Another great night for Cole Cassels and the Oshawa Generals in Game 2 of their OHL Final series against Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters on Saturday night.
The Generals improved upon their performance from Game 1 by scoring four goals in the third period to beat Erie 5-1. Cole Cassels had a goal and was plus-two while Erie's superstar centre Connor McDavid was held pointless. That's a pretty big deal for a guy who was averaging nearly three points a game in the playoffs before starting this series.
The series now shifts to Erie for the next two games. Game 3 is scheduled for Monday night.
Cassels is older than McDavid—Cole turned 20 earlier this week, on May 4—Star Wars Day—while McDavid turned 18 back in January. So far, The Force has clearly been on Cassels' side so far in this series.
After two intense back-to-back games to start their second-round playoff series, the Utica Comets are enjoying a couple of days off before getting back to business in Oklahoma City. Game 3 of their series also goes Monday night.
Meanwhile the IIHF World Championships continue, which is going to be my primary focus for the next week or so.
I'm thrilled to tell you that I'm writing this from the departure area at YVR. As Canada leads Switzerland 2-1 at the end of the first period on the TV playing above my head in the restaurant, I'm heading to Prague to take in the last week of the tournament in person!
I hatched this plan at the end of last season, when we all assumed the Canucks would be well outside the playoff picture as they embarked upon their rebuild. I figured this year would be a perfect opportunity to experience the international hockey experience and the big ice surface in what's said to be one of the most spectacular cities in Europe.
Canucks.com has a short video of Nick Bonino, talking about his experience so far. Team USA is playing the round-robin in the tournament's second city, Ostrava, so I don't know yet whether or not they'll make it to Prague for the medal round.
Team USA is currently first in Group B with a 5-0-0-1 record, as they put it international hockey. Three points are awarded for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime loss and zero for a regulation loss, so the Americans have 15 points with one game left against Slovakia on Tuesday.
Team Canada is playing in Prague and is leading Group A with a perfect 5-0-0-0 record coming into today's game against Switzerland. The Canadians need just one point—either today or on Tuesday against Austria—to clinch first place in their group and guarantee a quarter-final game in Prague, rather than crossing over to Ostrava.
There's not a lot of North American media presence over there, but Terry Jones of the
Edmonton Sun does a good job of explaining the appeal in
this article from late April.
Even Tony Gallagher was all-in on the fun of the game action after Canada's barnburner against Sweden earlier in the week.
Click here for that story.
If you are a fan of speed and grace overwhelming positioning, systems and grit when it comes to your hockey, then the world championships in Prague are making the Stanley Cup playoffs look downright boring.
Seriously, how many of those droning games between the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals can you watch?
Canada’s team at the worlds this year is great fun, pure and simple.
Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear that stars like Sidney Crosby and Jaromir Jagr, who don't come around Vancouver very often, are participating in the tournament this year. Looking forward to watching the wide-open, high-octane games as the stakes get higher while we head towards the gold-medal game.
I'll be checking in when I can through the week, with other Canucks news as well as my thoughts from the World Championships. Obviously, with the time change and my work schedule while I'm over there, I can't promise that you'll be able to set your watch by my posts as usual, but I'm sure you'll continue to dissect the Canucks next lineup and future plans as enthusiastically as ever.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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