December 28, 2008

What we learned: The U.S. still has work to do, but I don’t think the problem areas are glaring.

I saw a team that eliminated the bigger problems of defensive communication breakdowns that led to odd-man situations. Tonight’s version of Team USA was plagued instead by small mistakes that led to goals and scoring chances.

The difference is that the more talented the team, the more of those scoring chances are going to be pucks in the back of the net.

I thought Ryan McDonagh had the best way to put the victory in context.

“Some might say we didn’t take a step forward, but I don’t think we took a step back because we still got the win,” he said.

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One troublesome area that hurt the U.S. again was the number of penalties.

The Americans yielded six power plays and allowed two goals on those man advantages.

“Tonight we gave up two power play goals and if we don’t take those penalties, you never know, it could have been a 4-1 game,” said Danny Kristo.

The U.S. must reduce the number of penalties they take, they are among the most penalized teams in the tournament, or they’ll make it far more difficult on themselves against later opponents.

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As Team USA was dressing for the game, Canada was putting the finishing touches on a 15-0 victory over Kazakhstan. U.S. coach Ron Rolston said watching that game put thoughts of what the U.S. needed to do against Kazakhstan as well as turned some focus toward the New Year’s Eve tilt with Canada.

The result was nearly crushing defeat.

“We were jumping a couple steps ahead I thought in today’s game so it’s difficult to keep the guys in that moment and trying to get better,” Rolston said.

Key play: Goalie Thomas McCollum’s performance in the closing moments of the game with the puck ricocheting around his net, saved the regulation victory for the U.S.

“I just try to make myself as big as possible and make myself available to get hit with shots and from there it’s all reflexes,” he said. “It’s just a lot of chaos, bodies flying everywhere so you’re kind of left to fend for yourself”

The crowd and the Czech bench were willing one of the bounces to end up in the goal, but McCollum kept moving and, with the help of his defensemen, was able to preserve the lead.

- My second key play is more of a ‘play of the game.’ It came in the second period and gave the U.S. the lead at 2-1, which stood as the game-winner until Czech rallied.

The play began with a Czech player stealing the puck in the corner and moving up ice. U.S. forward Eric Tangradi didn’t give up on the play though and was able to stick check his opponent and cause a turnover.

Jonathon Blum collected the loose puck at the blue line and flipped it toward the net where Matt Rust was able to redirect the puck into the Czech goalie’s pad and in to the net.

Tangradi’s hustle is a textbook example of what happens when you don’t quit on the play.

Ice chips: Schroeder’s 7 points tie him with John Tavares for the tournament lead. It was the U.S. forward’s second multi-point game.

He capped his night with a slick move around a defender and then beat the goalie stick side to the corner. The play happened quick and Schroeder’s instinct kicked in, he said.

“Once I got around that guy the shot was more instinct,” he said. “I kind of saw (the opening) too as I looked up and just ripped it.

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The win was Team USA's 100th in the history of the World Junior tournament.

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Czech Republic played a very physical game and tried to beat the Americans at their own game. McDonagh said the team was ready for the uptempo pace and hitting.

“Coming off a tough loss, you don’t expect them to come out any other way,” he said.

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The partisan crowds fuel U.S. opponents for sure.

There are those of you who point to Canada’s 8-1 victory over Czech as evidence of how much better the Canadians are but I think the crowd had an affect.

Remember, Canada struggled in the first against Czech as well and led by the same margin the U.S. did at the intermission, 1-0.

Both Canada and Team USA made a second period run, but I contend the sellout crowd cheering and celebrating every Canada goal spurred the players and broke down the Czechs.

On the flip side, when Czech scored their 2^nd goal against the U.S., the crowd erupted in cheers and had to fuel the Czech players.

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What's next: vs. Kazakhstan, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. EST

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END OF GAME. U.S. wins 4-3. What a finish. Czech put a huge rush on McCollum and the scramble in front of the net had the crowd screaming, but the puck stayed out of the net. Rust had another shot at the empty net and fired high, Czech forward took the puck down ice with the crowd screaming 'Shoot' but Rust slashed the player's stick in half and the game ran out before the U.S. gained possession.

I'll be back in a while with some final thoughts.

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00:41 - Matt Rust scores on the empty net but offsides is called ... no goal.

1:05 - That last save was a glove save. Very impressive swipe. The Czechs have taken their timeout with the faceoff to come to McCollum's right.

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2:00 - Crowd picks up the noise for Czech. U.S. stopped on a breakaway by a fine save.

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3:17 - GOAL: USA 4-CZE 3 - Jan Kana redirects a slap shot past McCollum. We're at a one-goal game now. Big finish coming.

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3:33 - U.S. back on the PK, Johnson hit with a very ticky tack tripping call.

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5:54 - JVR is stoned by Dominik Furch who faced the American 1-on-1 and JVR's attempt to hang the puck around the goalie slid into the pads and didn't come out.

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6:30 - penalty killed. After which, McCollum had to make a acrobatic glove save on a puck that flipped in the air. They announced that tonight's crowd is the all-time attendance record at World Juniors. I'm going to assume that's a ticket sales number because every section has at least two dozen empty seats.

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8:08 - U.S. back on the PK after Bowman is penalized for slashing.

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11:58 - Czech Republic penalty for slashing gives the U.S. its third powerplay.

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12:58 - GOAL: USA 4-CZE 2. A mad scramble in front of the U.S. net that began with a great stick save ended with a booming slap shot from the point that found the net.

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16:17 - GOAL: USA 4-CZE 1. Schroeder gets his second of the game. He collected the puck from JVR along the boards, then made a nice move to get into space on the goalie's right then fired it up to the corner stick side. Very impressive shot.

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19:44 - We're back at it.

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End of 2nd Period.

Things started to turn Team USA's way around the midway point of that period. They outshot Czech despite being shorthanded three times that period.

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1:26 - GOAL: USA 3-CZE 1. James van Riemsdyk took a pass from Shattenkirk, turned and slipped it by the goalie on the ice. Powerplay tally.

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2:18 - Holding penalty on CZE. U.S. goes on the advantage.

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4:00 - Penalty killed.

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6:16 - Shattenkirk gets a high sticking call for slamming a Czech to the ice in front of McCollum as a play ended.

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8:14 - GOAL: USA 2-CZE 1. Eric Tangradi doesn't give up on the play and stick checks a Czech defender shrt of the blue line and Blum keeps it in with a flick toward the net that deflected off of Rust then the goalie's leg pad and in. Sloppy goal, but Team USA will take it.

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10:55 - Team USA is back at full strength. Their PK was very aggressive that time around and killed off about 30-40 seconds in the Czech zone.

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13:07 - Aaron Palushaj penalized for a high stick. Czechs back on the PP.

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14:46 - GOAL: USA 1-CZE 1. The end of the powerplay saw the Czechs keep a clearance in the zone then a defender hit a forward on a pass through the slot and he one-timed it by McCollum in the top corner.

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16:30 - Shattenkirk tagged for hooking in front of his net.

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19:58 - We're underway.

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Intermission: They are playing a tournament promo video on the big board with highlights from all the teams. My only issue is that they show highlights of all the other countries scoring on the U.S. and I saw very little Canada goalies hanging their heads.

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End of the 1st period: U.S. 1-CZE 0

Team USA looks good at times but has to cut down the mistakes. The Czechs outshot the Americans 9-8 and were on the verge of scoring a number of times.

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1:17 - The U.S. has made about five sloppy errors in its own end and is lucky Czech hasn't capitalized. The latest was a bad pass that almost led to a 2-on-1.

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3:00 - Czech continues to be physical and seem to want to make it a big part of their attack against the U.S. That strategy hasn't been efficient yet in producing chances on offense and will likely wear down the Czechs as the game wears on considering the U.S. players are more used to this style of game.

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7:00 - GOAL: USA 1-CZE 0. Ian Cole makes a brilliant stretching play to keep the puck in at the blue line and then Jordan Schroeder scores just before the power play expires on a rifle of a wrister from atop the faceoff circle that beat the goalie high.

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8:59 - U.S. dodged a bullet as the puck took a bad bounce off the boards and McCollum's clearing attempt shot out in front of the gaping net. The Czech player's backhand shot sailed high though.

Czechs caught for holding. U.S. on its first PP.

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11:47 - Captain Blum makes a huge poke check to break up a scoring chance and end the power play.

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13:51 - Matt Rust is sent off for hooking at the end of a physical forecheck by the Czechs who laid some big hits and forced Rust to tie up a forward in front of the net after McCollum made a big save.

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15:43 - van Riemsdyk's line just had an excellent shift, forcing the puck into the Czech zone and then holding it there for nearly a minute. They capped it with a good scoring chance. ... Another Czech, well, check draws cheers.

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18:11 - Heavy bias again from the host country's fans. You can hear "Let's go Czech" and a huge cheer went out when a U.S. defender was crunched behind his goal.

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Pregame: Teams are lined up on their respective blue lines and the captains have swapped pennants. Game 2 is seconds away.

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There is just over 20 minutes until the game starts and the teams are wrapping up their warmups. Most of the sellout crowd from the Canada game either didn't have tickets to the night cap or is still out in the restaurants having a night cap because the building isn't as full as you'd expect.

The U.S. sends out Thomas McCollum in net again and will put out the James van Riemsdyk, Jordan Schroeder and Colin Wilson line to start the game.

The Czechs send out Dominik Furch in goal.

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I know there are a lot of readers out there as I see the traffic numbers and read your e-mails, but I know one person who's not checking in for news from the tournament: Ron Rolston.

The media coverage is very intense here and the U.S. players and coach field questions after every practice and game and then there are requests for interviews at the hotel as well. Rolston said he stays away from the sports channels and papers as a personal preference in general, but added he's so busy preparing for each game, he doesn't have the time.

"For me, I haven’t watched any of it, I haven’t read anything. We’re really busy with all of our team preparation," he said. "You’re either great or not good enough sometimes in the media so we need to keep an even keel."

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We're only six games in to the tournament and attendance records are already falling.

Canada's game against Czech Republic drew 19,622, good enough to break the all-time single game attendance record.

The U.S. opener against Germany attracted 18,795, which is good for the No. 3 spot after Canada's game is factored in.

With the size of the Scotia Bank Centre I expect this tournament will own all of the top-10 easily.

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Update: You can see my post from earlier below, but I wanted to update things. Canada beat Kazakhstan 15-0. It's not fun to watch (unless you are the fan in the lower bowl chanting the 'goodbye' song when it was 14-0, very classy) and it's obviously disheartening to the Kazakhstan team.

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Canada plays Kazakhstan today and while no opponent is taken lightly, things could get ugly quick in that game.

Kazakhstan was blasted 9-0 by Germany last night so you can do the math as to what a better team will be able to score.

It's unfortunate to me that the tiebreaker rules call for goal differential to factor in. The same effect could be had if the tournament rules capped the allowable goal differential to 5 goals. So if you beat a team 10-0, you only get credit for +5 in goal differential.