The largest problem with a 23-and-under team is the defense. We have seen that these forwards can play with (and in a lot of cases beat) anybody. Learning to defend against superstars like Tarasenko, Ovechkin, etc. takes a lot more time in the league. Team NA’s defense looks outstanding when they’re on the attack…

You are a wonderful man.

Morin is the safer bet to unless the return for Sanheim is much larger.

He had my vote (I don’t get a vote), but really the Calder this year was a farce with McDavid’s injury. You’re right about the Flyers’ D, although I fully expect them to trade Sanheim or Morin sometime in the next year. They’re valuable prospects in an area of great wealth for Philly right now, and they can certainly…

I won’t go as far as saying he was the only reason the Flyers made the playoffs (they’re a talented squad), but he definitely reenergized them. He’s going to be a big name in the sport for a long time. Also, he has a great nickname.

Bobrovski might have something to say about that tonight...

He said there’s a drop off to offensive guys. No insult to the Ghost Bear, but Ekblad is the only real all around defenseman on the squad. Rielly, Ghost Bear, Jones still haven’t developed a gritty two way game to the level they (might) need to beat a squad like Canada or Sweden.

A good point.

Leafs fans should care. We have Matthews, Rielly and Zaitsev all playing big roles on their teams in the tourney. So far, the future is looking bright for the Leafs! Typically, that means we are in for even greater disappointment than usual in a few seasons time.

McDavid and Ekblad would have probably made Team Canada (Ekblad would have replaced Keith, IMO).

They have sure looked like it so far. The craziest part is that Nathan MacKinnon looks fast compared to Team NA, which is just ridiculous.

It’s a 23-and-under team. Canada and the USA weren’t allowed to bring any players younger than 24, so team NA does have 4 or 5 players that would have made Team USA and 1 or 2 that would have made Team Canada without the restriction.

The final will be best of 3. If anybody but Canada wants a shot, then Canada needs to get knocked out before then. I can’t see any other team being able to beat Canada in a 3 game series.

Best one I have seen yet is “A Team Has No Name” in one of my leagues.

Get Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon on board and I’d watch this movie.

He can get mad at whatever he wants. That’s his right as an American. :)

So Harbaugh should alert the media that one of his best defensive weapons won’t be in a game? Seems like a pretty terrible move strategically.

I like a lot of what’s in the chapters that have been released for TWOW. They seem to be an improvement on the quality of ADWD. That scares me. It makes me think he’s focused really hard on making the chapters he’s going to make public strong, because he hasn’t been working on any other chapters.

It will. The unfortunate part is that the paths to get to that end are going to be significantly different, because he didn’t tell them how everything was going to happen. It is a nice consolation, but I’d love to get to read the entire thing (not going to happen).

Still completely with you. These books are a lot more about the journey than the destination. I get the impression he is sick of the journey and just wants it to all be done and published.