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Roundup of Vancouver Canucks-connected players at the World Championship |
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One of the ironies of being on the ground here at World Championship is that my access to televised games isn't as easy as it would be back home.
There is a Danish TV rightsholder, but those broadcasts don't seem to come up on the cable feed in my hotel room. In the Fan Zone near the arena, it seems they only broadcast Denmark's games live.
I was there on Friday, inhaling a gigantic slice of thin-crust ham and cheese pizza, as the Danes kept their hopes alive for a quarterfinal berth with a 3-0 win over Norway.
Saturday's game slate features three games at each arena, so I came over to the Media Centre for a chance to watch Sweden's 4-3 overtime win against Slovakia from Copenhagen.
After missing Sweden's last game, apparently due to the flu, Elias Pettersson was back in the lineup on Saturday. He didn't get on the score sheet, picking up three shots on goal in 13:34 of ice time. I did notice that, at the tail end of a power play, he was able to keep possession along the half wall, even as two Slovaks bore down on him, and successfully chip the puck out to a teammate.
Canucks netminder Anders Nilsson delivered back-to-back shutouts in Sweden's games against Belarus and France earlier this week. Today, Magnus Hellberg was back in net for Sweden's small setback—losing out on one possible point in the three-point system due to the overtime win.
Here in Herning, Bob Hartley's Latvian team is making a strong case to grab that last quarterfinal qualification spot—it looks like it'll be a battle between Latvia and Denmark to advance. Former Canucks prospect Rodrigo Abols was named Best Player in Latvia's 3-1 win over Germany today. He had a pretty assist on Latvia's first goal of the game, setting up ex-Canuck Ronalds Kenins for his second goal of the tournament.
The Latvian goaltender, Elvis Merzlikins, has been outstanding in the tournament so far. The 24-year-old Blue Jackets prospect, who has been playing in Switzerland, was a huge part of the reason why the Latvians were able to push the U.S. team to overtime before falling 3-2 on Thursday.
Canada will play the hungry Latvians on Monday, in the second-last game of their round robin, then finish off against the disappointing Germans on Tuesday. Saturday night, they're up against Finland in a game that has major implications in the Group B standings—the Canadians are just one point ahead of the Finns, each with three games left to play.
With Canada's game still six hours away, let's check in on the status of the other Canucks-adjacent players in the tournament:
Group A:
Nikita Tryamkin - Russia
The Russians didn't give up a goal in their first three games, but dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Czech Republic on Friday after David Pastrnak and David Krejci rode in on their white stallions from Boston to give the Czechs a boost.
Tryamkin has one assist and is averaging a steady 15 minutes a game for the Russian team, which is only carrying seven defensemen.
It's always notoriously difficult to get Russian players to do English interviews at this tournament, so don't pin these responses too personally on Tryamkin:
Tryamkin also may not have felt like talking on this particular night, after a less-than-ideal outing against the Czechs.
Raphael Diaz - Switzerland
The one-time Canuck is leading all Swiss players in ice time, averaging 22:04 per game. He has four assists in four games so far for a Swiss team that's currently sitting in that last quarterfinal spot in Group A, and is adding reinforcements Roman Josi and Kevin Fiala from Nashville.
Nick Bonino - USA
Another member of the Predators wants to play more hockey. Bonino was a member of the bronze medal-winning U.S. team in Czech Republic back in 2015—he was named best player in that bronze-medal game, a couple of months before the Canucks traded him for Brandon Sutter.
Nicklas Jensen - Denmark
The former Canucks first-round draft pick showed why he was such a highly touted prospect with his two goals against Norway on Friday. I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but I did spot him in the Mixed Zone after Canada's win over Denmark; he has great size and, now 25, is probably in the prime of his career.
Philip Larsen - Denmark
The one-time Canucks defenseman looks good over here. He has three assists in five games so far and is averaging 19:08 of ice time per game, including power-play time.
Jannik Hansen - Denmark
After being healthy scratched for three of the Sharks' last four regular-season games and all playoff contests, impending UFA Jannik Hansen is departing from conventional wisdom by coming here to play despite not having a contract for next season. At this point, I imagine the opportunity to showcase himself means more than wanting to stay healthy; he's not exactly in a good bargaining position for his next deal.
I bet he has a lot of rust to shake off. In two games, he has just one shot on goal in an average of 14:37 of ice time.
Denmark's up next on the Saturday schedule here in Herning and should get a chance to pick up some goals against Korea, which is on a back-to-back after losing 13-1 to the U.S. in the late game last night. Denmark finishes off the round-robin schedule here at Jyske Bank Boxen with what will probably be a crucial game against Latvia on Tuesday.
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