Showing posts with label Mattias Ohlund. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mattias Ohlund. Show all posts

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Bure, Ohlund and Sedin: The World Junior's All-Canucks Team

Mattias Ohlund, Pavel Bure and Daniel Sedin have all
starred in the World Juniors as Canucks prospects.

Until they actually make it to the NHL, the World Juniors is far and away the most closely-scrutinized and highly-celebrated stage for the league's best prospects. And when the average hockey fan is reduced to reading the same cliche scouting reports on their team's draft picks over and over and over, there's nothing like actually watching a player like Jake Virtanen or Thatcher Demko perform at the highest level among their peers.

And every so often, you'll be lucky enough to not only see your team's best prospects play internationally, but watch them absolutely dominate the tournament. A couple of years ago, we highlighted the very best Canadian Junior performances by Canucks prospects of all-time. Cody Hodgson's 16 points in 2008 was there. As was Luc Bourdon's All-Star Team performance at GM Place in 2006.

See also: The All-Time List of Canucks Prospects to Play for Team Canada at the WJC (up to 2013) 

But while Canadian prospects will always get more exposure at this tournament, Vancouver have a long history of drafting top flight international prospects. This year, Canucks fans are spoiled with a United Nations showing of Virtanen (Canada), Demko (USA) and Gustav Forsling (Sweden) playing for their respective countries. (Not to mention Cole Cassels narrowly missing a roster spot with the States.) So with this year's international flavour in mind, we've highlighted the best World Junior performances by Canucks prospects -- Canadian or not -- in the history of the tournament:

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Five years after Naslund, Henrik Sedin's 757th

A cross-crease one-timer to Burrows.  Poetic justice at its finest.  Henrik's 757th point to pass Markus Naslund could not have been achieved on a more fitting play.  After receiving the puck from Daniel, he unleashes one of those seeing-eye passes off the rush, landing right on the tape through a maze of sticks.  It's what we've come to expect from the captain in his historic tenure here. 

Henrik achieved the feat in his 905th game, 21 more than Naslund