Tuesday, December 17, 2019

5 Takeaways from Game 1 of the USA Canada Rivalry Series

USA took game one of the Rivalry Series against Canada on Saturday, in Hartford Connecticut. Canada opened the scoring with a power play goal from Victoria Bach, but USA came away with a 4-1 decision on goals power play goals from Megan Keller and Amanda Kessel, and even strength goals from Abby Roque and Alex Carpenter. Alex Cavallini (USA) and Genevieve Lacasse (Canada) each got the start in net.

5 takeaways:

1- Fluid roster construction: IIHF events are the crown jewels in international women's hockey. It is clear the Rivalry Series and other non IIHF events are used as evaluating tools, as we see the pool of players used grow and grow. Since the 2018 Four Nations there have been five events: Four Nations, Feb 2019 Rivalry Series, Worlds, Pittsburgh Camp, and Dec 2019 Rivalry Series. The US has iced a total of 43 different players in its various 23 person rosters for those events. From a viewer's perspective the more college hockey you watch, the more context you have for what you are watching. I loved watching on Saturday, but definitely had to look up some players.

I made a google drive sheet here to track the US Rosters for this quad: Team USA Roster for 2018-2022 Quad 
Apologies for the formatting, still figuring it out. 8 players have been in 100% of events (Knight, Kessel, Coyne, Matheson, Cavallini, Cameranesi, Bellamy, and Bozek) and 9 have been in 80% . So it looks like there are about 6 spots up for grabs. Also of note is the continued dominance of BC, Wisconsin and Minnesota college players in US Roster construction. 25 of 43 players attend or attended these schools. I'd like to add graduation date to my google sheet as it appears team USA is trending pretty young right now, and very comfortable loading up with college kids. I suspect the January portion of the roster will have fewer college kids out of respect to their college schedules.

2- Finding Canada's next starting goaltender: Canada has relied on Shannon Szabados for years, including the 2018 Olympics where she played with a leg injury and the 2018 Four Nations, 2019 Rivalry Series and Worlds. But she wasn't at Pittsburgh and isn't on the current Canada roster. One gets the sense Canada is trying to find their new number one. On Saturday 30 year old Genevieve Lacasse played just ok. She didn't give up any egregious goals, but four goals is simply a lot. I would have liked to see her get a stick on the Pankowski pass across the crease to Keller on the first power play goal. On Roque's goal Lacasse probably made the high percentage play by going to her knees, but it appeared she didn't track the puck well off the face off, and Roque had no problem going backhand top shelf. Ultimately Lacasse gave up four goals on 31 shots. Ann-Renee Desbiens or Emerance Maschmeyer (both 25) are likely to get the start on Tuesday.

3- Quiet night for Canada's stars and veterans: Although shots were even on the night, and Canada showed promise in the second when it outshot the US 15-9, Canada looked rusty at finishing and too many veterans weren't being impact players. Spooner, Johnson, and Saulnier didn't stand out much. Poulin was ok but was held off the score sheet. Agosta made her debut post maternity leave and looked about what you would expect, a very reasonable performance from her. Agosta did have one glorious back door chance towards end of the 2nd period. She couldn't put it home, which is a shame, because we didn't see much more of her after that. The third period was all USA and they finished two even strength chances which made the difference. I still give Canada every chance of winning tonight in game two in New Brunswick, particularly if anyone other than Cavallini starts for the US.

Perhaps the best Canada gif of the night was this, Poulin just trucking somebody. Man she is sturdy on her skates. It's deceiving as she doesn't look like a big player.



4 - Abby Roque, a senior at Wisconsin was one of 6 players making their senior team debut for the US. She got regular ice time, and scored early in the third period to make it 3-1 and take the wind out of any Canadian push to tie the game. The play started with Abby winning a face off in the offensive zone against Victoria Bach. Bach is a bit indecisive about how to react, doesn't tie up Abby enough, and after the puck ping pongs to Abby she deftly protects the puck with her body and goes backhand top shelf. Beautiful goal, and it reminded me of Pankowski's (another former Badger) short handed back handed shelf goal in the National Championship game in March. They must practice that at Wisconsin. :) For Canada, it was a tough goal against. Bach, a 2018 graduate of BU is showing lots of offensive promise on the senior team for Canada, and her offensive prowess is earning her the right to be on the ice in the third, down a goal, but this had to be a learning moment for her. All of this only enhances the excitement that will play out on the ice tonight in New Brunswick.



5- My 4 stars of the game are Alex Cavallini, Alex Carpenter, the @wsportshilites twitter handle and the NBC production. NBC did have one mix up where they listed Roque as Canadian (I wish!) and somehow forgot Pankowski was a member of the 2019 Championship winning Badger team, but on the whole I enjoyed the call by John Walton, and the color by AJ Mleczko. I enjoyed that they showed the '98 Olympians drop the puck, and enjoyed all the photographic stills of women's hockey legends from years past. There is simply no comparison between watching a professional production, and anything else other than watching live. Here's a highlight package showing some great Cavallini saves as evidence of the above.



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