LeNeveu and World Juniors

Obviously, the Canadian national team needs two goalies. LeNeveu is fighting for 1 of 2 spots out of 4 candidates. Up till now, I've just been assuming that if LeNeveu made the team, then he'd be in net. But a post on the USCHO board made me realize that it was a distinct possibility for him to make the team but not play at all.

I don't know much about the other candidates. How does LeNeveu compare with the other goalies fighting for the spot. And, I know its unsportsman-esque question, but if LeNeveu makes the team, but as the 2nd string goalie, does he have the opportunity to decide not to play for the team?

This is just a question. If it's inappropriate, then I apologize in advance.

These are the goalies in camp:

1 Fleury, Marc-André L/G 6'1.5 170 11/28/84 Sorel, QC Cape Breton (LHJMQ) 2003 Dft/Rep.

31 LeNeveu, David L/G 6'1 170 05/23/83 Fernie, BC Cornell (ECAC) PHX 2002

30 Ward, Cam L/G 6'0.5 176 02/29/84 Sherwood Park, AB Red Deer (WHL) CAR 2002

35 Drouin-Deslauriers, Jeff L/G 6'3.5 185 05/15/84 St-Athanase, QC Chicoutimi (LHJMQ) EDM 2002

Cam Ward currently has the best GAA (2.09) and SV% (.921) in the WHL, which is pretty darn impressive, and he was the first round pick for Carolina (25 overall) in the 2002 Entry Draft. I really don't know, but I would guess he is the favorite to start. This is the league that produced Dan Blackburn of the Rangers, etc, and you probably know major junior leagues are goal scorers' leagues. Fleury has a .920 in the Quebec league and Drouin has a .896.

2.09 / .921 in the WHL is nothing short of amazing. This is a very high scoring league, and there are excellent goalies at 3.00 / .905

That having been said, Red Deer has mammoth, berzerker D'men and Ward may be getting a bit of a goose from his blueline (as may Lenny).

see below:
[www.canadianhockey.ca]

When do they make decisions?
-J

Players will be released on three consecutive mornings starting Saturday.

Source: [www.tsn.ca]



" The players have been divided into the Red and White squads. Each group will skate Thursday morning before squaring off in an intra-squad game at night.

They have the same routine Friday. After the first round of cuts Saturday morning..."

Source: [www.tsn.ca]

So I'm guessing by Monday or Tuesday, we'll know the final roster, perhaps? Good Luck Lenny!

RED WHITE AND GOLD! $$

December 12, 2002
Competition stiff between the pipes


By RYAN VAN HORNE
Halifax Daily News
Goaltending has long been a strength of Canadian junior teams, but if it's going to be the case this year in Halifax, there will be a new household name by the new year.

The four hopefuls at the tryout camp, which began yesterday at the Halifax Metro Centre, are fresh faces. Only one has played for Canada internationally: Marc-Andre Fleury of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, who played with the under-18 team in Slovakia in August of 2001.

"I don't think it gives me an edge, because they're all good goaltenders, and two of them were in the summer camp," Fleury said about David LeNeveu and Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers.

Cam Ward of the Red Deer Rebels, a first-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes, is the other goalie at camp.

"I've got to earn my spot again," said Fleury. "Maybe you have more confidence when you come here to grab a spot."

But even though there's no veteran to beat out, there are some talented goalies at camp.

LeNeveu, who plays for the Cornell Big Red of the NCAA's East Coast Athletic Conference, said the situation is a good one for the goalies.

"Everybody is feeling confident that they have a great chance of playing as a starting goaltender," he said. "It's just going to come down to who has the most confidence and who's playing well behind their teammates."

LeNeveu had a solid summer camp and, along with Drouin-Deslauriers, was invited back. But that doesn't give him an edge over the newcomers, as Olivier Michaud learned.

Michaud was the backup on last year's team, but didn't get an invite to the tryout camp.

"It's how you compete and how you play on the ice," said LeNeveu, who hails from Fernie, B.C.

Canadian coach Marc Habscheid and his chief scout, Blair Mackasey, have enlisted the help of Ian Clark, a goaltending consultant with the Vancouver Canucks, to help them evaluate their goalies.

"You can see from the first practice that they bring a lot of talent," Habscheid said. "There's some big guys, some quick guys, and they bring a lot of dimensions to the game. It makes for an interesting battle."

Fleury has one edge over his competitors. He's familiar with the Metro Centre and knows how quirky the bounces can sometimes be. He's played there several times over the past three seasons with Cape Breton, a division rival of the Halifax Mooseheads.

Fleury, who earned his invite to camp with a blistering start to his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season, says his busy workload with the Eagles, more than his high ranking for next year's NHL draft, helped him get noticed.

"Getting more shots per game helped me to be seen by the scouts of the Canadian team," said the Sorel, Que., native who is considered a lock to be picked in the top 10 of the 2003 entry draft.

[www.faceoff.com]

[www.tsn.ca]

Clip 7188 - In the crease ... Feature on the four netminders battling to represent Canada. Has a short segment with LeNeveu himself!!

Not too sure how long this will be on the site before newer clips replace it... anyways enjoy.

P.S. You might need to sign up for an account to see this.... not sure... This takes like 30 seconds to load on my computer.. be patient.

From Thursday's intra-squad game at the selection camp. Recap at: [www.tsn.ca]

[Q]Red starting goaltender David LeNeveu stopped nine of 10 shots in his half of the game before the Cornell netminder was replaced by Cape Breton's Marc-Andre Fleury, who turned away 25 of 28 shots.

Cam Ward of the Red Deer Rebels gave up three goals on 17 shots in net for the White team before giving way to Chicoutimi's Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, who allowed two goals on 17 shots.[/Q]

Good start, but interesting that he saw so few shots.

I'm starting to think that Lenny gives up so few shots because opposing players don't think that they have openings. . .

So is Lenny taking finals?

I have a feeling Lenny will be busy taking exams during early to mid January.

While I was in law school, I spent a semester as a teaching assistant and proctored a makeup midterm exam the night of game 5 of the 1996 World Series. Besides listening to the 1-0 Yankee victory, what I remember most of proctoring the exam was that the overwhelming majority of the students taking the make-up test were leaving town the following day for road trips and thus unable to take the midterm as scheduled. Make-up exams for student athletes is one accomodation schools make. In my experience, neither the relative difficulty nor timing of the make-up exam conferred any benefit to the student athletes.

Plus you've gotta look at this from the big picture perspective. Will Dave gain more from a life/becoming a better person point of view by having this amazing sports experience or by slaving through his political economy exam? Cornell should be in the business of empowering bright young people to become productive and exceptional members of society. So let's not get caught up in the bullshit of exams and academia.

P.S.- I totally realize you were just kidding, Jordan. Just trying to make a more broad point here.

Craig Buckser '94 wrote:

While I was in law school, I spent a semester as a teaching assistant ...In my experience, neither the relative difficulty nor timing of the make-up exam conferred any benefit to the student athletes.

Yeah. But weren't you at that little little community college in cambridge where every gets a B for showing up?

True, John.

Although I realized Jordan's comments were tounge in cheek, I figured I might as well take advantage of one of the very few insights I have regarding the academic lives of student athletes. Plus, I wanted to re-live game 5 of the 1996 world series.

So. . .would anyone care to hazard an educated guess on who might walk away as World Junior Champions??? Mind you they are playing in Canada on non-international ice, could play a role in the outcome of the games (maybe help Canada and USA)???

Thoughts?

I see that David LeNeveu is listed at #80 on McKeen's top 100 NHL Prospects. Way to go David!

75 - Rickard Wallin C 22 6-2/190 Houston (AHL) Min
76 - Martin Vagner D 18 6-1/215 Hull (QMJHL) Dal
77 43 Martin Samuelsson RW 20 6-2/195 Providence (AHL) Bos
78 - Evgeni Artukhin RW 19 6-4/215 Moncton (QMJHL) TB
79 54 Jeff Heerema RW 22 6-1/190 Lowell (AHL) Car
80 - David LeNeveu G 19 6-1/170 Cornell (ECAC) Phx
81 51 Mark Popovic D 20 6-1/195 Cincinnati (AHL) Ana
82 27 Andy Hilbert C 21 5-11/195 Pro (AHL) / Bos (NHL) Bos
83 86 Jim Fahey D 23 6-0/215 SJ (NHL) / Cle (AHL) SJ
84 - Dominic Moore C 22 6-0/180 Harvard (ECAC) NYR
85 74 Marcel Goc C 19 6-0/190 Adler Mannheim (DEL) SJ

[mckeenshockey.rivals.com]

I like that he's rated higher than the guy at #84.

Hey Al, you and I have to find something else to do this time of night.

[www.tsn.ca]

Marc-Andre Fleury started in goal for Red and allowed two goals on 15 shots in his half of the game. David LeNeveu took over gave up on goal on 10 shots.

LeNeveu survived to live another day..... it's now down to 3 goaltenders.

The Canadian junior hockey team released goaltender Cam Ward, defencemen Aaron Johnson and Doug Lynch, and forwards Corey Locke, Jonathan Ferland and Nathan Horton Saturday morning.

The selection camp roster was reduced from 35 players to 29: three goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 16 forwards.

All the best Lenny!

Wow, beating out Cam Ward was an impressive task. For what it's worth, John Davidson two weeks ago effusively praised Ward, last season's Hurricanes' first-round pick, after watching him play a recent game for Red Deer.

Just got a new machine and it's like having a new toy.

Ward himself didn't seem surprised about getting cut. He apparently chose the wrong week to have a few down games.

Re Sat Night's game:

"Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers stopped 21 of 24 shots for the Atlantic all-stars. David LeNeveu split periods in goal for Canada and the all-stars, stopping 16 of 18 shots. Marc-Andre Fleury played his two periods in Canada's net and turned away 27 of 29 shots."

Lenny still seems to be holding his own but still isn't seeing the same quantity of shots on goal as the rest

Taken over the top job because of his consistent performances? Makes it sound like he took the job over from Matt this year (guess they didn't realize Matt graduated)

Maybe they meant taking over full time in preference to the new goalies?

Well in that case I would like to re-live game three. Very much off topic but...

I was at a dinner meeting of professionals, which we have about once a month. The speaker was listed as a woman but when she arrived she was accompanied by a man who had spoken to us the previous March. He was there to promote himself rather than impart continuing education.

After the meal I walked out of the meeting before the "educational" segment to make a drive home to sit with my then 12-year-old son who had begun rooting for the Yanks in '94.

Cost of missing the meeting...one hour of continuing education.

Sitting with my son during the beginning of one of the most enjoyable comebacks in MLB...PRICELESS!

All three remaining goaltenders survived this morning's cuts.

[www.canadianhockey.ca]

If he makes the team, Dave LeNeveu will be the first Cornellian to earn a roster spot at the WJC since Kent Manderville played for Canada in 1989-90 & 1990-91, if I recall correctly.

[q]If he makes the team, Dave LeNeveu will be the first Cornellian to earn a roster spot at the WJC since Kent Manderville played for Canada in 1989-90 & 1990-91, if I recall correctly.[/q]

Ryan Hughes played for Canada in the 1991-92 tournament.

I was thinking maybe Duffus made the WJC. Guess not.

Besides Manderville, who else? Ratushny? Nieuwendyk? Dadswell? Was there a WJC back when Eliot and Hayward were in net?

Thanks, Arthur. I had completely forgotten about Hughes's WJC appearance.

I think the Cornell hockey media guide should include a list of Cornellians who have played at the World Junior Championship.

Have any players played in the WJC (for Canada or even the US) before they came to Cornell? I know not many players are 18 when they first matriculate as freshmen.

Final cuts tomorrow morning. What happened during today's exhibition game ...

"Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 27 shots he faced, splitting his periods between Canada and the Atlantic team.

David LeNeveu allowed three goals on 20 shots in net for the Atlantic team. Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers allowed two goals on 34 shots for Canada."

team chemistry is suppsed to be a major concern - but if decisions are being made on performance then god only knows ...

Is it a bad indication that he played for the Atlantic team and not for Team Canada?

Nah. But he had the lowest sav % in the last game before the final cuts - not so good. (of course you also have to take into account that he had the best canadian scorers of his age playing against him - not the inferior Atlantic team that the other goalies faced).

here's to hoping.

oh found another article about the goaltending situation. is from before the first cuts.

[www.tsn.ca]

Thanks, Melissa. Terrific article.

Lots to be proud of here no matter what happens tomorrow morning.

Looks like Lennie made it.

[www.canadianhockey.ca]

Al - you way beat me to it! how the heck did you find that so much faster than me? have been refreshing 4 diff pages all morning and didn't come across anything till at least 10 min after you!

So now the question is.....is Team Canada any good this year? Are they a contender for the title? Who are their main rivals?

Also, does anyone know if Dougie was ever looked at for the Swedish jr. nat'l team?

Melissa wrote:

Al - you way beat me to it! how the heck did you find that so much faster than me? have been refreshing 4 diff pages all morning and didn't come across anything till at least 10 min after you!

Luck of the Irish?

Congratulations are in order for LeNeveu. I'm happy for him.

Adam '01 wrote:

Also, does anyone know if Dougie was ever looked at for the Swedish jr. nat'l team?

Doug is now 22, so his last year of eligibility would've been his freshman year. I don't know if he was considered at that point.

Congratulations, Lenny. And . . . well . . . damn. (Though I was rooting for him to make the team, my evil twin was rooting against him. Rooting hard. )

Right, good point Josh, I forgot about age limitations and stuff. I doubt that Dougie displayed enough talent earlier in his career to warrent consideration.

You are obviously better versed in the 19-and-under Swedish hockey talent pool than I am.

another link:

[tsn.ca]

The WJr tournament's gold medal game is January 5th, is there a chance that LeNeveu would return for the Clarkson game on the 6th?

What is Canada is eliminated earlier, do players traditional return immediately to their respective teams?

And to start a debate: Who gets the start against Maine? I say it will be Marr or Chabot

[tsn.ca]

Click on photo gallery VI, picture 6 ... awwww ... facetimer ...

Are they really going to let the other goalie keep his yellow pads!?!?

For anyone who had any doubts about whether Lenny should go or not, just the fact that the roster selection is really one of the top stories on tsn.ca just goes to show that Dave's getting an incredible amount of exposure from the World Juniors. I mean, if you look at the pictures, the players cut from the team had tape recorders and cameras shoved in their faces for the evening news!! I dont think that happened with the US team...

He's also getting to play against THE top talent in the world from his age group, and so is going to sharpen his skills, make a great impression on people all over, and get his name out there (and consequently, Cornell's, since we're the only NCAA school to send a kid to the Canadian team). This kid is great; I just hope he makes it back home for our accounting prelim tomorrow morning!!

I believe the Clarkson game is on the 5th, not the 6th

Damn 2002 Calender ... the first Sunday in Jan is the 6th this year, but next year the 5th.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great Lenny made the team, just curious what players do if their team is eliminated.

The teams that play for the bronze and gold medal play on January 5. The other six teams finish on January 4. After the tournament ends, it's up to the player, plus the available travel arrangements, to determine how quickly to return to his college team. I remember that a few years ago a BU player (Tom Poti?) pulled an all nighter to play for BU merely hours after playing in the WJC in Europe.

I suspect Dave LeNeveu will suit up for Canada on January 5.

Sorry guys, it's been a long week of finals and it only gets longer...

::After some serious editting::

If you're considering travel by the WJC participants, Europe and Sydney (Canada, not Australia) can not be compared. Travel will be somewhere less than 2.4 hours depending on layovers and NE Canada is the same as Eastern North America in terms of time zones. I don't suspect Lenny is a seasoned vet at changing his body clock by forcing sleep on inter-continental flights, and it doesn't even matter in this case. Don't expect Lenny to be at full strength for a few days after he makes it back, unless (knock on wood) he was the back-up during the playoffs.

Oye Vey, I have a headache.

The tournament is being played in Sydney, Nova Scotia (along with Halifax, NS), not Sydney, Australia.

Well that changes my post quite a bit then, doesn't it...

Edits have been made.



Lisa: Bu-- My parents are counting on seeing me dance! And I've worked ever so hard.

Vicki: I'm sorry, Lisa, but giving everyone an equal part when they're clearly not equal is called what, again, class?

Class: Communism!

Vicki: That's right. And I didn't tap all those Morse code messages to the Allies 'til my shoes filled with blood to just roll out the welcome mat for the Reds.

vote in the poll on the bottom right of the following link.

[www.canadianhockey.ca]

sure it is just an opinion - but we all know that some of the people making decisions will at least be looking at such things - and it looks bad when the poor boy has so little support - especially when we all know that it is mostly due to him playing college hockey in the US instead of playing in the Canadian juniors. He is simply unknown.

Ut-oh, Lenny's gettin' schooled on that poll.

Of course, that's only by %, and there might be a really low n at this point.

Well. There's definite improvement tho. n must be small tho - about an hour ago he was at 15%.

don't want to make it look _too_ obvious..but Lenny is now winning

It is awesome to see what the Lynah Faithful can do when we pull together.

Two days after the fact, the sports information folks finally got around to announcing it on CornellBigRed.

[cornellbigred.ocsn.com]

The Lynah Faithful, and a simple perl script )

[www.canadianhockey.ca]

Its finals week....give them a break

Oops, forgot. Maybe they've all been taking a course on How to win friends and influence people?

[www.tsn.ca]

i'm done for awhile now - i swear. if the excessive article links are driving anyone crazy i apologize - just tell me to stop.

this one talks about assigning #1, #2 etc and which exhibition game Lenny will be given to prove himself in. i am so P.O'd that my plan arrives in N.S. just as his only definite game is starting. why oh why didn't i get an earlier flight???

[www.herald.ns.ca]

can we start a new thread, maybe entitled "Coverage of LeNeveu at the World Juniors"

Have you done any work today or are you just surfing for articles about Lenny and the WJC?

Shhhh. Don't rat me out!

Nah. Have lots of reactions going on in the hood but don't wanna start much more before the holidays. Plus - this whole Lenny playing for Canada in Nova Scotia thing is quite a big deal for me

Have since read another article which said that Gretz is planning on going to check out Team Canada, especially his 2nd round draft pick - a certain Cornell goalie

So, we don't get a link to that article.

[www.faceoff.com]

Well. The latest articles suggest that Lenny is going to have to be beyond spectacular to change the opinions of most Canadians and media about who should be the #1.

[www.tsn.ca]

It's too bad that LeNeveu appears to be getting the short end of the stick, at least in the media and with the fans, seemingly due to the lack of knowledge of him because he plays in the NCAA.

I mean, can Fleury really be that head and shoulders above LeNeveu, skill-wise, that it's such an open and shut case?

Looks like Lenny's going to have to post a shut-out, and a mighty impressive one, against Finland in order to be starting between the pipes. And that's too bad....

Team Canada has left open the possibility of not declaring a single starting goalie for the WJC. Frankly, if I were coaching the team (in an alternate reality in which I would be remotely qualified for the job), I would have Fleury and LeNeveu alternate through the four round-robin games. If, after the two exhibition and four round-robin games, one goaltender emerged as superior to the other, I'd give him the starting job for the playoff round.

In general, I am not convinced that naming a single starting goaltender is beneficial when a team has two nearly equal options from which to choose--even in the playoffs.

The road for LeNeveu may have just gotten a little tougher: the guy he is fighting just threw another shutout on the board. Sure, it was against Slovakia. Sure, he faced only 11 shots. It was still a shutout.

[www.faceoff.com]

Good luck against Finland, Lenny. LET'S GO RED!

(By the way, when is the Finland game?)

Looks like our beloved LeNeveu played decently, but wasn't able to match Fleury's performance tonight...

[www.canadianhockey.ca]

It's pretty much summed up in the fourth pgh:
David LeNeveu got the call to represent Canada between the pipes on this night, and he looked good in limited action. Although he allowed three goals on only 18 shots, all three were tough goals, two coming on breakaways and one on a screened shot from the blueline. All-in-all, LeNeveu was quite pleased with the performance of the team in front of him. "I thought this was a character builder for our team, we went down early but exploded later to come back for the victory. I wouldn’t call my performance spectacular, but I felt as though I played well enough for the team to win, and that is the goaltender’s job each and every night."

Actually, it sounded a lot like the second Western Michigan game: gave up a couple of fluke goals early, then held on as the team came back. Unfortunately, it probably dooms him to being Fleury's backup.

box scores:
WJC Exhibition USA 6 Sweden 2
USA 6 Sweden 2

1st period
3:33, USA Chris Higgins (Zach Parise, Mark Stuart)
7:02, USA James Wisniewski (Patrick O'Sullivan, Ryan Whitney)
8:19, USA Dwight Helminen (Dustin Brown, Ryan Shannon)
17:49, USA Dustin Brown (unassisted)

2nd period
1:02, USA Dustin Brown (Greg Moore, Dwight Helminen)
16:22, SWE Joakin Lindstrom (Alexander Steen, Robert Nilsson)

3rd period
5:37, USA Dwight Helminen (Ryan Whitney)
6:47, SWE Andreas Falk (Mattias Beck, Adam Anderson)

SOG USA 37 Sweden 22

note the goals by dustin

Bob Goepfert in the pipes for USA for the win. Jimmy Howard played the third. Each gave up one goal.

Canada 6 Finland 3

1st period
03.37 1 - 0 EQ CAN 22. TOOTOO, Jordin (14. STAJAN, Matthew 18. MCCLEMENT, Jay)
06.55 1 - 1 EQ FIN 2. TIMONEN, Jussi (8. KOIVU, Mikko, 14. MAKI, Tomi)
08.33 1 - 2 SH1 FIN 12. FILPPULA, Valtteri (13. AHO, Matti)

2nd period
20.58 1 - 3 EQ FIN 12. FILPPULA, Valtteri
30.17 2 - 3 PP1 CAN 11. CAMPBELL, Gregory (21. ROY, Derek, 25. PARENTEAU, Pierre-alexandre)
39.37 3 - 3 PP1 CAN 29. LAICH, Brooks (8. COLAIACOVO, Carlo, 16. BOUCHARD, Pierre-marc)

3rd period
45.58 4 - 3 EQ CAN 19. UPSHALL, Scottie (27. GORDON, Boyd, 28. WELLWOOD, Kyle)
48.11 5 - 3 EQ CAN 27. GORDON, Boyd (19. UPSHALL, Scottie, 28. WELLWOOD, Kyle)
51.55 6 - 3 EQ CAN 25. PARENTEAU, Pierre-alexandre (16. BOUCHARD, Pierre-marc, 29. LAICH, Brooks)

SOG Canada 45 Finland 18

It's been announced, Dave is sitting out game one. Hopefully that will be all.

[www.tsn.ca]

From the article:[q]LeNeveu, 19, is the lone NCAA player on Team Canada and came to Halifax boasting a puny 1.18 goals-against average with the Cornell Big Red this season.

The Big Red play their home games in a packed 4,600-seat building that LeNeveu, a Phoenix Coyotes draft pick, believes has prepared him well for what to expect in Halifax.

``It's very, very loud,'' he said. ``It's intimidating for other teams, so I'm definitely used to a high-energy crowd behind me.''[/q]

Damn straight. Go Sweden? (Just kidding, Melissa.)

The Big Red play their home games in a packed 4,600-seat building

Where did the other 764 seats come from?

[Q]

The Big Red play their home games in a packed 4,600-seat building


Where did the other 764 seats come from? [/Q]


The seating difference is similar to the difference one used notice when buying gasoline in Canada. For years they used Imperial gallons for volumetric measurement. I believe that they currently use the metric system.

Because Lynah has bench seating and rather than chairs for its patrons a conversion must be made. I think what happened was that some old timer converted the seats to Canadian seats based on the Imperial volumes rather than using the metric system.

Well, it does sound like there are an extra 1000 or so...

Just an FYI, if you receive the NHL Center Ice package, the listings for tonight are showing Canada's game being broadcast at 7:00 est. US game is not listed - or on.