Oscar Klebom got a look at things and "talked to Tambellini" while playing a solid game for Sweden against the Canadians last night. Klefbom looked good to me, he was on what looked like the third pairing and was part of the PK rotation. I noticed he seemed to get more shifts as the game wore on and Klefbom was out on the ice during the final minute of play.
He's a rangy kid, I saw him cheat for offense only once and in fact he re-set for position several times (it looked like he was going against his instincts on 50/50 puck pursuits, etc). Hard to tell by one game but he's a bigger kid and mobile.
--
The four lights are:
- Oscar Klefbom, #6 for team Sweden.
- Martin Marincin, #21 for team Slovakia
- Martin Gernat, #25 for team team Slovakia.
- David Musil, #6 for team Czech Republic.
I'm not an expert on any of this stuff, but do talk to people who spend a lot of time on the WJ. Many are picking team Russia for the win, some have Canada as low as third. If you bet every year on Canada either winning or losing the gold medal game there would be little to worry over.
I do think the roster selection process is open to question. Some good players were sent home and the team looks weak in transition and has question marks down the middle.
--
Nation Radio hits the airwaves at noon Edmonton time on Team 1260. Scheduled to appear:
- Peter Loubardias from Future Considerations and other parts of the hockey world. Peter is to junior hockey as the internet is to everything else: an exceptional source and a must read.
- Jason Gregor from the Jason Gregor show. I'll ask him about his fundraising leading up to Christmas and we'll discuss the Oilers and what happens from here through the trade deadline.
- Kent Wilson from Flames Nation. Kent will give us the latest on a very nice run by the Flames and we'll discuss Iginla's march toward goal number 500.
- Corey Pronman from Hockey Prospectus. Corey will give us the inside scoop on the draft eligibles at this year's World Juniors.
- Aaron Vickers from Future Considerations. I'll ask him to give us an overview of the tournament and the favorites to play in the gold medal game.
Merry Christmas. I want to wish you and your family the best of the season.
Lowetide, I love you using song titles to name your posts but what does the story about a girl who is a heroine addict have to do with the World Juniors?
ReplyDeleteLots of holiday cheer last night and surprisingly not hungover this morning. Still just drunk.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Funny story. My wife was out with friends for their year end get together at a local night club. They ran into the Finnish Jr hockey team. The guys verified their identities using profile pics on an iPhone and then said "You come to our room, we party" when they were denied they got confused. "we play hockey?"
ReplyDeleteI guess someone had explained to them that Edmonton girls are hot for hockey players.
mattwatt: Honestly? I was going another direction originally and forgot to change the title of the post.
ReplyDeletehonest. :-)
I'll believe you. That said, what would have been apt song title to use, 'Can't Always Get What You Want'?
ReplyDeleteYeah, but that's not very Christmasy. :-)
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas LT. Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteYou too, Pat. I have so much alcohol in this house I'm thinking of sailing away!
ReplyDeleteSo is Dillon Simpson the 5th light who's not there but who we secretly believe we can see?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a Star Trek TNG reference:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_eSwq1ewsU
#nerdalert #imatreker
Nm now I see the vid posted here
ReplyDeleteNo mention of Matty's latest?
ReplyDelete"But I don't see the Oilers signing [Hemsky] again.
I think it's time to turn the page. He needs a change of scenery."
I think it's generally agreed that Matheson's no longer in a position that we can bank on what he says management's going to do, but that's still ominous. Especially given the likely return - trading a guy who's chronically underrated around the league during a weak year offensively isn't going to net much of one. And he might be cheap to re-sign for the same reasons.
Merry Christmas LT.
ReplyDeleteI catch about 4 hours of Gregor's show a week driving around the city.
I've noticed that he has warmed up a bit to advanced stats a bit over the last two years.
Can you asking him what changed?
He used to be fairly hostile towards the use of advanced stats compared to now.
I have found that once people understand what the stats represent, there is a lot less hostility. (ie. I had one person tell me in a conversation that Corsi is stupid, but shot differential was important)
Thanks for a great blog LT.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Gregor can mouth words right now being how far he inserted his right foot rambling on about there being no connections between fighting in hockey and enforcer passings/suicides/depression.
lol LT me too, if the end is nigh, I'm stocked to last the duration
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, all. I read every day but rarely post. Cheers to LT for feeding our 'heroine addiction' and filling our hours. Cheers to the rest of you for the conversation.
ReplyDeleteDitto what James said. Merry Christmas to all.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas Lowetide and everyone else. I've asked Santa to deliver the Oil with a 20 year old version of Nik Lidstrom as a collective gift to all of us. Let us see if the big guy in red delivers....
ReplyDeletelol LT me too, if the end is nigh, I'm stocked to last the duration
ReplyDeleteI got two bottles of "whiskey" as presents from a customer and supplier this year.
Both Whiskeys arefrom Quebec.
One is a Maple Whiskey, the other is an Ice Apple Whiskey. Both 30% alc.
As someone who likes a Bushmills on the rocks I was very leery of these "whiskeys", but both are surprising good.
Bonus: My wife, who gets pretty tipsy on two glasses of wine, thinks they both taste good.
Yay!
Also,
Got a new bottle of The Balvenie 12 year old scotch.
As someone who prefers Irish Whiskeys to Scotch (not a peat fan), this is a great Scotch whiskey.
I could drink for over a week, so I'm good for the holidays.
Patrick Stewart playing Captain Jean-Luc, exellent, exellent character, got me hooked on TNG series.
ReplyDeleteWe polished off a bottle of maple whiskey at work yesterday. I was skeptical too, but I think it's genetically impossible for a Canadian to hate anything maple-flavoured.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas everybody! Enjoy your families!
By now I'm typically engulfed in the World Junior but just haven't found the time. I will tho and I'm wondering if anyone has a good, advanced preview of the World Juniors they could recommend.
ReplyDeleteLT, what are the hits and misses in roster selection you allude to in your post?
One of the reasons why I'm finding it a little tougher to get hooked in this year is the continuation of two trends are making the Juniors less interesting for me:
ReplyDelete1. Many elite 18 year olds make the NHL and almost all are in the NHL by 19.
2. The overall depth (in Canada) of 19 year olds makes it extremely tough for the elite 17 year olds (and 16) to make it. I love seeing the guys in the full cages come out and dominate. I remember Niederreirter and Pat Kane as two recent examples and just 15 years ago it was not unheard of for guys to play at 16 (Spezza, J-Bo, Lindros).
Take last year. Instead of a coming out party for the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins you get two weeks of Casey Cizikis. No problem with the pick...he was a better player last year. The point is, the trend seems to be that many of the top Canadians will never get to play in the World Junior (RNH, Skinner, Seguin) and that's a shame.
I wonder if the IHHF has put any thought into changing it to the World Under 19s in order to catch some of these kids?
There is no chance that Cizikas was a better player than RNH last year. It's just the same old pick a team and fill roles nonsense. It was idiotic then and it is idiotic today.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas LT and everyone else!
ReplyDeleteBieksa said...
ReplyDelete"But, usually, guys like me, I just say turn the page. That was like 10-15 years ago, so grow up. There's more important things going on at Christmas time, in my opinion."
So yeah, guys.... grow the hell up. Sheesh. If millionaires are mature enough to recognize the insignificance of this tournament, all you average folk need to give your head a shake and worry about more important things.
@Woodguy: My ancestral roots suggest I have both Irish and Scotch in my blood. So to speak.
ReplyDeleteLove Bushmill's and Jameson's, but have developed a taste for single malt Scotch in recent years. I do like the peaty ones like the Islays, so that's likely where you and I diverge. Not to mention the ice - why water down perfection? It's best at room temperature anyway.
Btw, it's whiskey in Ireland but whisky in Scotland.
Pretty sure I have a bottle of Glen Breton waiting for me under the tree. It's a (the?) Canadian single malt from Cape Breton Island. Sent to me by my son who moved to the Maritimes a few months ago. Won't make up for his absence at Christmas, but might be a good place to start. :(
My best wishes to all of the good burghers on the Oilogosphere for a happy and safe holiday season. A couple of quiet days, but there'll be no shortage of hockey to talk about after that!
A few drops of water will actually change the taste of fine scotch completely--it can activate many of the complexities within and depth of flavour. The notion that Scotch whisky should only be served straight has been overly romanticized, and is actually self-defeating. It's worth A/B'ing your favourites, with and without. #christwhatanasshole #wenttotwoscotchtastings
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to LT and all the readers here. Hope the holiday finds you with peace in your homes and food in your bellies!
ReplyDeleteI am looking at two days of crazy (6 kids between 3 and 8) so I will have little time for drinking or WJs, but will check in here from time to time to see what's what.
And that episode on TNG was one of the top ten from the entire franchise, let alone the series.
ReplyDeleteInteresting James. I'll give that a try. I'll assume your #asshole hashtag wasn't directed at me, but even if it was the seasonal response "same to you" should work nicely.
ReplyDelete#justkidding
@Bruce
ReplyDeleteI was mocking myself, it's hard not to sound pretentious when discussing Scotch, so I was sure to throw my 'credentials' down. I have literally only been to two Scotch tastings. But I do love the stuff, and was hoping to pass on what little knowledge I've gleaned. The #christwhatanasshole tag was a reference to this site:
http://www.robertsinclair.net/comic/asshole.html
which was overly obscure, I realize. Big fan of your voice around these parts. Happy holidays!
Here is a little gift for Christmas
ReplyDeleteBuilding on the last thread.
RNH if he stayed healthy and on this pace. 82 points this year.
If he had played in 1979-1980:
NHL average team scoring 1979-1980: 288 goals
Last year: 229
288/229 = 1.26
or if you prefer
Oilers on pace this year for 224 and in 1979-80 scored 301 (1.34 adjustment factor), but lets go with the more conservative number.
Now we can reasonably say that Gretzky to RNH they had very similar shooting percentages from their usual line mates. However Gretzky and his most common line mates shot the puck a bit more often 770 to a projected 606. On the other hand Gretzky clearly led Oiler forwards in ice time and centered the first line. Which RNH doesn't and we need to adjust for that - so as an adjustment lets normalize shots. So 770/606 = 1.27
82 * 1.26 * 1.27 = 131 points. Had RNH played with the 1979 - 1980 Oilers and got Gretzky's ice time it isn't absurd to assume he would have scored 131 points.
Thus, perhaps the comparison to Gretzky isn't quite as absurd as we might think. Now there is a thought to warm your heart on Christmas Eve, especially if you combine it with some Whiskey or Whisky.
cusall - what we all spend far too much time doing
Funny you mention scotch, my son is trying his first scotch this evening. First impressions: strong!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you LT and also to the rest of you!
ReplyDelete@James: Thanks, I was pretty sure that was what you meant, but there were two ways of reading it, so it gave me a bit of a chuckle to read it the contrarian way and then take mock offence.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes to you, sir, and to one and all who frequent these parts.
PS: That link is golden.
Merry Christmas LT! Thanks for the great blog!
ReplyDeleteAnd everybody else too!
ReplyDeletemicen: Novel I read in junior high, Of Micen Men
Merry Christmas to all the Lowetiders.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of the effort you put into this awesome site LT. I'm not sure what I would do without this to read during, before, & after games the past few years. MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas all. I want a shiny new Yakupov myself for the coming year, but if that's too expensive I'll be fine with a Galchenyuk.
ReplyDeleteOn 83: what I took note of in that piece is how Matty now views Teubert as a 5 or a 6. Christ, at that age if that's all that's seen for him then what's next? Career AHLer?
ReplyDeleteThat's not something I'd argue with and a few of us never saw anything to be impressed about by him but interesting to see the main guy in the MSM basically lay down and say, "there's a good chance young Teubert won't be anything worth talking about."
Which of course is pretty evident by his skating.
on Bieksa: I hate to be in agreement with that guy on anything so I'm glad that I'm really not because I dislike the juniors because of all the hype attached to it; unwarranted hype when you consider the lack of impact this tourney has outside of three countries.
TSN pimps this like it's the Olys and the dollar loves them for it and I don't blame them for doing it but I can see through it. Canada has never been more crazy about hockey than it is right now. TSN has found a way to exploit and capitalize on it.
Is there a reason that Kristians Pelss isn't mentioned here ? He is Captain for Latvia ( Playing well I might add )
ReplyDelete