Team France and Alexandre Texier were unable to win the World Juniors Division 1 tournament and will not be promoted to the 2019 World Juniors. Kazakhstan won the tournament wining all five games, three in regulation and two in overtime, to narrowly edge out Latvia in points 13-12. Kazakhstan defeated France on the final day of the tournament to secure the victory and the promotion.
That final game is a good place to start when talking about the disappointing tournament for France. France was embarrassed in that game losing 6-1. It was clear early on that Kazakhstan was the better team, which led to France taking a ton of stick infraction penalties. France was unable to keep up and were forced to hook and hold the Kazakhstan players when they got a step. Kazakhstan scored a couple power play goals and had a sizable lead going into the third. The final frame is where things completely derailed for France. Knowing they couldn’t come back and that the tournament was over, they let their emotions get the best of them and started playing dirty. They took four slashing penalties, took a two and 10 penalty for hitting from behind and two more players ejected for abuse of officials.
This was a week of frustration boiling over for the French players. Playing at home in France you know they wanted a better performance. They started the tournament on a high note beating Austria 6-1, but that ended up as their only regulation win. They beat Hungary, the team that ended up getting relegated, 4-3 in overtime. They were shutout 4-0 against Germany, lost 1-0 in overtime to Latvia before the disaster that was the Kazakhstan game. France was competitive in most games, but ultimately Texier didn’t dominate the tournament like expected and there wasn’t enough depth behind him to make up for it.
Texier finished the tournament with no goals and just four assists in five games, three of which came in the first game against Austria. As the highest drafted player at the event, much more was expected. Opposing teams did a very good job of zoning in on Texier and not letting him take over games. Germany and Kazakhstan were the best two at this. Texier was a zone entry machine, finishing with 26 successful entries in five games. Against Germany and Kazakhstan he combined for just four. They were able to clog up the neutral zone and make it very difficult for Texier to get in and set up.
Texier even without the points played very well. He had a 59.7% Corsi, though that was propped up by a 70.5% against Austria and Hungary. Against the three stronger opponents Texier was a 48.3%. Even in those games Texier’s line was the only one that was able to get consistent pressure and good scoring opportunities. Texier was very good at transitioning the puck, so even if he had to start most shifts in the defensive zone if he got the puck he was gone. He had 18 controlled breakouts against just one failed. He never dumped the puck out, always opting to carry it himself.
What hurt Texier the most was that his teammates couldn’t keep up with him. There were many times where he made a great play to get around a defencemen and make a terrific pass. His line-mates either weren’t expecting it or not ready for it and missed easy opportunities to score. The problem persisted on the power play. Texier was the quarterback setting everything up, but again he would make some great passes and they would end up bobbled or one-time opportunity would be missed. Texier should have been the go to shooter on the power play but France didn’t have anyone that could get him the puck.
It was a disappointing tournament for France, but they did not get relegated and will be back next year to try again. They will be returning 10 players from this team, including Texier, and that will give them a chance to earn a promotion to the 2020 tournament.
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