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Answering Your WJC Camp Questions + USA vs. Sweden

August 4, 2010, 9:43 AM ET [ Comments]
Julie Robenhymer
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What happen to Jared Tinordi. As a first round pick, somebody praised for his leadership (former captain of the U-18 team), and a USA team veteran, how was he part of the first cut and can no longer make the team? Was he that bad? This is really surprising considering the Canadiens moved up to get him and apparently a lot of teams loved him?
Thanks,
Travis - tweb1479 - echoed by Steve, Yves, Hugo


Bunch of nosey Canadien fans ;) Nothing happened to him!! He's only 18 and I'll get to this in a bit, but he can still make the team. It wasn't that he was "that bad" there are just other players who were better. He'll go to Notre Dame and learn how to use his size (6'5'', 202 lbs) a bit more effectively. While he might be a first round draft pick, that doesn't mean he's ready to play with the big boys. He's got plenty of time to develop and both he and his future NHL team will be better served if he is allowed to develop as both a player and a person without pressure to be NHL ready tomorrow.

What's going on with Cam Fowler? I had heard that he wasn't attending the camp but still might make the team, is that still (or ever was) true? Or is he off the team for not attending the camp? - Always Mighty

Cam Fowler didn't attend the camp and neither did Nick Leddy because both of them signed professional contracts just prior to the start of this camp and they hadn't yet gotten permission from their respective NHL clubs to participate. It's just like the Olympics, NHL clubs must give permission for players under contract to play and risk injury in a non-NHL event. Had he or Leddy participated and suffered a serious injury, the Ducks and Blackhawks respectively might not have been too happy about it. Playing and getting hurt in a tournament is one thing...playing and getting hurt in an evaluation camp is another. Both of them are still eligible to make the team...more on that in a bit!

Thanks for the update Julie! I'm assuming this is a 23-man roster like an NHL team so there's five more cuts for the final roster? Will that include two or three goalies, or is that up to the discretion of the coaching staff? What is your sense of which of Iles and Gothberg is more likely to backup Campbell? - cornellbigred

I could be wrong, but I've asked a few people and we all think it's a 22 man roster - 13 forwards, 7 defenseman and 2 goalies. From what I've seen, Iles could be Campbell's backup, but in all fairness I haven't seen enough of Gothberg to give a good assessment of him. In the 30 minutes I saw Iles play, I was impressed.

Hey Julie, how is Beau Bennett looking? - Steve_Wiles

He's looking good! Again, I haven't seen much of him, but I like his style of play and he's got a great attitude. I'm eager to see more at Denver!

I'm curious how Brian Dumoulin looks at camp? Canes fan here and I watched some BC games on TV and thought he had really grown (size and play) this past year. Also, Justin Faulk was just drafted by the Canes and was here in July for conditioning camp -- do you see anything special about him? - Peg Becker

Brian Dumoulin is a a goliath on the blueline - prototypical BC defenseman! He had a great season last year and learned a lot and I expect that to continue this season. As far as Faulk goes, I'm a big fan! I first noticed him last year with the USNTDP and after watching last night's game, it wasn't just a fluke! He's aggressive, skates well, runs the PP and I am excited to see him develop at Minnesota-Duluth.

I am a huge Oiler fan and was wondering how Tyler Pitlick looked in the junior camp. He is playing his junior hockey in Canada this year. Is this the reason he got cut? - Kevin

No, he wasn't cut because he left college and went to the WHL. He was cut just because there were other players they wanted to look at for the rest of camp...it's really that simple!

How soon do you think Emerson Etem can be NHL ready and do you think he has what it takes to be an impact player? - Kevin Ellis

I really don't like to put timelines on players and when they'll be ready for the NHL, but I expect Emerson to get there sooner than later. He's definitely on the fast track. He's a fantastic skater, aggressive on the forecheck, has great hands and doesn't back down from a challenge. He seems to be very focused and takes the opportunities to further his career very seriously. He definitely has the potential to be an impact player in the years to come.

How do Stephen Johns and Jeremy Morin look? - Dave Erspamer

Johns didn't play last night, but Morin had a lot of scoring opportunities but couldn't convert. The effort was definitely there and most of the time that's half the battle. Hopefully, he's able to bury a couple by the end of the week.

How has Derek Forbort looked? I know he's years away since he's going to UND (great college for hockey) Want to get an idea on how his game is and what he needs to work on other than putting on more weight as he matures - SCARFACE909

I thought he looked great last night. Scored a power play goal from the point on the faceoff, used his 6'4'' frame rather well and was a good skater for being such a big guy. He'll look great on the Sioux's blueline and has a good shot at making this team.

Without having familiarity with the US selection process, I find it surprising that cuts are being made now in August for a tournament starting in late December. Are these actually cuts, or can some of these guys still play their way onto the team with a good showing in the first few months of their regular season? - Centacre

These are not actual cuts, they're just trimming the evaluation camp roster. Here's how it works. They bring 44 players to Lake Placid to form two teams of 22 - Blue and White. Cam Fowler and Nick Leddy didn't come and now you've got two teams of 21. They played three games against each other with the White Team winning all three in rather convincing fashion. Afterwards they trimmed the roster to a more manageable number as they headed into the second phase of the evaluation camp involving games against Sweden and Finland. Right now, 28 players remain with six guys sitting out each night rather than 20. While the guys still at the camp have more opportunities to be seen by the powers that be, they're not naming the final roster until mid-December. Everyone still has a chance to make it...even guys who weren't invited to camp.

Now...if you follow me on twitter, you might have seen me post this picture earlier of a huge plaque on the wall commemorating all the medal winners in the 1980 Olympics here in Lake Placid.

Anyone else see anything wrong with this commemorative plaque... on Twitpic

I asked if anyone else saw anything wrong with it and I was left wondering why this plaque had been here for all these years...I mean we all know the USA played Finland in the gold medal game!! So, how could something like this happen?! Well it turns out back then, even though they played the tournament format we have now, the medals were awarded based on points and how that tournament played out. Crazy...but true! Had the US lost to Finland, they could have gone home without a medal...just like Finland did! It also meant the Finns missed out on a medal because they lost in the round robin to Russia! They were the only team with a loss in the medal round. They also lost to Poland, but the medals were awarded by points against teams in the medal round only. So at the start Russia had 2 points, Sweden and the USA each had 1 point because they tied each other and Finland had zero points.

But then it gets weirder! While the semifinal was Group A's best team playing Group B's second best team and vice versa which set up the Russia-USA match up (Sweden had more goals for than the USA and got the tiebreaker), the finals were the top two teams playing against each other and the bottom two teams playing against each other no matter who won the semifinal games. Finland and Sweden actually tied their semifinal game so even if Finland beat the USA in that final game the best the Finns could have gotten was silver!...and the USA might have missed out on bronze because of goal differential!

You can checkout the details here...I found it quite fascinating. I'm not sure when they switched to the current format, but I am so glad they did!!! Way too many if this, than that scenarios doing it this other way...

So, credit to @iscoolerthanyou who apparently really is cooler than me because he's the only one who told me about it!! ...I still can't imagine playing for gold and going home with NOTHING!

In any case, back to the Evaluation Camp and last night's game between Teams USA and Sweden...

You can read the game recap here, but in short the US camp out ready to roll. Jason Zucker got things going by taking advantage of a turnover and roofing it past Lehner to give the USA an early 1-0 lead. Sweden got into some penalty trouble shortly there after and found themselves down two men. It took Derek Forbort all of 23 seconds to convert and then about 30 seconds later Justin Faulk made it 3-0. A minute later Charlie Coyle corrals an outlet pass, streaks down the wing and wrists one past Lehner to make it 4-0 in just over four minutes into the first period.

The US killed a four minute penalty for boarding and really got into Sweden's head. It was a track meet with the teams literally going back and forth and back and forth and Team USA was ready for it showing great conditioning. Sweden was able to score on the PP in the final minutes of the period, but still played with caution. The US had quite a few scoring opportunities off the rush from their transition game and Sweden looked nervous to give up those long passes and would hang back.

The made solid adjustments in the second period, got more pucks in deep and scored two more goals in the middle of the period by going hard to the net. The physical nature of the game increased and blood started to boil in the third period as the parade to the penalty box began. In total, 14 calls were made that period, mostly on Sweden. At one point, they had four guys in the box with one of them waiting his turn for the clock to start. Team USA was able to convert on one of them as Faulk got his second of the night with another bomb from the point to give the US a two goal lead. Brock Nelson got the empty netter to make it a 6-3 final.

Chris Kreider shows off his battle wounds in a post game scru... on Twitpic
Chris Kreider took a skate to the face requiring eight stitches in a small but deep cut. Afterwards, he laughed and said he loved the cage and was all for wearing one.

The US plays Finland tonight. You can watch live at www.usahockey.fasthockey.com

Julie

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@JulieRobenhymer


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