Canucks Prospects at WJHC – Day 1

The World Juniors kicked off last night with a full day of action.

Hockey fans in the lower mainland were glued to their TV, or even at the arena, to take in some of the best junior hockey players. Aside from the lopsided Canada win over Denmark, all the games were competitive and weren’t decided until the final buzzer

Here’s how the four Canucks prospects representing their various countries did.

Michael DiPietro was as good as you would expect as being the goaltender in a 14-0 win.

He wasn’t tested often or with too difficult of saves but he was able to get the goose egg in the one-sided win. With that being said, the biggest news to come out of the day for DiPietro is that Tim Hunter has already decided that the Canucks prospect will be the starter going forward:

Ian Scott will start the game against Switzerland later today and then it should be DiPietro’s net from there on out.

0-1-1, 3 SOG, 13:08 TOI

Tyler Madden was all over the ice for the Americans in the first game of the WJHC.

He was tenacious, relentless and created multiple chances on his own. His first notable chance was in the first period where he caused the Slovak defenders to bunch up in their own zone and then turn it over as they exited. The Americans pounced on it, allowing Madden to loop out of the zone, attack, and just missed the far post:

Another notable chance was this one in the second period:

Madden was finally rewarded for his hard work with the primary assist on Evan Barratt’s eventual game winning goal

Everyone tuned into the USA game to see Quinn Hughes but it was Madden that stood out (from purely the eye test) for a lot of fans. Good to see him have this performance in the first game and hopefully it continues.

0-0-0, 1 SOG, 19:26 TOI

Quinn Hughes led all American defenceman in ice time despite playing on the second powerplay unit.

That placement is likely due to trying to balance the units and allow Hughes to generate the offence with the puck. There is only one of those on the ice at one time, so have Jack Hughes, Oliver Wahlstrom, Joel Farabee and Quinn on the ice means that three of them don’t have it at one time.

Although Quinn was held off the scoresheet in the 2-1 win yesterday, he was doing all the things that make him successful. His ability to transition the puck, create offence through his movement, and his shot assists were all at the forefront.

Our very own Darryl Keeping was doing some tracking of the games, and Hughes stood out:

Obviously, fans wanted to see Hughes rack up the points but there isn’t much to complain about in his first game this tournament.

0-0-0 1 SOG, 17:18 TOI

The 2018 5th round pick, Toni Utunen played well in his first game at the WJHC.

Nothing really stood out about his game other than his ability to make the safe play and get the puck going in the right direction.

He is on the Finnish third pairing.

As mentioned above, Michael DiPietro is expected to get the night off.