Canadian World Junior Hockey Camp Opens

[2tkCornell]

Pokulok is serving the 5 min major for Pouliot's hit to the head.

Interesting he chose Pokulok to sit instead of a forward, since you would think he wants to see how Pokulok plays.  Go figure.

[Dpperk29]

I just finished reading "Boys of Winter" by Wayne Coffey, it did make a brief mention of what happened in the movie.

-Devin

[ben03]

appears sid-the-kid won't be playing for any iterations of Team Canada this year. i wonder if Sutter would consider bringing him in a la Logan Stephenson. pretty interesting to see the county's greatest young talent not on either bench.

[2tkCornell]

Penguins management will not part with Sid.  Sutter would love to have him on the team.

[2tkCornell]

Second Exhibition game for Canada (8-1 win over Russia).

Pokulok was outplayed by his defense partner Stephenson.  I do not think with his performance on the ice tonight he will make the team.  Pokulok and Stephenson played 4 shifts before the last six minutes of the game, and then started to play ever other shift.

First gaffe by Pokulok - he was bringing the puck across the red line, got hit by a Russian player, lost his stick, coughed the puck up, and Stephenson was able to come back and distract the Russian player so he couldn't score on Pogge.

Second gaffe by Pokulok - playing the point on the powerplay, with the Russian player pretty much covering Pokulok.  Chipchura (Canadian captain) elected to pass to Pokulok (bad decision and bad pass by him).  Instead of backing off from the pass, Pokulok went for the puck, missed it, the Russian player walked in on the breakaway but was stopped by Pogge (again, Stephenson was able to get back faster than Pokulok).

Right after the second gaffee though, Pokulok had a nice cross ice feed to Chipchura who scored.

Also, after his first gaffee, Pokulok had a shot from the point with a rebound right out to Taeves who scored.

But, no assists credited to Pokulok, as they were both rebound goals.

Based solely on this game, Stephenson was faster and more physical, and did not have huge letdowns like the two described above.

Anyone else have thoughts who watched the game.

[2tkCornell]

http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story/?ID=148071&hubname=world_jrs

Stephenson cut this morning, although, he played better than Pokulok last night.

Must be a huge sigh of relief for Pokulok.

[Al DeFlorio]

http://theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051227/SPORTS/512270322/1006

[2tkCornell]

Not true, Pokulok dressed, didn't play a shift.

[cameltaur]

2tkCornell is correct, Pokulok did not have a shift. A writer in the Toronto Star said that it was surprising that he didn't see any ice even though Sutter has been very unimpressed with his play. Pokulok is on this team because Blair Mackasey likes him, not because Sutter wanted him on the team. As a result he isn't exactly being treated nicely by Sutter.

[evilnaturedrobot]

well, so much for getting his confidence up...

[cth95]

Found this about Sasha under the Tuesday notebook.    http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story/?ID=148388&hubname=world_jrs
The U.S. is looking good.  I am rooting for Sasha individually and Canada in their games, but overall I am definitely rooting for our team.  Saturday's game against the Canadians should be good.  Incidentally, the article about the U.S. vs. Norway game states that the U.S. team was booed during introductions and the crowd was silent for the U.S. goals (they must have been silent a lot).
http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/news_story/?ID=148347&hubname=world_jrs
The thread at the bottom of the page consists almost entirely of posts criticizing the booing.  For example: Booing the Americans? GROW UP FELLOW CANADIANS! Where is the class we want to be known for? We cheapen ourselves and our team by behaving boorishly. We denigrate our game in front of the whole world by acting like a bunch of backward, backwoods yahoos! GROW UP and show some class, like the Americans did in North Dakota last time around!

[Redscore]

I'm a huge Big Red fan and will always root for our players but...

I'm not the least bit surprised that Pokulok didn't get any ice time, and that Sutter may not use him often during the tournament.  Any objective viewer has to admit that Pokulok has not been one of the Red's better defensemen during the last two seasons.  I'd be surprised if any of us on this board were not blown away when the Caps chose him 14th in the draft.  I was also surprised when he made the Canadian WJC team.

We've all seen and heard of many cases of over-blown reputations combined with the lack of actual homework creating legends out of good, not great, players.  I will admit that I've been unlucky enough to see only 8 or 9 Cornell games during the last two years, and that includes TV games which is obviously not a good way to evaluate talent, but I've yet to see Pokulok impress me in the way that matches his reputation.

I'm not trying to come down hard on him, but I'm looking for someone with a better understanding of the game who has watched him more often than I have, to tell me what is truly special, besides size, about this player.  How did he make this WJC team?

[KeithK]

I for one was not shocked when Pokulok was picked in the first round.  He was projected to go very high, so an early pick was expected.  The kid has size and offensive skill and given his age should be a pro prospect.  When he was healthy last year he made a very good impression.

[CowbellGuy]

[quote Redscore]Any objective viewer has to admit that Pokulok has not been one of the Red's better defensemen during the last two seasons.[/quote]
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Until his injury last year, Sasha was the best 2-way defenseman on the ice. He showed more composure with the puck than any other skater, and at 18 years of age to boot. He moved remarkably for his size and showed great hockey sense. The problem is not one of objectivity but rather short memory. If he can play with the form he showed the first half of his freshman year, he's completely deserving of his draft pick. All we can hope is that he returns to that form.

[Tub(a)]

[quote CowbellGuy][quote Redscore]Any objective viewer has to admit that Pokulok has not been one of the Red's better defensemen during the last two seasons.[/quote]
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Until his injury last year, Sasha was the best 2-way defenseman on the ice. He showed more composure with the puck than any other skater, and at 18 years of age to boot. He moved remarkably for his size and showed great hockey sense. The problem is not one of objectivity but rather short memory. If he can play with the form he showed the first half of his freshman year, he's completely deserving of his draft pick. All we can hope is that he returns to that form.[/quote]

Wasn't it his first game where he pirouetted through half of the opposing D in the O zone and placed it perfectly in the top corner?

He was indeed amazing until hurt. Sometimes it takes players a long time to recover from an injury like that, and sometimes they never do.