Jonah Gadjovich was probably not the best player on the ice for Team Canada as they took on Slovakia in their second game of the World Junior Championships. Player of the Game honours should likely have gone to Jordan Kyrou, who had a three-point night, including a goal-of-the-tournament candidate where he undressed forward Erik Smolka with some absurd stickhandling.
With a two-goal performance, however, Gadjovich got the nod from whichever officials decide that sort of thing. It wasn’t exactly undeserved — Gadjovich did have a fantastic game — but these post-game awards always seem a little off.
Gadjovich made a pretty clear argument for getting more ice time as the tournament progresses. In 13:32 of ice time, some of that on the penalty kill, Gadjovich tallied a game-high seven shots on goal, scoring on two of them.
His first goal was a prototypical Gadjovich goal: it started with a strong forecheck, forcing a weak pass around the boards and throwing a hit. It finished as he cleaned up a Cale Makar rebound by controlling the puck and tucking it around goaltender David Hrenak instead of blindly whacking it towards the goal.
Gadjovich tucks in Makar's rebound to make it 3-0. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/r3IADRTcaf
— Janik Beichler (@JanikBeichler) December 28, 2017
It was a great finish by Gadjovich for his first goal of the tournament.
#Canucks prospect Jonah Gadjovich picks up the Makar rebound to put Canada up 3-0
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 28, 2017
Right in his office. pic.twitter.com/6Tsw2b2Dru
One pleasant surprise from this tournament is how good Gadjovich has been at setting up his teammates. He’s been billed as a power forward and net-front presence who has soft enough hands to finish around the net, but he has excellent on-ice vision as well and makes smart passes into dangerous areas. With some better finish from Drake Batherson and Michael McLeod, Gadjovich could have had a couple assists to go with his two goals.
What stood out the most about Gadjovich was, surprisingly, his skating. That’s the biggest knock on Gadjovich, but he was superb skating through the neutral zone and gaining the blue line, frequently skating the puck into the offensive zone on the rush. His positioning on the breakout was impeccable and he kept his feet moving along the boards, drawing one penalty and slipping past checkers at other times.
With Canada up 5-0, they drew another penalty and it seemed like an ideal time to get some of Canada’s bottom-six forwards some power play time. Sure enough, Gadjovich came out for his first power play shift of the tournament and immediately scored.
#Canucks prospect Jonah Gadjovich's second goal of the game - nice tip on the pass to put Canada up 6-0 pic.twitter.com/guGecLRH6p
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 28, 2017
The power play is Gadjovich’s bread and butter, as he’s an ideal net-front presence with his size, strength, and finish. He demonstrated that finish, deftly deflecting a Michael McLeod centring pass over Hrenak. It was Canada’s 50th shot of the game.
The two-goal night brought him up to three points in two games so far in the tournament.
Rob Williams made a nice catch, noticing that Gadjovich told his teammates not to fly by the bench to tap gloves on the 6-0 goal. Instead, they just skated straight to centre ice for the faceoff, so as to avoid rubbing it in.
Great sportsmanship by #Canucks prospect Gadjovich, telling teammates not to do the fly by celebration after a 6-0 goal in garbage time #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/UB58puEHuL
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) December 28, 2017
It was a superb performance by Gadjovich and gave Canucks fans plenty about which to get excited. His hockey IQ will likely make up for any skating deficiencies he might have, but his skating didn’t even seem to be that big a concern.
While he may not have actually been player of the game, it’s still not surprising he was named Player of the Game.
