Good day hockey enthusiasts, we will be speaking today with Johan Nilsson, the webmaster at a favourite site on the internet to address your hockey concerns and build your knowledge, Elite Prospects.

 

Robin @ Chiller Instinct - Johan, can you let the readers in on some of the big improvements that Elite Prospects has made in past couple months and how your World Junior coverage is implemented?

 

Johan @ Elite Prospects - We have increased the amount of staff members, so we are now 60 people helping out running the site. The addition of 15 or so new staff members during the fall have improved our coverage for some European leagues, many based in Holland, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Norway, but also several leagues in North America. We now have complete NCAA D1 and D3 rosters for example. As for our World Junior coverage, well, since it is a stats website, we have offered easy to access team rosters, stats and awards from the tournament.

 

Robin @ CI - There was a lot of banter going on as to how the International Ice Hockey Federation could improve the layout of the competition. Many feel that the lop-sided victories are detrimental to the spirit of the contests and take away from the spectacle. Do you feel that the IIHF should look at adjusting the format of the tournament in any way? 

 

Johan @ EP - Decreasing the amount of teams, would obviously result in less lop-sided wins, but then again, I’d  imagine some of the lesser nations see it as a great opportunity to develop and improve their hockey programs competing against the best in the world. Some changes could/should probably be made. I have not given too much thought about it though.

 

Robin @ CI - The Americans and Swiss made big headlines during this tournament, surprising a lot of countries during games. Switzerland was a special kind of team, rallying around some fine goaltending by Benjamin Conz and dominant play at times by Nino Niederreiter to be an absolute force and appear in the bronze medal game against Sweden, after competing in Division I the year before. How did the drama of the tournament play out for you and do you have any special thoughts or insight about teams or players that made an impression on you?

 

Johan @ EP -  It was as always, a very entertaining tournament. Obviously, I followed team Sweden the most, but I watched all medal round games and some other group stage games as well. I was very impressed with Team USA and the way they played. European speed and skills combined with Canadian attitude and physical play. Team Russia was the biggest let-down. They could not play as a team, despite some quality prospects. Obviously, Switzerland was the main surprise of the tournament and 'IMO' Niederreiter was among the best forwards of the tournament. Really skilled guy. Overall, I’d say Alex Pietrangelo(Canada) and Jordan Eberle (Canada) were the two players that impressed me the most. 

 

Robin @ CI - Yes, Eberle's magic was tremendous once again, almost surreal by scoring two goals to force the gold medal game to overtime. Pietrangelo was an absolute and was dominant and constant at both ends of the ice. Pietrangelo's short-handed marker earlier in the tournament, and the amount of ice time both those players logged, stood out to me. Chiller Instinct just released our first annual World Junior Championship Awards, compiling an All-Tournament Team and a Secondary Team, plus an Honour Team. Do you have any thoughts about that, or should we have just left well enough alone...? 

 

Johan @ EP - I would probably have Swede Jacob Markström instead of Igor Bobkov on the the All-Tournament team. I would also exclude Sweden Pääjärvi-Svensson from the same team and replace him with Derek Stepan. Pääjärvi was good, but not great. He was a bit inconsistent, but I very much look forward watching him play next year, assuming he is not already in the National Hockey League.

 

Robin @ CI - Both Canada and Sweden had legitimate aspirations of gold around their necks. The Americans escalated their play to a level that challenged the Canadians twice, once in pool play and the other in the contest for gold. An astute goaltending change mid-game to the 17-year-old Jack Campbell will surely garner attention during this summer's 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Stepan, as you mentioned earlier, was a constant offensive force. The top two defense pairings that included Cam Fowler, Jake Gardiner, Matt Donovan, and the electric John Carlson were quite versatile, pushing the pace of play.  What do you feel were the most integral parts of their championship run?
 

Johan @ EP - They had a great mixture of different players and played a very smart game. At times the opposition dictated the play, but they played it very smart with very lethal counter-attacks. They forechecked very well and worked their butt off. I also like their defenseman. Just like Sweden, they had many smart and offensively gifted defenseman, however the American ones were much smarter and safer in their own end. Offensively, Stepan got support from skilled players like Jerry D’Amigo, Jordan Schroeder, Danny Kristo, Chris Kreider, etc. I liked this team and its depth a lot.

 
Robin @ CI - USA played an immense game against the Swedish side, with the Swedes being favoured going into the game. With the score 2-2 (video here), Marcus Johnasson's deliberate and game-changing penalty (and misconduct) did not immediately result in the Americans swinging momentum in their favour, but it has to be considered a pivotal moment in the tournament for both teams. How do you think losing their captain, at that point, affected the Swedes and conversely, did the Americans draw from that? 

 

Johan @ EP - It did hurt the top line a bit, however, I do not think this was game decisive after all. Afterall Team US did not score on that five minute power player and what in the end it was individual mistakes that were the reason behind the loss. Jacob Markström letting in his first softie in the tournament, 2-3 USA, and then defenseman David Rundblad with a bad turnover to make it 2-4 USA.
 
Robin @ CI - That is a good point. Moving on, Markström had a very strong tournament in between the pipes for Sweden, but was caught a few times with inattention. Other strong performances were established by the likes of Conz of Switzerland (who incredibly won the 'best goaltender award), young Campbell of the United States, and Igor Bobkov of Russia all looked strong despite some glaring differences in comparision (with Markström, Mike Lee of the American side, and Jake Allen of Canada). I was disappointed in the fortitude of Joni Ortio when I tuned into watch the Fins play. What do you personally think made Markström the best goaltender at the event?

 

Johan @ EP - Markström’s performance against Russia and especially against Finland was VERY good. The amount of quality saves he made during the first period vs. the Finns is sick. Sweden could have been down 0-5 or something if it was not for Markström. Not counting those two games, Markström did very well against a poor Czech team and aside from one blunder against USA in the semifinal, he looked good there to. 
 
Robin @ CI - I agree that Markström was incredible. Johan, your nation's club had some fantastic scoring punch on the team as well. I was really impressed with Andre Petersson, and Paajarvi-Svennson, which is scary because you are saying that you knew the latter could have been more instrumental to his team. Jacob Josefson impressed me with his faceoff ability (but none more than Finland's Joonas Nattinen at 73.1%), and Mattias Tedenby is incredible at his positioning, tenacious, and lightning-like quickness.
 
What were your favourite combinations up front to emerge, and who came through with some unexpected prowess? 
 

Johan @ EP - I was actually a bit disappointed with many of the hyped Swedish players, such as for example Tedenby, Petersson and Pääjärvi-Svensson. Not necessarily because of the points totals, but because I know they can do so much more out on the ice and also some of key-guys did not play great when it mattered the most, against USA.
 
The top players on this Swedish players, upfront, were actually the guys playing on the third line. Anton Rödin, Jakob Silfverberg and Anton Lander. They had great chemistry, scored a lot of goals, worked hard and were also pretty good defensively. I liked that a lot.

 
Robin @ CI - Interesting. How about the defense? The chemistry was strange. Not that it was not good, but a little unexpected for me. I saw Mattias Ekholm really emerge, and Lukas Kilström has really good instincts as both a defender and a passer. Oliver Ekman-Larsson's break-down at the end of the tournament was unfortunate as he is a stabilizing force (no penalties up to that point). How did the defense situation shape up for you?

 

Johan @ EP - Ekman-Larsson was by far the best Swedish defenseman in the tournament. He was very good both ways and it is good thing he will come back next year, potentially being the top defenseman of the tournament by then. Next to Ekman-Larsson, '92 draftee Adam Larsson, Ekholm and Tim Erixon had decent tournaments. Larsson mixed some good things with some bad, while the other two did not stand out as much offensively, but were pretty good defensively. Depth players Peter Andersson and Kilström did a decent job. The most talked about defenseman in this tournament was, however, David Rundblad. I do not think I have ever seen a Swedish junior player receiving as much criticism as Rundblad got after his lackluster performance in the semifinal. Thankfully, he bounced back and played a great bronze medal game.
 
Robin @ CI - That is great insight to how Sweden was reacting to the heart-wrenching loss to the USA. You are right about the unfair treatment of Rundblad - he really showed a lot of poise and sound decision-making to me. I can hardly wait for him to join Pietrangelo on the St. Louis Blues' blueline with some of the others like Roman Polak, Jonas Junland, and of course, Erik Johnson.

 

I was enthusiastic about watching the Swedes perform and they were dominant at times for sure. Although they scored a high number of goals (3rd to only Canada and USA), Sweden's downfall may have been ill-advised penalties as the penalty-killing was pretty secure at over 80%. What was Sweden's strong points as a team and what will need to be addressed next year in Buffalo, New York?

 

Johan @ EP - Goaltending, great skating with fast counter-attacks, and some very technically skilled players were probably what stood out in a positive way. What really should be addressed is the defensive play. Not really the backchecking by the forwards, but the play of the many offensive minded defenseman on the team. They did a lot of mistakes as soon as the opposition skated hard and forechecked. The smaller ice was not to their advantage, obviously. I also feel that this team lacked some character players, like for example Gabriel Landeskog of the Kitchener Rangers (OHL).

 

If Sweden can one or two decent stay-at-home defenseman and some stronger guys up front for next year’s tournament, I think that we will once again be able to fight for the gold.

Robin @ CI - Thank you very much for all the insight you have provided for the readers Johan and I look forward to gleaning the same type of information as we progress towards the Olympics in Vancouver in just a few weeks time.