The World Junior Summer Showcase’s first set of games took place on Saturday, and a more fan-friendly set of start times (4 PM and 7 PM) afforded more spectators the ability to watch Team USA Blue take on Finland, with Team USA Blue winning 4-1, and Team USA White battled Sweden, with Team USA White winning 10-1.
The crowd turnout ended up being fairly good for a Monday afternoon in late July (though I’ll readily admit that black track jacket-clad NHL scouts made up a significant minority of the paying customers, especially in the early game), so I wonder whether future WJSS tournaments may adapt this particular schedule.
After Tuesday’s very early practices, Wednesday will provide the brightest match-ups of the entire WJSS in Sweden vs. Finland at 1 PM EDT, and Team USA Blue vs. Team USA White at 4 PM.
On Friday, the tournament will conclude with USA Blue facing Sweden at 1 PM EDT, and USA White battling Finland at 4 PM.
Today’s assessments of the Red Wings prospects participating in the Showcase build upon Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s comments, but I should note that today was Axel Sandin Pellikka’s first game, and that…
One must keep in mind that I’m watching players at a competitive exhibition hockey tournament in late July, and that these young gentlemen are still at an early point in their respective journeys toward professional hockey.
Axel Sandin Pellikka: Axel had a very bad first game, there is no doubt about it. He possessed tremendous company in almost all of his Team Sweden teammates, but there’s no doubt that “ASP” made a significant number of bad decisions while defending, and he lost a lot of physical battles and puck battles along the way.
None of his decisions were worse than these:
Lane Hutson just scored one of the most ridiculous ones we've seen him pull off.
— Steven Ellis (@SEllisHockey) August 1, 2023
6-0 USA. pic.twitter.com/dQm2rKqLUV
So, yeah, #4 on Sweden made two poke checks below the goal line against one of the Americans’ most dangerous offensive players, thus affording Lane Hutson the inside lane toward the net. It was that kind of night for Sweden and it was that kind of night for Axel Sandin Pellikka.
The 5’11,” 181-pound defenseman is absolutely elegant when he has the puck on his stick and makes good decisions–simple decisions, quick decisions, the kind of stuff that he’s good at as a Brian Rafalski-like player–but when he’s indecisive and when he’s downright struggling out there, he needs a lot of work on his defensive play.
You can see why the Red Wings were able to pick him 17th overall. There’s so very much promise in his skating, in his ever-present stick and in his smart shots and excellent outlet passes. But he’s not very big, he’s not strong enough, and he’s going to spend the remainder of his summer working very hard to battle his way onto Skelleftea AIK’s SHL roster.
To his credit, after a game that was absolutely horrible for his team, and really embarrassing for him, the 18-year-old came out of the locker room and gave a polite, composed interview:
Again, to his credit, Axel and the rest of the Swedes know that they got embarrassed, and with a game against Finland on Wednesday, they need to flush Monday’s affair–Axel’s first competitive game in four months–and they need to take a lot more composed on both an individual and collective basis.
For Axel, from what he sounded like, playing simpler, smarter hockey would be a personal quest, and that’s good. He knows how much he needs to improve, and as damn talented as he is as a skater, shooter, passer and play-maker, he’s going to be okay.
Anton Johansson: Johansson’s simple, spare game and smart stick continued to impress me after watching Saturday’s affair, and I was happy to see that both he and ASP received lots of time on the penalty-kill.
Johansson, standing tall at 6’4″ and 196 pounds, can be a particularly effective defensive defenseman, and he possesses two-way upside, as evidenced by his goal on Saturday and his “lone goal of the game” tonight for the Swedes. He’s got an edge to him as well, so at 19, it’s not a long shot to believe that he’ll be on Leksands IF’s SHL team full-time this fall, dad as the GM or no dad as GM.
All of that being said, he struggled like the rest of his teammates, making poor reads, making bad individual decisions and over-complicating what is already a nuanced game at the best of times. He took two penalties in an affair that was ridiculously managed by penalty-happy officials, he was definitely a multiple-minus player, just like Sandin Pellikka, and I’m certain that he wants to scrub his mind clean of this game and move on to Wednesday’s affair vs. the Finns.
Trey Augustine: Augustine played two periods against the Swedes on Monday, as per coach David Carle’s plan, and he stopped 13 of 14 shots. To be fair to both Augustine and the Swedes, the 6’1,” 190-pound goaltender had to look through a ton of big, heavy Swedish players trying to make his sightlines miserable, and while he didn’t have to make a ton of secondary or tertiary saves…
With the exception of that high floppy floater from Johansson, he made the first save look easy, and the puck was either blockered into the corner, caught with precision by his catch glove, toed away and out of trouble, sticked away from the crease, or gobbled up as a rebound. There were few times that Augustine had to be bailed out by his defensemen.
At 18 years of age, the incoming freshman at Michigan State looked polished, poised, and as comfortable among his fellow NTDP graduates as he suggested in his polite, composed interview with myself, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton, and the Michigan Daily’s Connor Eargood:
Team USA coach David Carle also spoke with myself, NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman, Stockton and Eargood:
If you missed it, I also had a great conversation with undrafted Team Finland winger Tommi Mannisto, who’s an incoming freshman at Michigan State University, and Trey Augustine’s roommate for the MSU summer pro camp:
If you’re looking for highlights written by other folks, FloHockey’s Chris Peters had this to say about Johansson and Trey Augustine:
Trey Augustine, G (Detroit Red Wings): Augustine only played the first two periods and wasn’t tested much. He made 13 saves on 14 shots, with the only goal coming on a five-on-three power play for Sweden. He was dialed in throughout, making key saves including one where he flashed the leather and some where he made a few tough pad saves in traffic. He’s reliable and played a predictable game.
Anton Johansson, D (Detroit Red Wings): Not a ton to write home about for Sweden, who was a bit listless in this affair. Johansson scored the lone goal on the power play and used his size well, making a few physical plays. I’ve heard concerns about his skating, but I think his footwork has looked fine here and he’s made some plays on top of that.
Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis posted a set of stand-out performers as well, and NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman is writing not too far from me as I type this at 10:25 PM. I’ll post USA Hockey’s YouTube highlight clips when they’re up in an hour or so, too.
In terms of tomorrow’s practices, I’ve been told that the Americans are practicing tomorrow at 11:30 and 12:45 PM, but Axel Sandin Pellikka made it sound like the Swedes won’t be skating at 9:00 AM, and I’d imagine that Finland’s 10:15 AM practice is iffy as well.
As always, the practices are both open and free of charge to the public, so if you’re a morning person, you’re certainly welcome.
I’m not certain whether you’ll see me in the press box during those practices, however. I’ve got the 81-year-old to take care of, and if she’s a handful tonight and/or I don’t sleep well, when I wake up at 6 AM tomorrow, I’m highly likely to decide to come for a very full Wednesday instead.
The collection plate remains to cover gas (which is at just under 3/8 of a tank), groceries, and to begin to cover the August server bills at Bluehost and Jetpack, as well as the George-and-Aunt-Annie-go-to-Traverse-City trip, so:
If you’re are willing or able to lend a fundraising assist, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums” (an old nickname).
I hope this finds you all well, and, as always, I thank you for your readership.
