Day one of the World Juniors: Oilers prospects light up lesser teams
by Doogie2K on Dec 27, 2009 11:46 AM MST
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PrintGiven that the World Juniors have become a tradition north of the border, many Oilers fans probably already saw Canada run the Latvians out of the rink to the tune of a record-breaking 16-0 score. While the "third" line of Cormier-Bourque-Kozun accounted for much of the scoring, Jordan Eberle was, as usual, making things happen just about every time he touched the puck. He finished with a stat line of two goals on seven shots, a +1, and a couple of solid penalty-killing shifts. Canada was 6/8 on the PP, with Eberle scoring his second goal of the night with the man advantage.
Team Sweden, meanwhile, pasted the Czech Republic 10-1 in Regina. Sweden has two Oilers prospects, in Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson and Anton Lander. I didn't watch that game (obviously), but both fellows had excellent games statistically, with Lander scoring on both his shots and finishing +4, while Paajarvi had a goal and four assists, finishing +2. Sweden finished 3/7 on the PP, with Paajarvi factoring in on all three goals (1G, 2A) and Lander scoring one of them.
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Doogie: Your man Kozun looked mighty good yesterday. He really has a sniper’s feel around the crease, doesn’t he? He should be a real good source of “secondary” scoring even when we start to play against real teams.
Watching Teemu Hartikainen score just as I write this which will make Derek happy. How many Oiler prospects are there playing in total in the tourney? I’m counting Eberle, MPS, Lander, Hartikainen, and Rajala … am I missing any?
Writer for The Copper & Blue and primary shareholder of Zorg Industries
I was trying to think of that myself. There’s been a strong US presence in past years, but this year, I’m looking at the sidebar and coming up empty after those five. I actually almost forgot about Lander until I heard his name on Sportscentre yesterday.
As for Kozun, that’s the sort of thing I’ve gotten used to seeing him do, and it’s great to see him continue to put up the numbers after Brett Sonne, also the WHL scoring leader at the time of the tournament, was relegated to a fourth-line support role last year (he had the skillset for it, but still). It’s an unusual game for a small man, to set up near the crease like that, and it’s earned him more than his share of abuse, but he never stays down, which is what’s really left an impression with me. If he manages to avoid injury, he’ll have an NHL career.
You’re seeing now why I keep harping the fact that Cam Abney and Jordan Bendfeld were both taken by the Oilers ahead of him; if they combine for more than 5 NHL games between them, I’ll be fucking stunned. Guys like them grow on trees in every two-bit minor-pro league in North America; guys like Kozun less so.
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there). Link now 100% less broken.
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