LeNeveu and World Juniors

[melissa]

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.

 http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story.asp?ID=18869

[Jordan 04]

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....

[cbuckser]

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.

[ugarte]

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.

http://www.faceoff.com/worldjuniors/news/story.html?f=/news/20021220/juniorhockey-5113020.html

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

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

[Janos]

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

http://www.canadianhockey.ca/e/teams/mens/junior/2003/results/122302_canfin.html

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."

[jtwcornell91]

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. :-/

[jy3]

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

[Robb03]

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

http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story.asp?ID=19358&hubName=world_jrs

[bigred apple]

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.)

[jtwcornell91]

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

Where did the other 764 seats come from? :-P

[marty]

[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. ::nut::

[Greg Berge]

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

[peterg]

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.