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Meet The New Guys 2020
It's double the fun with our WJC Preview/Meet The New Guy Issue! Get all the info you need on the World Junior Championship while learning about the new faces in new places for the 2020-21 NHL season. In the WJC section, we have previews on each team, plus profiles on key players to watch. In Meet The New Guy, you'll find stories on Matt Murray, Alex Pietrangelo, Taylor Hall and many more. Published December 2020
PIPE DREAMS START HERE
TEAM USA’S OFFENSIVE ATTACK could be super-sized this year – or it could just be pretty good. Alex Turcotte (LA), Trevor Zegras (ANA) and Nick Robertson (TOR) are all still eligible to play for the team, but none attended the squad’s October camp for a variety of reasons. Ultimately, quarantine measures and whether or not NHL training camps start on time could determine their availability. Without those big guns, the Americans will have to rely on goaltending and a couple of high-end snipers that will be available. And the lessons of last year’s tournament loom large for the Yankees. In the Czech Republic, a U.S. squad with very real medal potential stalled out in the quarterfinal against Finland, failing to score a goal in a 1-0 loss. To that end, new coach…
HOW TO SHAKE THE ‘RINK RUST’
IT IS THE STRANGEST off-season of all-time for NHLers’ training schedules. Or it’s right up there with the 1945 off-season following the end of the Second World War, as the COVID-19 pandemic has been the single most disruptive global event in more than 70 years. For many players who competed in the 24-team bubble tournament, simply starting off-season training has been a mountain to climb. Their bodies endured a rigorous, condensed league schedule that regularly included three games in four nights and back-to-backs. In some cases, that meant back-to-back overtime games. The gruelling experience left players’ bodies battered, but that’s true after any deep playoff run in a non-COVID year as well. According to multiple high-performance trainers with clients who played in the bubble, the mental toll of the bubble was much…
Scouting Report
CAN NEW CREASE CREW HOLD UP? ONCE AGAIN THE SWISS will be in tough to make any noise at the world juniors, though the program has carved out enough of a niche not to be taken too lightly. In terms of high-end talent, the Swiss won’t have any NHL draft picks on their roster – there will be players eligible for the 2021 class, but nobody who’s pushing for the top 50. Five players can return from last year’s WJC squad and experience is crucial, especially since that team finished second in their pool to Sweden (it was the weaker pool of the two and Switzerland lost in the quarterfinal to Russia). Simon Knak, who plays in the WHL for Portland, is one of the most notable returnees up front, while offensive…
YAROSLAV ASKAROV
SIMPLY MAKING THE TEAM and starting games for the Russian world-junior team at 17 was an impressive feat for goalie Yaroslav Askarov. But helping Russia make it to the gold-medal game, where they eventually lost to Canada, made the run extra special. But that silver wasn’t good enough for Askarov, who yielded the crease to the older Amir Miftakhov for the final. “I felt as though we didn’t achieve what we had planned to,” Askarov said. “I learned that it’s key to try even harder in order to progress and become a better player.” Thanks to his youth, Askarov, the highly touted goaltending prospect from the SKA St. Petersburg system, gets another crack at gold this year in Edmonton, and he’s already a lot more experienced than he was a year ago.…
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