Canada vs Sweden

It may only have been a pre-tournament game, but you wouldn't be able to tell just by watching. Team Canada played a great game, a scrappy game, but great non-the-less. Jake Allen had a fantastic performance in goal for the Canadian kids while Sweden's goalie was off to his usual dramatic flopping tactics. The blue line played extremely well for Canada as well. Alex Pietrangelo, who is on loan from the St. Louis Blues, has obviously improved greatly from the last World Juniors. He is very relaxed and poised with the puck and someone that everyone is confident in when the puck is on the end of his stick. Ryan Ellis was at his specialty position of running the power play, and doesn't seem to be suffering any effects from blocking that shot with his foot in the selection camp game. Finally, the offense got the job done, scoring a total of 6 goals, with 14 different players having points in the game!

The only small down side of the game was that the projected number one pick in the 2010 NHL entry draft, Taylor Hall, went down in the first period and didn't return. Hall got the first goal of the game, but was pushed down from behind and landed awkwardly on his knee. However, there is nothing to worry about as Hall is just fine. He was kept out of the rest of the game merely as a precaution and Desjardin said that if it were any other game he would have come back and played, but there is no need to risk it when the game doesn't even matter.

Captain Canada, Patrice Cormier may be under review for an elbow he gave right to the face of a Swedish player as he headed back to the Canada bench. It was not a necessary play what-so-ever, and the IIHF is quite a stickler for rules with these types of situations, so I wouldn't be suprised if they were notified of the incident, even though there was no original call on the play.

Canada plays their next pre-tournament game against Finland in Calgary on Wednesday, December 22nd. Good Luck Boys!