Vancouver Canucks: World Hockey Championship update
Six Vancouver Canucks players are currently in Slovakia for the World Hockey Championship. Let’s check in and see how they’re all doing thus far in the tournament.
The wish for every Vancouver Canucks fan is to watch the team’s players compete in the playoffs at this time of year, rather than the World Hockey Championship tournament. Unfortunately, the Canucks missed the playoffs this year. At least we still get to watch our favourite players play hockey still?
The World Hockey Championship is an interesting tournament. You’ve got teams such as Canada, Sweden, and the United States who are gunning for gold, then you’ve got teams like Great Britain and Italy (shout out to all my Italians out there) who are simply trying not to avoid relegation and compete in the tournament the following year.
It leads to some games that are rather lopsided, but near the end, it leads to some entertaining hockey. Let’s check in and see how the teams with Canucks representation on them have been doing thus far.
Troy Stecher — Canada
Troy Stecher was ecstatic to get the invite to the WHC. Any time a player gets to represent their country, it’s an opportunity very few will pass up. Stecher scored his first goal of the tournament on Monday, in a 6-5 Canada win over the host Slovakia. Here is “Troy from Richmond’s goal”
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“Put it to the net and good things happen,” Stecher said. Through the first three games for Canada, Stecher has a goal and an assist. This morning, he went on Sportsnet 650 and said the following about the experience of playing in the tournament:
“It has been amazing, it’s a little different playing on the bigger ice surface but we feel the team is getting better everyday.”
Stecher also doesn’t mind playing along defence partner Thomas Chabot, who, according to Stecher, plays a similar type of game to Canucks’ defenceman, Quinn Hughes.
“I am playing with Thomas Chabot right now, kind of similar to Quinn Hughes. You can be more creative with the bigger ice and you can see the skill on individual players blossom.”
Canada currently sits fourth in Group A with a record of 2-1. They will face France tomorrow morning at 7:15 AM.
Thatcher Demko and Quinn Hughes — Team USA
The United States team just beat one of the worse teams in the tournament, Great Britain, by a score of 6-3. Thatcher Demko picked up the victory and now has two victories through the first four games of the tournament for the USA.
Although Demko was the winning goalie, most of the attention was on the other end of the rink, where Great Britain goaltender Ben Bowns turned in a remarkable performance. Bowns made numerous huge saves off of extremely talented American players, but the most memorable was hands down when he slid across the crease to make an acrobatic save off of a Jack Hughes backhander.
Bowns faced 65 shots in the game and was the main reason that the Americans were unable to run up the score further on the Brits. On the blueline, Quinn Hughes turned in another solid performance for the Americans. In fact, both Hughes and Demko picked up an assist on this Clayton Keller goal:
Get used to seeing beautiful stretch passes like those, Canucks fans. Hughes has seen time on USA’s second power play unit, and so far, has three assists in four games. The USA team currently sits second in Group A with a record of 2-1-1. Germany sits atop the group with a perfect record of 3-0-0. The Americans will be back in action this Saturday at 3:15 AM Pacific time, where they will face Denmark.
Pettersson, Eriksson, Markstrom — Team Sweden
Surprisingly enough, Little Things Loui Eriksson has the most points of any Canuck at the tournament thus far. Through Sweden’s first three games, he has one goal and three assists. He has seen time on the first power play unit alongside Elias Pettersson, where he picked up his only goal off a backdoor tap in.
Pettersson has three assists so far, and despite being a point per game player at the tournament, he is extremely disappointed in the way he has performed thus far. Despite Sweden having an off day yesterday, Pettersson was on the ice working hard, saying, “I must be better and not think so much on the ice.”
It’s no secret that Pettersson wants to be the best player in the world, so at the World Hockey Championship, a tournament Pettersson won gold at last year, it makes sense that he’s doing everything he can to be the best he can be.
Goaltender Jacob Markstrom has picked up right where he left off in the remarkable season he had for the Canucks, and has been a rock so far in goal for Sweden. After a scary incident where Markstrom collided with a player in pre-tournament play, it’s good to see Markstrom not miss a beat and get right back to playing at a high level.
Markstrom allowed just one goal in Sweden’s 9-1 victory over Norway, and should play the rest of the tournament as Sweden’s starter. He backed up Henrik Lundqvist in the game prior against Italy, where Sweden won 8-0 (sorry Grandpa).
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Sweden currently sits fourth in Group B with a record of 2-1-0. They will face Austria tomorrow, who have been shut out twice, and scored just two goals through their first three games of the tournament. For a complete Canucks fan guide to the World Hockey Championship, click here.