The Montreal Canadiens despatched 4 of their greatest prospects to the World Juniors this yr. Two of them have been eradicated within the quarter-finals and the opposite two will face one another in a semi-final at present.
The Montreal Canadiens had 4 of their greatest prospects collaborating within the World Junior Hockey Championships. All of them have been taking part in on deep groups that had their sights set on a gold medal, however solely certainly one of them goes to participate within the gold medal sport tomorrow. We’ll discover out who that’s later at present.
Whereas Cole Caufield and Jordan Harris misplaced in disappointing vogue to Finland within the quarterfinal on Thursday, Alexander Romanov and Mattias Norlinder moved on with wins that very same day. Now, these two defenceman will go head-to-head as Russia takes on Sweden with a ticket to the ultimate on the road.
Norlinder has been the seventh defender for Sweden and whereas he averaged near 11 minutes per sport throughout the preliminary spherical, he performed simply 7:33 within the quarterfinal in opposition to the Czech Republic. Half of that got here within the third interval alone when the sport was turning into out of attain for Czech Republic who finally fell 5-Zero to the highly effective Swedish workforce.
Sweden have a really deep group of defenders with 5 first spherical draft picks, a second spherical choose and Norlinder who was a 3rd spherical choose by the Canadiens. There’s a variety of ability on each of those groups, so I might anticipate a detailed sport. With it being such an necessary sport, I wouldn’t anticipate to see a variety of Norlinder sadly. He has performed nicely when referred to as upon, however with so many nice defensemen on the workforce, he’s the seventh possibility and will likely be used sparingly at present.
Whereas Norlinder will watch many of the sport from the bench, he’ll get to see a variety of a possible future teammate in Alexander Romanov. The Russian left defenceman received the award for high defender as this match final yr, and is on a brief record to win the award once more together with his sturdy play this time round.
Romanov performed the second most minutes on the workforce of their Three-1 victory over Switzerland within the quarterfinal. He has averaged the second most time on ice all through the match as he performs energy play, shorthanded and plenty of even power time. Romanov has a purpose and 4 factors in 5 video games and has solely been on the ice for a single even power purpose in opposition to so far.
The Russians will lean closely on Romanov as soon as once more at present and use him to attempt to shut down among the high gamers on the Swedish workforce. That will likely be a tricky activity as Nils Hoglander and Samuel Fagemo are the highest two scorers within the match.
If anybody can preserve them in test, it will likely be Romanov. He has regarded nice at each ends of the ice all through this match and will likely be taking part in a variety of heavy minutes for Russia at present as they attempt to advance to the gold medal sport.
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Both approach, one of many Canadiens high left defence prospects will likely be transferring on to the ultimate. We’ll discover out when the puck drops at present at 9:00 A.M. Japanese time.