WJC thoughts, first period

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I love the World Juniors, I really do. No doubt it's my favourite hockey of the year. So, some early thoughts on Team Canada after the first period of the first exhibition game. The top two lines look great on paper. Absolutely awesome. The much-ballyhooed Windsor Spitfires line with Greg Nemisz, Taylor Hall and Adam Henrique should be solid, particularly in the early going because of their familiarity with one another. One note on Hall though: he took a couple of very solid shots late in the first and I wonder if he's quite ready physically for this tournament. He looks a little small and a little timid out there-- kind of the way you'd expect an 18-year old to look. The second line with Jordan Eberle, Brandon McMillan and Brayden Schenn looks like a solid trio that could be explosive. I'd forgotten all about Eberle's blazing speed and as a Calgary Hitmen season ticket holder, I'm excited about the fact Eberle's Regina Pats are here twice during this tournament. Having Jordan Caron on the third line, adding some firepower to the Stefan Della Rovere and Patrice Cormier defensive prowess has already paid off with a goal in the first period. Speaking of the Calgary Hitmen, their own Brandon Kozun has shown everything he's got. He has great speed, a nose for the net (as seen on his goal) and a tendency to over-pass (as seen in his first power play shift). Working with Nazem Kadri may pay off huge for him, since Kadri has such a strong goal-scoring touch. As for Luke Adam and Gabirel Bourque, I didn't see much of them, so I'll get back to you. On defence, I'm not familiar with Marco Scandella, and didn't see him much with all the special teams time in the first. This bodes well for the opinion that he's a good shut-down defender. His partner Travis Hamonic looked pretty good despite the penalty. He quarterbacked the first power play and it was a good one. The second pair of Alex Pietrangelo and Jared Cowen may end up being Canada's most important pair. I'm very high on Cowen (I would have taken him first overall in June), and while the TSN guys are already prepared to beat this point until it's thoroughly dead, Pietrangelo really does look like a completely different player from the one we saw last year. I would liken his transformation to the one Karl Alzner made in his two tournaments. His first year, Alzner was kind of OK, but in his second year, he was absolutely Canada's most important defender. Could go that way for Alex P this year. Last note, Pietrangelo seemed to be quarterbacking the PP even when he was out there with Ryan Ellis. This leads me to believe Ellis hasn't fully gained coach Willie Desjardins' trust. We'll see. Ellis is on the third pair with Colten Teubert, another player returning from last year's team. Teubert was part of Canada's shut-down pair last year with Tyler Myers, but I think we're going to see that Teubert probably isn't that player. He made some mistakes in the first period and really doesn't seem to quite be a top-pair defenceman. He is a warrior though, and he makes the right play more often than not. The key for both of these players is to stay within themselves and focus on doing well the things they do well. I didn't see much of Calvin de Haan, so again, more to come. As for Jake Allen, he looked good. I don't think he was spectacular, but he seems to stop the shots he needs to stop. His rebound control looks good, but not quite as controlled as my heart would like. I don't see Allen being the reason for any of Canada's losses in this tournament. All in all, things look good. In the first half of the period, Canada really seemed to rely on fast breakouts and really playing a counter-attacking style, which you'd expect from a team that's only been together a week. But as they got a couple power plays and as the period moved on, they played with more structure. As that structure improves, so should this team. It's been just one period of one exhibition game, but these guys look good so far.