The World Championship is love. The World Championship is life. All hail the World Championship.
USA 4 - 0 France
Still no appearance for Thatcher Demko at this tournament, not even on the bench as a backup.
And while Mike Condon posted a 19-save shutout against France, he hasn’t inspired much confidence thus far, with a .906 save percentage. Keith Kinkaid, meanwhile, gave up 5 goals with an .849 save percentage in his one appearance.
Sure, Kinkaid’s start was against Canada, who have been racking up goals against everybody, but it still seems like getting Demko into a game wouldn’t hurt.
Russia 10 - 1 Denmark
When Denmark gave up 44 shots to Norway in their first game of the tournament, I expressed some concern about what this might mean when they faced one of the top teams. Sure enough, they gave up 41 shots to Russia and, with starting goaltender Sebastian Dahm taking a well-earned rest, gave up 10 goals.
After getting run over by the Russians, Denmark is sitting in 6th place with just 4 points. As Ulysses Everett McGill would say, “Damn, we’re in a tight spot.”
You can’t blame Jannik Hansen for Denmark’s ugly loss to Russia, however. He was on the ice for just one of Russia’s ten goals and scored Denmark’s lone goal. Somehow he didn’t get the Best Player nod for Denmark; that went to Nicklas Jensen instead.
Hansen scored his first goal of the tournament with a wicked wrist shot from the top of the slot that deflected slightly off a Russian stick and went just inside the post on Sergei Bobrovsky’s glove-side.
As for the one Russian goal that he was on the ice for, he wasn’t really even on the ice for it. He had literally just stepped off the bench when Russia scored. It was a terrible change, leading to a 3-on-1 (and a pretty goal), and Hansen could only drift sadly through the neutral zone as Russia celebrated.
Hansen led all Danish forwards with 18:02 in ice time. Considering how many goals they gave up when he was on the bench, Denmark might want to give him a lot more ice time in their next game.
Canada 5 - 2 Germany
Germany managed to give the undefeated Canadians a bit of a scare in their meeting, holding them to just 22 shots and taking a 2-2 tie into the third period. But Canada eased any panic by scoring three goals in the third period to make this game look more like a beatdown than it really was.
It could have been even worse for Canada, as a first period German goal got disallowed as it was kicked in.
Chris Tanev played nearly four minutes less than Cody Ceci, who led Canada in ice time, but they actually had the same number of shifts. You might say Tanev was efficient with his shifts: only Max Domi took shorter shifts, as Tanev was on the ice for an average of 35 seconds per shift.
When Tanev was on the ice, he was his usual well-positioned, shot-blocking self, defending the crease and slot with aplomb. He played a lot more in the third period, with key minutes on the penalty kill when Germany got three power plays.
Ben Hutton, meanwhile, barely played, getting just 2:45 in ice time in the first period and no more. I have to wonder if his lack of a clear specialty makes it harder to get him in the game. It’s almost like Hutton is too well-rounded: with seven defencemen in the lineup, he’d get more ice time if he was a power play or penalty kill specialist.
Honestly, though, I'd be much more comfortable defensively with Hutton on the ice than Mike Matheson, who takes a few too many risks for my liking.
