I feel extraordinarily fortunate to be a few hours away from watching Canada play for gold against Finland at the 2016 World Championship here in Moscow.
In 2015, in my first foray into the world of international hockey, I saw Dan Hamhuis and the Canadians win their first gold in eight years in Prague. This time around, national team first-timers Chris Tanev and Ben Hutton are guaranteed to be going home with no less than silver, and are part of a motivated Canadian team that's going for gold.
Here's my game story from Saturday's nail-biting semifinal against Team USA, where Canada gave up three second-period goals to fall behind before regrouping to earn the win.
You can
click here for my preview of today's game against Finland, from NHL.com.
It should be an excellent game. I have seen the Finns quite a bit throughout this tournament, and they have been impressive from start to finish. The early goal they gave up to Russia yesterday before winning their semifinal 3-1 is the first time that they've trailed all tournament.
Finland has an impressive core of NHL veterans that we know, led by Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Jussi Jokinen, Aleksander Barkov and Leo Komarov. Their only NHL defenceman is Esa Lindell of the Dallas Stars, and yet they've only given up eight goals in nine games heading into the gold-medal game. It's safe to say that 27-year-old Mikko Koskinen, who plays in the KHL for SKA St. Petersburg, has had a tremendous tournament, but the Finns have also done a terrific job of playing good team defence—getting the lead, then shutting things down for their opposition.
Though the early lead wasn't enough to earn the Russians the lead, the Canadians are going to be in for a tough ride today if they don't score the first goal.
Then, there's the Finnish kids.
On Saturday, it was 18-year-old Sebastian Aho who starred, scoring two power-play goals to fuel the Finns' win over Russia. Aho turns 19 in July and has seven points in total in the tournament. He was drafted 35th overall by Carolina last year and is going to be an amazing talent in the NHL.
For the most part, however, he has been overshadowed in this tournament by Patrik Laine, one of his teammates from the gold medal-winning World Junior team. Laine only turned 18 a month ago, on April 19, but he has shown plenty of all-world talent here in Russia. With seven goals, he's tied with Sweden's Gustav Nyquist for top spot in the tournament, and his 12 points tie him for second place overall.
Laine's thrilling to watch on the ice—the comparisons to Alex Ovechkin's playing style are justified. He's also a big personality who delivers great quotes.
The consensus favourite from this tournament came after Barkov missed Finland's quarterfinal game against Denmark due to illness:
That quote went to the Finnish media, but he has also been pretty great with us English-speaking types.
Asked if the Canadians weren't showing him a lot of love on the ice after he got tangled up with Corey Perry in the round-robin game against Canada last Tuesday, Laine said "Yeah maybe, maybe not. Maybe they just tried to piss me off cuz I'm young and, in my opinion, a pretty good player. I don't know what other people think but that's my opinion."
It was impressive to see him so unfazed by the treatment he received, and willing to joke around a little bit with his dry sense of humour.
On Saturday, when I asked him about his sweet pass to Jussi Jokinen for what proved to be the game-winning goal, he deflected the praise to the scorer—complimenting his soft hands:
"I dunno. I didn't see anybody (checkers) at the back door. Jussi was there and NHL players finish. That's all."
Laine's playing style is more exciting than that of Auston Matthews, and he's more comfortable showing his personality to the media, but Matthews has also had a solid tournament.
If you missed it, U.S. assistant captain Nick Foligno told me that Matthews' playing style reminds him of none other than Jonathan Toews.
Click here for that story, from NHL.com.
Honestly, Matthews plays a more complete game than Laine. He's good on draws and he's impressively ferocious defensively for a player so young.
"He doesn't really blow you away sometimes with his flashiness but he's always on the score sheet," said Foligno of Toews. "He's always making a difference in the game. You can kind of see that in Auston. So it's pretty exciting for whoever gets him in the draft."
I wasn't sure that Auston could be a big-game player until he put the U.S. team on his back in the quarterfinal against the Czech Republic, scoring the only regulation goal and the only goal of the shootout against the top team from Group A. He scored a big power-play goal against Canada yesterday, too, giving his team some life and fuelling their second-period surge after they fell behind 2-0 in the first.
For me, the Matthews vs. Laine decision for the Maple Leafs does line up with their comparables. Of course, there are many other factors at play, but Toews has three Stanley Cups and Ovechkin? Well, he still hasn't been past the second round of the NHL playoffs.
Laine's awesome, but I wrote in
this article for The Leafs Nation that Toronto should stick to the plan and make Matthews No. 1.
Both players have one game left here to try to sway scouts and management groups before draft day. Matthews and Team USA will line up against the Russians in the bronze medal game, then Canada faces Laine and the Finns for gold at 10:45 a.m. PT. Note the later start time. It's going to be so late for us, getting out of the arena compound tonight!
As for the Canucks? Yeah, it's really too bad that they didn't hit that draft lottery jackpot to get a crack at Matthews or Laine. Both players are defying logic for kids their age—remember, draft-eligible players don't even usually show well at World Juniors, which is typically dominated by 19-year-olds, let alone World Championships.
These kids have shown that they can play with men. They should be just fine when they step into the NHL next year.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»