The World Cup of Hockey got underway this weekend, with all Blue Jacket players getting into the action. The first matchup on Saturday featured Brandon Dubinsky, Jack Johnson and Head Coach John Tortorella of Team USA taking on Team Europe. This game did no go as expected with Team Europe winning 3-0, and in the process raising all sorts of questions about Team USA.
It’s no secret this was a suboptimal Team USA. Leaving players like Phil Kessel and Tyler Johnson at home in favour of players like Justin Abdelkader just isn’t a good strategy for success in a tournament like this. Tortorella didn’t build this team but he certainly isn’t helping it with his roster decisions. I don’t think even the biggest fans of Jack Johnson would say he's a better player than Dustin Byfuglien. Would Byfuglien have made a difference? It’s hard to say but its sub-optimal decisions like that, that had many people questioning Tortorella.
As for Dubinsky and Johnson, neither had good games. Johnson struggled particularly in his own zone as he struggled at moving the puck and exiting the zone.
He only played 11:26 minutes in the game, but iced the puck the most and dumped the puck out the most. It’s very difficult for teams to generate offense when their defencemen cannot move the puck. Johnson heavily relied on Erik Johnson to carry the puck out the zone. Jack continually made d to d passes, which are fine but it won’t take long for teams to realize this and adjust. This is a big reason he's struggled in Columbus. Neither he nor David Savard are great at exiting the zone. That gives the other team more zone time putting extra pressure on the goalie and forwards and as mentioned before really kills your offensive opportunities.
Team Russia has similar defensive issues. Russia has one of the poorer d-units here but they were able to keep their game close as Sergei Bobrovsky was rock solid in net. Bob allowed two goals on 29 shots against Sweden but ended up with the loss as Russia could only score one goal. Bob had a .931 save percentage for the game allowing just a single even strength goal. He’s looked real good in these games, hopefully it can continue once the NHL season begins.
One part of this World Cup that will carry over to the NHL season will be the pairing of Ryan Murray and Seth Jones. The duo was fantastic in the preliminary games and kept it going against Finland last night. They continue to be the shutdown pair, playing almost a third of their minutes against Finland’s top line of Sebastian Aho, Alexander Barkov and Patrik Laine, and they shut them down.
Overall all three Blue Jackets on Team North America were strong.
Saad didn’t get a ton of ice time as he too was used in a more shutdown type of role. He was able to take on some tough defensive assignments, allowing players like McDavid, Eichel, Matthews etc. to play in the offensive zone and do what they do best.
Up next on the schedule, Jones, Murray, Saad and the rest of Team North America will be taking on Bobrovsky and Team Russia tonight at 8pm. That game should be a high flying affair. Russia has the speed and skill up front to match Team North America; this game could end up as a track meet with players just flying up and down the ice. Team USA is off today. They take on Canada tomorrow night, in what promises to be a very physical and intense game.
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