete until fans hear what the High Priest of Holy Mackinaw said, and he didn’t disappoint:
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It didn’t take long for Matthews’ game-winner to go viral across social media, with fans, media and ex-players weighing in on the incredible goal. The Leafs and Bruins resume their first round series on Wednesday in Toronto at 7 p.m.
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It was a game of big numbers at Rogers Place that featured 82 shots, 72 faceoffs, 112 hits and 11 goals. Connor McDavid scored 5 points, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard 4 each. Adam Henrique scored his first playoff point in 12 years. And the Edmonton Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice for the first time in 12,409 days.
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But win it they did, cruising to a 7-4 win over Los Angeles Kings to establish a 1-0 series lead in the 2024 edition of the seemingly annual opening round series between the two.
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It wasn’t always pretty, but several of the goals sure were. The Oilers held the advantage in play, outshooting the Kings 45-37 with an 18-10 advantage in Grade A Shots as recorded by the Cult of Hockey (running count). 8 of those Grade A shots came on a red-hot powerplay that produced 3 goals in a combined time of 4:50.
#2 Evan Bouchard, 7. Moved the puck well for the most part and had 4 secondary assists to show for it, not to mention a tertiary that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. But was among the defensive culprits on both LA goals that cut a 4-0 lead in half before the end of the second period. Way more good than bad on the night. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +3/-2, Special Teams +1/-0.
#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Played a rock solid defensive game, landing 5 hits and winning the lion’s share of battles. Victimized on a couple of unlucky goals against in garbage time, and in the spotlight himself on 1 of them when his stick exploded making a routine D-to-D pass after a won neutral zone faceoff. His 19:00 at even strength led the team. GAS: ES +2/-3; ST +1/-0.
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#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Classic Janmark game in which not a whole lot happened during his 10 minutes of action, pro or con. Tagged with an undeserved -1 on the Ceci-stick-explodes goal. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#14 Mattias Ekholm, 6. Solid with a couple of shaky moments. Made a couple of lunging stops on the same dangerous sequence. His neutral zone turnover led to a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway early in the second, then he was unable to contain Adrian Kempe on the 4-2. Delivered a great stretch pass to Hyman for a breakaway chance. Led the D with 2:00 on the penalty kill. GAS: ES +4/-2; ST 0.
#18 Zach Hyman, 9. All over it from the get-go, driving hard to the net time and again. Scored a goal in each period by materializing in a dangerous spot and converting a McDavid pass from close range. Added a primary assist on Henrique’s goal. Took a goalie interference for another net drive gone wrong. Later drew a call the other way. Hit a post in a scramble. Robbed by Talbot’s best save of the game on a breakaway. Took a knock on the continuation of that play and was in pain, but returned for another shift and appeared to be OK. May have set a record for most hats on the ice for a hat trick. 9 shots on net to lead both teams. Also added 5 hits and was a central figure in the battle all night long. GAS: ES +7/-1; ST+3/-0.
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#19 Adam Henrique, 7. His first playoff game in 6 years and his first playoff win in 12. Won a battle leading to the first Oilers goal, scored the second himself with a strong wrist shot from range, then earned an assist on the third. Made a great aerial deflection of Ceci’s outside shot. Took a penalty. Among those beaten on the first Kings goal. GAS: ES +4/-1; ST +1/-1.
#25 Darnell Nurse, 6. Played a solid 2-way game with 7 shot attempts, 2 blocks, and 6 hits. Won a lot of battles along the way. Pasted Kempe in the early going with a booming open-ice hit. Safe and sound behind his own blueline until the very late going, when a cross-ice pass caught his skate and found the net to make it 6-3. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#27 Brett Kulak, 5. Low event game including no goals at either end of the sheet during his 16 minutes. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Nearly wrecked himself on his opening shift when he took a run at a King and missed, but thankfully survived. Did his best work on the powerplay, setting up an RNH tally with a brilliant pass and scoring the winning goal himself with a brilliant shot. Also made a superb pass to RNH on an even-strength 2-on-1 that wasn’t converted. Strong defensively. Drew a penalty. Rock solid on the faceoff dot at 15/24=63%. 3 shots at one end, 2 blocks (!) at the other. GAS: ES =0/-0; ST +5/-0.
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#37 Warren Foegele, 6. Mashed Drew Doughty with an excellent hit in the very early going. Played a simple, solid game. Scored the empty netter that finalized the score line, after first stealing the puck in the neutral zone.
#39 Sam Carrick, 5. Played his first career playoff game at age 32 and got the job done. His line with Holloway and Janmark lost the possession battle but held their own on the scoresheet until the late fluke. He did get tagged with a -1 on the 4-2, but his “mistake” there was to do the job hjje was sent out to do and win a d-zone faceoff. 1 shot, 2 blocks, 4 hits, and 10/18=56% on the dot. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#55 Dylan Holloway, 5. Held his own in his second career playoff game. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Played a fine defensive game between the vets Kane and Perry. 2 takeaways, 2 blocked shots. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#73 Vincent Desharnais, 6. Rock of Gibraltar on the blue, with 6 hits and 5 shot blocks. On the receiving end of a nasty low-bridge hit by Trevor Moore that left him in obvious pain as the second period wound down, but returned in the third to finish the job. Best of all, the Oil scored the game winner on the resultant powerplay. GAS: +0/-1; ST 0.
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#74 Stu Skinner, 6. Very good in the first half of the game. Contributed the TSN Turning Point when he got a tiny piece of his pad on Viktor Arvidsson’s breakaway shot, with the Oilers subsequently scoring on the continuation. The game that could have been 2-1, was instead 3-0. The back half of the game went less well with 4 official GA and a fifth which was gloved in and correctly called back after a couple of nervous minutes. Struggled a bit with rebound control. 37 shots, 33 saves, .892 save percentage.
#90 Corey Perry, 5. Put the puck in good places, including on Kane’s stick for a couple of great chances in tight. 3 hits, 2 takeaways. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#91 Evander Kane, 6. Was visible throughout, mostly in good ways. Fired 6 shots on net including a couple of powerful wristers. nearly squeezing one through Talbot. Did have a couple of issues suppressing outside shots from the point. Led EDM forwards with 15:45 TOI at even strength. GAS: ES +3/-1.
#93 Ryan Nugent Hopkins, 6. Set up perfectly by Draisaitl for what apepared to be a wide open net, but the puck rolled off his stick. Made up for it a few minutes later with a strong goal mouth finish of another sweet Draisaitl feed. 4 shots, 2 blocks, 2 hits, 1 takeaway, and a team-high 2:04 on the 2-for-2 penalty kill. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST +1/-0.
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#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Became just the 15th player in NHL history with 5 (or more) assists in a playoff game, joining dynasty Oilers Wayne Gretzky (2x), Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and 10 others from other teams. 4 of them were primary assists, including all 3 of Hyman’s tallies. Twice McDavid beat defenders with brilliant spin moves before dishing. Threaded a bullet pass through Matt Roy’s skates for Hyman’s hat trick goal. 3 shots, 3 hits, and uncounted passes. GAS: ES +3/-0; ST +6/-0.
STAPLES: Big questions about Nurse-Ceci pairing
STAPLES: Hitting is way up in playoffs. Are Oilers up to it?
McCURDY: Kane, Janmark, Holloway all look good to go for Game One
McCURDY: Oilers vs. Kings anything but a foregone conclusion
STAPLES: Kane, Janmark missing from practice. What are the implications?
STAPLES: Pretty much every NHL commentator is picking Oilers over Kings
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