Guest Dasein Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 I'd like to see him work on his floating when he doesn't have the puck. That's something that can be easily corrected. He also needs to work on getting open. He had an average game tonight. Wasn't bad, but wasn't great either. Had a couple good shots, some nice hits Pretty much the story of his tournament apart from the 1st game. I hope he can turn it up a notch for the Gold medal game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canorth Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) . Edited January 5, 2015 by Canorth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kazin! Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Hasn't been great the last few games but has been bumped around the lineup. The bottom two lines are essentially the same and interchangeable and I wonder if we're going to stack the top two lines for the gold medal game. Remember, all (I think) of the guys on the top two lines are top picks from last year's draft (save for McDavid?). I think Virtanen will be a top 6 player next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canucks1219 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 I'm guessing the excitement of playing in the tournament has worn off and this is more of the game you'd expect to see from virtanen. I doubt he's injured. I've watched him play a few WHL games before the tournament started and he was much better in those games than he ever was here in this tournament. The competition here is superior to the WHL (of course) so that will affect his production, but it shouldn't make him not skate as well or play physically this infrequently. I know I'm biased, but I'm not really sure why Groulx would go with Point over Virtanen with McD and Lazar? Point really hasn't done all that much on that line... Seemed like Virt had some chemistry with the other two Groulx did try Virtanen there for an extended period of time during this tournament and he saw what that looked like. You can't say that Jake's earned to be in the top 6 so far in this tournament based on his play. I think Bob McKenzie said in a post-game that they wanted Virtanen's size and physicality on Petan's wing. Point on his right-side may have been too small a line for Groulx. Fabbri is small too but he plays are a far more hard-nosed style that belies his frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WonderTwinPowers Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 In the past, but the new tools are just so handy and healthy I enjoy my Da Vinci greatest investment ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dasein Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 I think Bob McKenzie said in a post-game that they wanted Virtanen's size and physicality on Petan's wing. Point on his right-side may have been too small a line for Groulx. Fabbri is small too but he plays are a far more hard-nosed style that belies his frame. Wasn't that a couple games ago though? And he hasn't exactly brought that either after the transition, or at least he's been very inconsistent with it shift-to-shift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canucks1219 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) Wasn't that a couple games ago though? And he hasn't exactly brought that either after the transition, or at least he's been very inconsistent with it shift-to-shift. The post you replied to is talking about playing Point with McDavid + Lazar ahead of Virtanen, which happened after Fabbri got hurt last game. Point didn't get a shift in the previous game against the US. So it was after the Denmark game that McKenzie explained the thought process behind Point on line 2 and Virtanen on line 3. EDIT: I watched the video again (McKenzie post-game against Denmark) and he didn't mention Virtanen on the line because of size and physicality or Point making the line too small. Huh.. I swore I heard that after (or maybe during) last game. Edited January 5, 2015 by Canucks1219 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dasein Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 The post you replied to is talking about playing Point with McDavid + Lazar ahead of Virtanen, which happened after Fabbri got hurt last game. Point didn't get a shift in the previous game against the US. So it was after the Denmark game that McKenzie explained the thought process behind Point on line 2 and Virtanen on line 3. Ah alright. And I'm saying that if that's the reason he's been placed on Petan's wing, he hasn't been doing a very good job and has been inconsistent with his efforts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guntrix Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) The Sedins are really classy, really nice guys...really nice, good players albeit on the decline of their careers...but it has been proven over many years...in really tough series against the big tough teams in the West and in the NHL...you are not going to win a Stanley Cup with these guys as your top players. Not in their prime and certainly not now. Lets extrapolate that to Nylander and just give Benning the benefit of the doubt in going a different direction in drafting a big, fast, tough, Canadian power forward and going a different direction. This is one of the most misleading conclusions on CDC. The Canucks could have very well won the cup with the Sedins leading the line. The Hawks are an example of a team not being the biggest but still winning the cup. Heck they got more than one to show for it. Opting for the "big" prototype is not a bad way to go and it's definitely not the only one. To act like it's go big or go home is misleading. Edited January 5, 2015 by guntrix 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darius Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) Jake looks a little lost out there at times...but let's not forget that guys like Nurse and Domi didn't even make the team the year they got drafted. Also I think that the success of the smaller guys doesn't necessarily translate to NHL success where d men are built like trucks and can skate like the wind. Like someone else said earlier I'm more concerned about a guy like shinkaruk than I am about Jake at this point. Edited January 5, 2015 by Darius71 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Canucks1219 Posted January 5, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted January 5, 2015 Here is Virtanen's game against Slovakia. I am missing the beginning of a shift where he spun around and sent a puck on net from around the o-zone blueline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0S0tphd3Qg 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BanTSN Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Thanks again for the video, 1219. 1:46 When he trucked that guy in the first it didn't look like dude was going to get back up for awhile. 4:30 He was skating faster backwards than the rest of the guys there were forward. Unreal. Was coasting a lot though. Happens when you're up on the score. Bring on the Soviets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spotted Zebra Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 This is such a fun tournament to watch when there are no Canucks on team Canada. Really takes away from the whle country thing and makes it individualized 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdatb Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Bad game against Slovakia. He's never had time to develop chemistry with anyone though. I'm thinking he's either playing hurt (unlikely) or the coach has instructed him to play a certain style which doesn't fit him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBackup Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 This is such a fun tournament to watch when there are no Canucks on team Canada. Really takes away from the whle country thing and makes it individualized I disagree. I still like watching it, it just adds an extra layer of excitement to watch some of our young guns duke it out on the world's biggest stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canucks1219 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 This is such a fun tournament to watch when there are no Canucks on team Canada. Really takes away from the whle country thing and makes it individualized Eh, I don't feel that way at all. I guess things might get brought down a little by the fact that a Canucks prospect isn't doing relatively well, but I've still enjoyed the team's success a lot. I pay extra attention to Virtanen because I put together videos for people who want to have a closer look at his game later or never caught the game live, but that doesn't take away from my Canadian pride when watching the games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJDDawg Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Bad game against Slovakia. He's never had time to develop chemistry with anyone though. I'm thinking he's either playing hurt (unlikely) or the coach has instructed him to play a certain style which doesn't fit him. He has to be playing as he's been told to do. He's basically been the third man high on every shift, so I've seen a real reluctance by him to get involved in battles along the boards or deep in the corners. I'm sure it's also been difficult for him given he's not on the special teams. That's a lot of time spent on the bench and as we know, big guys need to be involved early and often to get into the game. I don't think it's a coincidence that we haven't heard much from Ritchie as well in the last couple of games either. Hopefully as a first year WJ player, he's simply doing whatever is asked of him to help the team. This team has more than enough star power, so they don't really need him to score. That's what I'm hoping at least, and I expect that next Christmas he'll be one of the leaders on the team. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeNiro Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 This is his first world juniors and he's playing in a support role. This team is built around 19 year olds and McDavid. Lots of players have had average world juniors only to come back strong the next year. Next year he'll hopefully have a bigger role as the 19 year olds graduate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarGirl Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Jake looks a little lost out there at times...but let's not forget that guys like Nurse and Domi didn't even make the team the year they got drafted. Also I think that the success of the smaller guys doesn't necessarily translate to NHL success where d men are built like trucks and can skate like the wind. Like someone else said earlier I'm more concerned about a guy like shinkaruk than I am about Jake at this point. I agree! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
messier's_elbow Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 He has played average the last few games, but he gets passed around more then a joint at a kid rock concert. Hard to find a groove when your on a different line combo every single game. His best game was definitely game 1 though he was a force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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