Dylan Larkin, Nick Jensen and Jeff Blashill earned bronze medals as Team USA defeated Canada 4-1 (including 2 empty-net goals for the Americans) at the World Championship on Sunday.
Larkin, who spent his time checking the Connor McDavid line, had an assist on Chris Kreider’s 1-0 goal.
Larkin finished at +2 on 3 shots and 22:39 played;
Jensen had 1 shot in 11:17 played.
Update: Here are the game’s highlights…
From Team USA’s website:
Chelios Inducted Into IIHF Hall of Fame
Four-Time Olympian and 1996 World Cup of Hockey Gold Medalist Inducted Here in Copenhagen, Denmark
Today, Chris Chelios (Downers Grove, Ill.) was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame as a member of its Class of 2018. The induction ceremony took place here in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the final day of the 2018 IIHF Men’s World Championship. Chelios is the 23rd American to be enshrined into the IIHF Hall of Fame.
Chris Chelios first skated on the international stage when he competed on the U.S. National Junior Team at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in 1982.
One of only two male players to represent the United States at four Olympic Winter Games (1984, 1988, 2002, 2006), he also participated in three Canada Cups (1984, 1987, 1991), and two World Cups of Hockey (1996, 2004).
Representing his country 10 times internationally, he totaled 23 points (5-18) in 60 games played while helping the U.S. win the inaugural 1996 World Cup of Hockey and captaining Team USA to a silver medal at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
A three-time Stanley Cup champion, Chelios holds the record for most games played by a defenseman in NHL history (1,651), after completing 26 seasons in the NHL. Since retirement, Chelios most recently served as an assistant coach for the 2016 U.S. National Junior Team at the IIHF World Junior Championship, helping them capture a bronze medal.
Update: Via the Red Wings’ Twitter account:
Chris Chelios was a mainstay for @usahockey both nationally and internationally. His #StanleyCup and #WorldCupofHockey wins have led him to this moment: being inducted into the 2018 IIHF Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/WEPvzuINaJ
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 20, 2018
The Ottawa Sun’s Don Brennan reports Senators news which includes an item of interest for Red Wings fans:
Sunday will be a good day to be Daniel Alfredsson.
Along with watching his fellow Swedes take on the underdog Swiss in the 2018 world hockey championship gold medal game, the former Ottawa Senators’ captain will be inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.
Three other former NHLers — Chris Chelios, Rob Blake and Jere Lehtinen — will be among the group of eight entering the IIHF shrine in Copenhagen.
Brennan continues, and Chelios’s impressive international hockey resume warrants a spot in the IIHF Hall of Fame.
The Free Press’s George Sipple reports that former University of Michigan coach Red Berenson will be parting ways with some of his hockey memorabilia:
Classic Auctions, which has handled auctions of personnel collections for hockey icons like Maurice (Rocket) Richard, Bobby Hull and Jean Beliveau, is handling the auction of Berenson’s personnel items, including his 1965-66 Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup champion 10K gold ring; his 1972 Team Canada “Team of the Century” 14K gold and diamond ring; his 1981 Canada Cup 10K gold and diamond ring; and his 2006 Lester Patrick Award Trophy.
Berenson told the Detroit Free Press in a phone interview Friday afternoon the auction is “legitimate” and only part of his personal collection is being auctioned.
“There’s no agenda,” Berenson, 78, said of why he’s putting some of his personal belongings up for auction.
He said it’s simply a case of having too much stuff and not enough room for it all.
Berenson said most of the items in the auction are mostly pro memorabilia and are things that don’t hold much sentimental value to him or his family.
About the 1965-66 Canadiens Stanley Cup ring, he said: “It’s been on my wife’s charm bracelet for all these years.”
Team USA laid an egg today at the World Championship in Denmark, and said egg cost the Americans a chance to compete for gold.
Team USA lost 6-0 to Sweden on Saturday, and the Americans will now await the loser of the Canada-Switzerland game as they prepare to play for bronze tomorrow (9 AM EDT on the NHL Network/TSN).
The Americans just got out-skated, out-hustled and out-worked–and New Jersey Devils goaltender Keith Kincaid was significantly out-goaltended by Vancouver’s Anders Nilsson, who built a wall in the Swedish crease.
The Red Wings’ representatives had quiet games: Dylan Larkin (3 shots in 20:11, finished even) looked frustrated with his and his teammates’ play as he tried to do too much and over-complicated his game. He sure worked his ass off, but, like his teammates, he worked inefficiently (ending his game with a roughing penalty on Adrian Kempe):
The team’s collective tendency to look for the perfect shot, the perfect pass, the perfect zone entry…Team USA’s inability to keep things simple and play north-south hockey, combined with bad defensive coverage and sub-standard goaltending damned them (that’s a lot of factors, I know).
Nick Jensen (-2 in 9:15 played) also had a quiet game, though he almost snapped Nilsson’s shutout streak with about 6 minutes remaining in the 3rd period.
Gustav Nyquist’s main contribution (2 shots in 12:42, finished even) was a goaltender interference penalty in the 3rd period, but he was quite sound defensively on a line with Patric Hornqvist.
It was also somewhat frustrating to watch former Wings prospect and Dallas Stars forward Mattias Janmark score two goals for the Swedes; the Janmark-for-Cole and Jarnkrok-and-Eaves-for-Legwand trades still stick in my craw.
Anyway, I’ll post highlights and game recaps as they are available. Team USA’s inability to win a gold at the Worlds since 1933 is…quite the streak.
Update: IIHF.com’s highlights are available:
Continue reading Red Wings at the World Championship: Team USA loses to Sweden, will play for Bronze
At the Memorial Cup, Kaden Fulcher stopped 27 of 30 shots as the Hamilton Bulldogs lost 3-2 to the Regina Pats.
You can read a game recap (the Bulldogs gave up the game-winner with 33 seconds remaining in the 3rd period) and watch game highlights, coach John Gruden’s post-game presser and/or watch Sportsnet’s R.J. Broadhead and Sam Cosiento’s breakdowns as you wish.
Update:
#MCMemorialCup Post-Game: Hear from @BulldogsOHL goaltender Kaden Fulcher and forward Will Bitten.
WATCH: https://t.co/ilEo0iqP8E #MMC100 pic.twitter.com/T2dGCwzDNC
— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) May 19, 2018
Jared Coreau is among my favorite people to have interacted with as a reporter. He’s a class act on and off the ice, expressive and forthright in his interviews.
It was hard as a hockey fan and a Coreau fan to watch Jared struggle so mightily with the Red Wings over the past two seasons; while Coreau was able to earn a measure of redemption with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff notes that Coreau’s tenure with the Red Wings is probably over:
When Petr Mrazek was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in February, the door was open for Jared Coreau to lay claim to the Detroit Red Wings backup goaltending role behind Jimmy Howard.
As May creeps toward June, which of course is followed by the July free agency season, it looks as though Coreau, 26, who is headed toward unrestricted free agency, will be in the market for a new employer. The door in Detroit is likely closed, Coreau’s window of opportunity to be a Red Wing forever shut.
You can blame it on his poor performance during his late-season recall to Detroit – Coreau was 0-4-1 in seven appearances with a 4.26 goals-against average and .867 save percentage – but he’ll tell you the problems began for him right at the start of the season.
“Slow start,” said Coreau, who began the season 7-8-1 with AHL Grand Rapids. “I think I was a little, I guess bitter with how (Red Wings) camp went. I thought I’d get more of a chance to show what I could do in exhibition games and it definitely affected me earlier on. I’m not afraid to admit it. Everyone could see it. It’s nothing I’ll deny.
“Then we started playing well and had two months there where I was playing really well and was happy to be goaltender of the month for the league and get some wins for the guys. But yeah, the hangover is real. It’s a real thing to overcome and I think you look at the Michael Jordan interview talking about you’re competing with yourself. It’s very true.”
Duff continues at length, quoting a superb interview that Coreau gave after the Griffins were eliminated from the playoffs…
And at this point, I’m assuming that the Wings will pursue experienced back-up goaltenders to fill in at both the NHL and AHL levels as Coreau and Tom McCollum will probably look for greener pastures elsewhere.
Fox Sports Detroit’s Mickey York spoke with filmmaker Joshua Riehl in Seattle, where The Russian Five is airing at the Seattle International Film Festival on Saturday and Sunday:
International hockey writer Julie Robenhymer penned an article for DetroitRedWings.com in which she discusses Filip Hronek’s continued 2017-18 season progress as evidenced by Hronek’s strong play for the Czech Republic’s World Championship team.
Robenhymer speaks with Hronek, Team Czech Republic GM/Wings director of player evaluation Jiri Fischer and Czech World Championship coach Josef Jandac regaridng Hronek’s ups and downs at the Worlds:
“This year, he became the highest-scoring rookie defenseman in Grand Rapids history, which is pretty impressive because it’s a franchise that’s been around for a couple of decades,” Fischer explained. “He really wants to play and make things happen, but now he also understands that he has to be sound defensively and he has to be easy to play with, meaning he has to use the players on the ice in order to make him better and not just try to do everything by himself, which is often the big difference between the junior game and the pro game and he’s done a good job of that.
“The most important thing for every player to be successful is to continue to work on their strong suits. So if somebody wants to be special, they really have to work at what they’re good at and what they have a natural predisposition for. So, I really hope that Fil’s going to take his game to another level by running the power play and being the best puck-moving defenseman that he can potentially be.
“At the same time, he’s going to have to work on his strength and stamina to endure a long season with a hopeful playoff run, which some seasons could be over 100 games. That’s a grind. So he understands that this is a big summer for him and he needs to continue to try to improve his game.”
Team USA’s website posted its Friday notebook ahead of Saturday’s World Championship Semifinal against Sweden (9:15 AM EDT on the NHL Network), and the Americans face long odds in attempting to capture a gold medal:
AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR
By reaching the tournament’s semifinal stage as one of the last four teams remaining, the U.S. has guaranteed a top-four finish in the 12-team tournament for the fourth time in six years. It marks Team USA’s best-ever stretch since it medaled in six of the eight tournaments it competed in from 1931-1950. During that stretch, the U.S. claimed one gold medal (1933), four silver medal (1931, 1934, 1939, 1950) and one bronze (1949). The U.S. did not compete in 1948, 1937 or 1935 tournaments and finished fifth place in 1947 and seventh place in 1938.2017: 5th Place, 6-0-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L)
2016: 4th Place, 4-1-1-4 (W-OTW-OTL-L)
2015: Bronze, 7-1-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L)
2014: 6th Place, 4-1-0-3 (W-OTW-OTL-L)
2013: Bronze, 6-1-0-3 (W-OTW-OTL-L)
Team USA’s website posted an off-day clip in which coach Jeff Blashill and forward Johnny Gaudreau spoke with the media:
