Day One at the 2016 IIHF World Championships didn't end so well for Auston Matthews, the prohibitive first overall pick at the NHL Draft.
Matthews and Team USA were slapped 5-1 by Team Canada. Matthews played okay. The Arizona native failed to register a point in the loss. In Fairness, Connor McDavid pitched a bagel in the win.
In the night cap game, Laine, dropped jaws with his grotesque skills in Finland's trouncing of Belarus. Laine, the 2018 Finnish Elite League playoff MVP with champion Tappara Tampere, is making a very strong case for why he should be the number one overall selection, and not Matthews, at the NHL Draft in June. Named Finland's Player of the Game, the imposing winger got the Day One edge, as Matthews was held pointless in a 5-1 loss to Canada.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are "won" the right to select first overall at last Saturday night's NHL Draft Lottery. The leafs haven't had a big number one center since Mats Sundin left town years ago. The Leafs have been chasing their savior ever since. matthews appears to be that guy. He's big, strong, skates well and has a bomb for a shot.
In my opinion, Laine is the better of the two players at this juncture of the 2016 calendar year.
There is no denying either player's talents. They both are deserving of high praise.
Are the Leafs married to picking Matthews or might they reconsider and grab Laine first overall?
Laine is 6'4" and 215 lbs. of raw, pure, unadulterated offense.
Playing against men in the hard to score in Finnish Elite League this season, Laine potted 17 goals and 16 assists in just 46 games played. In 18 playoff games, he scored 10 goals and added 5 helpers.
he also potted 7 goals and added 6 helpers for Finland's gold medal team at the World Junior Hockey Championships.
In 36 games played for Bern of the Swiss League, Matthews scored 24 goals and added 22 assists. He potted 7 goals and 4 assists in 7 games at the World Juniors.
If I'm Lou Lamoriello, Brendan Shanahan, mark Hunter and Mike Babcock, I'm rubbing my chin right now pondering a Patrik Laine selection at #1.
Why?
This kid may well be the second coming of future Hall Of Famer Teemu Selanne.
Like Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, it appears abundantly clear to my eyes that Patrik laine is a geneartional player.
How can a management team ignore such an incredibly talented player at the first overall pick?
Mikael Granlund potted two goals and an assist, and Mikko Koivu and Antti Pihlstrom added singles for Finland. Aleksander Barkov picked up a pair of assists.
Thanks, IIHF
Imagine the outcry from Leaf fans when/if Laine blows up Day 1 in The Peg while Matthews starts rookie season slowly #NoDoOvers
TSN's Bob McKenzie reported Friday afternoon that University of North Dakota free agent forward Drake Caggiula will not be signing with a U.S. based team. Instead, he will link up with either Vancouver or Edmonton.
No worries. caggiula will have plenty of opportunity to play top minutes with one of teh two rebuilding Canadian teams.
**
Buffalo GM Tim Murray thought that he could sway Caggiula to play in Buffalo alongside Jack Eichel and Samson Reinhart. Thats a strong closing move by Murray. Caggiula is not interested in the Buffalo opportunity, nor that of Philly, NY Rangers, Ottawa, and others.
Murray is in one of the top positions to sign Jimmy vesy when he becomes UFA on August 15.
vesey, the Hobey Baker winner, fulfilled his full four year obligation to Harvard and opted not to play with the Nashville Predators, the team that selected him in th ethird round of teh 2012 NHL Draft.
Vesey-Eichel-Reinhart will be one helluva line in Buffalo for teh next 10+ seasons.
Eichel and Vesey are great friends and are training together in Boston.
Using Caggiula to the Canucks or Oilers as the model, friends want to play with friends.
****
Canada scored five unanswered goals en route to a 5-1 victory at the 2016 IIHF World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Canada has now won its last eleven world championship. Canada went 10-0 last spring in their gold medal win at the Worlds in Prague.
Brendan Gallagher scored from Ryan O'Reilly to bring Canada even.
O'Reilly finished the game with two tasty assists.
Taylor Hall picked up where he left off last spring when he scored seven World Championship goals and finished as the third leading goal scorer in the tournament.
Canada outshot Team USA 16-8 in the period with Hall and Gallagher notching three apiece.
Matt Duchene made it 3-1 in the second period.
Boone Jenner added a third period goal. Jenner also had an assist.
Brad Marchand scored a third period shortie to make it a 5-1 final score.
Canada-v-USA was preview of McDavid-Matthews.
Connor McDavid, the first pick at the 2015 NHL draft and Auston Matthews, projected to be chosen first overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs on June 24 in Buffalo.
Neither star recorded a point. Matthews was held to three shots on goal and had a minus-1 rating. McDavid failed to register a shot.
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