I agree that sometimes the “grit-grind” philosophy is excessive, but there is value in a shutdown line, and they’ve been running Neighbours-Greig-Sourdif the entire camp, with good success, and even Canada’s “grit-grinders” are gonna be good offensively. These 3 are veteran guys, who provide some physicality, leadership, responsibility in their own end, and underrated offense (all 3 are among the points per game leaders in the W, with Sourdif’s 1.38ppg the lowest of the 3, so it’s not like they’re useless offensively). It might also interest you to know that Desnoyers has a better points per game than Stankoven this year. If you’re gonna play Bourque at C with Bourgault on his RW, it would be on the 4th line though, likely with Cuylle on LW, Desnoyers as 13F, Guenther moving up to the Johnson-McTavish line, and Stankoven scratched. Wright and McTavish are the top two centres (I did expect a little more from him so far, but he hasn’t been bad enough to lose his spot), and Bourgault hasn’t been very good in camp/game 1.

Connor Bedard’s favourite player is Tyler Motte

— David Quadrelli (@QuadreIli) December 29, 2021

Interesting choice

Desnoyers gets the boot, he’s worse than Comeau (both fall over often, do giveaway’s, play over good players, are 4th line grit grinders who don’t belong there).

If Stankoven gets scratched I will completely lose it.

Lines when fully healthy should be:

Perfetti-Bourque-Bourgault
Johnson-McTavish-Stankoven
Cuylle-Wright-Bedard
Neighbours-Greig-Guenther

Power-Seeley
Guhle-Cormier
Sebrango-Zellweger

Garand
Cossa

Extras would be Sourdif and Lambos

The worst player for Team Canada thus far is Seeley.

He reminds me of Erik Gustafsson, solid in the offensive zone, but he's a giveaway machine and can't make a defensive play to save his life. Not good IMO

Czechia forfeits against Finland due 1 positive case

Czechia forfeits against Finland due 1 positive case

This tournament is rapidly turning into a joke. What's the point of putting the whole team in quarantine if one player has a case? I can't fathom the idea behind this. That won't help stop the spread at all as it seems to be nigh impossible to do it in any case. Seems utterly pointless.

Not really, the team all plays together and let's be honest, the locker rooms are probably a great place to transmit it

Not really, the team all plays together and let's be honest, the locker rooms are probably a great place to transmit it

Russia forfeits against Slovakia…

RUS forfeits today’s game vs SVK due to a positive Covid test. Goes into the books as a 1-0 SVK win.

— Bobby Margarita (@TSNBobMcKenzie) December 29, 2021

This sh*t just keeps piling on

Imagine if a team has to forfeit in a medal game due to one case

RUS forfeits today’s game vs SVK due to a positive Covid test. Goes into the books as a 1-0 SVK win.

— Bobby Margarita (@TSNBobMcKenzie) December 29, 2021

This sh*t just keeps piling on

This tournament is going to end prematurely at this rate...I'm almost certain of it

Or to be fair it could be a race of which team can keep themselves without a single case.

Team officials have stated that their players are being extremely cautious, staying in their rooms, obeying all protocols and yet this still keeps happening. I'm told there is a wedding reception planned for the hotel USA and Sweden are staying in tonight. What else can they do?

— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) December 29, 2021

Teams should have been in a bubble, a fukcing wedding? Are you serious

Team officials have stated that their players are being extremely cautious, staying in their rooms, obeying all protocols and yet this still keeps happening. I'm told there is a wedding reception planned for the hotel USA and Sweden are staying in tonight. What else can they do?

— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) December 29, 2021

Teams should have been in a bubble, a fukcing wedding? Are you serious

How about postponing the rest of this tournament to summer, just after the playoffs but before the NHL draft? And play in an actual bubble?