Canadian World Junior Hockey Camp Opens

[2tkCornell]

http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story.asp?id=146672

A little blurb about Pokulok at the bottom.  I was trying to look for him in the video, but no shot of him.

[calgARI '07]

Hopefully Sutter can light a fire under Pokuluk who has looked unmotivated at best this season.

[French Rage]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 Hopefully Sutter can light a fire under Pokuluk who has looked unmotivated at best this season.[/q]

This marks the 50th time you've told us this in the past week. :-D

[Red-White Game]

Team Red beat Pokulok's Team White 4-0 in the first intrasquad game

http://tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story.asp?ID=146896&hubName=world_jrs

[RW Action]

My friend was at the intersquad game and I told him to look out for Pokulok.

-Game was only 45 minutes long, so each defenseman really only played 7-8 minutes (coaching staff was good at giving equal time to everyone)

-But 2 things he pointed out was that Pokulok was on ice for Pouliot's first goal in which his defense partner Kris Russell gave up the puck.  Pokulok challenged Pouliot but that guy just has such a quick release.

-Second, Pokulok had a cross ice feed on a powerplay from the left side, just inside the blue line, to Ryan O'Marra who rung one of the post.

-Other than that, Pokulok was decent, not impressive, but decent.

-We'll see what happens after tomorrow's intersquad games when Sutter will most likely make some cuts because I'm sure he doesn't want 34 players dressed for the UBC game on Thursday (I'm certain he'll cut 2-3 defenseman and 2-3 forwards).

-Also, Jonathan Toews of North Dakota and Andrew Cogliano of Michigan were all over the ice, won't be surprised if they get picked, especially considering they both have international experience.

[jkahn]

[Q]RW Action Wrote:

 My friend was at the intersquad game and I told him to look out for Pokulok.

-Game was only 45 minutes long, so each defenseman really only played 7-8 minutes (coaching staff was good at giving equal time to everyone)

-Also, Jonathan Toews of North Dakota and Andrew Cogliano of Michigan were all over the ice, won't be surprised if they get picked, especially considering they both have international experience.[/q]

1) assuming about 12 defensemen in camp of the 34 total players, that would be 15 minutes average for an intersquad game.

2) I saw some of the NDak-Minn. game on TV on Friday and Toews looked quite impressive.

[Trotsky]

[Q]RW Action Wrote:
-Other than that, Pokulok was decent, not impressive, but decent.[/q]

A fair summary of his first third of the RS, and for that matter, much of his freshman season.

Pokulok is definitely suffering from Label Expectation Syndrome, in which something about a player suddenly changes and then we all expect his play to immediately reflect the new label.  C.f. Beltran, Carlos.

[CowbellGuy]

That's a little harsh. It's a fair assessment of this season, but until he got hurt last year, he was one of the best defensemen, not to mention freshmen, I've seen dress for the Red. If he didn't look great at the end of the season, it's probably because he was rushed back into the lineup. This year's a different story.

[ORphd]

I was also at the intrasquad game last night and at the team practices in the morning. I wore my Lynah faithful shirt which pokulok noticed at the end of practice. At the game, I also had a "go pokulok, go canada" sign.

One of the local TV sports networks here did a short feature about college hockey players at camp and interviewed Pokulok for it. One of the things they mentioned is that in his selection, Sutter was going to consider the fact that college hockey players don't play as many games in a season as the junior league players. I'm not sure exactly what this means for Pokulok's chances, but we'll see.

I am not sure about Pokulok being on the ice for Pouliot's first goal, though I could be wrong. One reason I suspect he was not is that I don't think he was paired with Russell, who made a terrible turnover late in the game resulting in another red goal. I'm going to dig up the sheet they gave us with the line combinations to check it out.

The other thing I noticed was several other defensemen (especially on the white team, but also on red) making questionable plays that led to opportunities for the other team. Hopefully this works in Pokulok's favour, even though he didn't seem to be playing with enough intensity.

[PhoenixStar]

Little bit on Pokulok in a Canadian Newspaper:

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=eba3d3d1-3c5b-4681-baf8-2aad3bd42673&k=70784

After hearing comments about Pokulok's play in the intersquad game he better find some intensity fast if he wants to make the team.  Sutter loves players with intensity.  Hopefully Pokulok brings the same type of game he had against Yale - get in some players faces, maybe a few scuffles.

[Trotsky]

[Q]CowbellGuy Wrote:

 That's a little harsh. It's a fair assessment of this season, but until he got hurt last year, he was one of the best defensemen, not to mention freshmen, I've seen dress for the Red. If he didn't look great at the end of the season, it's probably because he was rushed back into the lineup. This year's a different story.[/q]

I'll definitely defer to somebody who saw 5x the number of games I saw last year; Pokulok just didn't seem anything more than a solid B (IMHO) last year; to me, he wasn't even the most valuable frosh D on the team.

However, the injury definitely did hurt him, as he seemed to be stepping it up right when he dropped out of the lineup.  Also, what I was saying was supposed to be *defending* Sasha, because I think the 1st round pick got everybody's glasses steamed up about him.  I'm hoping he gets to develop naturally, rather than being dragged by the Caps and hooted at by a few of the less impatient Faithful.

[ORphd]

Sorry for the double post...

I found the sheet and as I suspected, it was #6, Luc Bourdon who was playing with Russell and not Pokulok (#16), who was playing with Marc Staal. It was easy to confuse them since they're both 6'5 with a number ending in 6. So I'm now positive that Pokulok was not on the ice for any of the goals the red team scored.

Speaking of intensity, one of the red forwards was put through the old-style glass near the corner (but not by Pokulok). It was quite a sight and got the loudest applause of anything during the game.

[redhair34]

Pokulok had 2 assists in the Canadian inter-squad scrimmage tonight.  His team (white) walloped the red team 8-1.

http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story.asp?ID=147019&hubName=world_jrs

[calgARI '07]

First cuts are likely to come tomorrow.  Pretty much all analysts have Pokuluk getting cut.  Those Sutters can be surprising though.

[calgARI '07]

A buddy of mine who was at both scrimmages spoke highly of Pokuluk:

"Pokuluk didn't look out of place at all to me. Big defenseman with good skating and seemed to be decent with the puck. Beauty pass for a goal tonight and didn't embarass himself rushing it. You can see why he was a 1st rounder."

Pretty reliable source.  This guy has seen a lot of hockey and particularly focuses on 18-20 year olds.