IIHF Update

With the announcement that Sam Gagner will be drawing into the IIHF game for Canada tomorrow against Norway 6 Edmonton Oiler players will be representing their countries at the tournament (7 if you count Garon being the backups backup and I don’t so 6).

Now I know that during the qualifying rounds of this tournament powerhouses like Canada, US, Russia end up playing teams like Italy, Germany, Belarus etc. So stats this early do not usually mean much with teams winning games 10-1. However, it is still interesting to look at.

Player	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	TOI
Staios	Canada	6	0	0	0	+7	16:35
Grebeshkov	Russia	6	0	4	4	+6	13:48
Nilsson	Sweden	6	2	3	5	+5	12:00
Greene	USA	6	0	0	0	0	13:47
Gilbert	USA	6	1	3	4	0	16:39

So what can we glean from these results.

Well “Steady” Steve is having a pretty good campaign. Still no points to show, however, that is not what he is there for. He has been on the ice for 2 of the 10 goals scored against Canada, with both coming against the United States. He is also logging a fair amount of ice time as Duncan Keith is the team leader at 17:37.

Grebeshkov is also having a good tournament for his country. Despite having the second lowest TOI of regulars he is leading the Russian defensemen in point production. His +/- statistic is also pretty impressive at the Russians only had one lop sided win during the qualification round.

Mr. Nilsson is also picking up where he left off the regular season and is performing at a high level. He is currently tied for 7^th in point production on the Swedish team. While averaging much less ice time then his fellow countrymen.

Greene is much like Staios in the fact that he has no points, however, again if he was recruited to score them, the US scouting team did not do a very good job. However, he is logging some valuable minutes and has stayed even through the tournament which means that he must be playing responsible hockey.

Finally, Gilbert has been counted on to log the 3^rd most minutes on his team. He has also produced the 2^nd most points on the United States backend. While picking up where he left off has played responsible hockey and is even through the qualifying round.

Take from it what you want. But, to me with 4 of the 5 of these guys being 25 or under, with the addition of 18 year old Gagner and Pitkanen who left the team. The future looks bright for the Edmonton Oilers.

Condolences go out to the Stall family