Blues prospects fare well at the World Junior Championships
The World Junior Championships are over and Team Canada has won its fifth straight gold medal. Congratulations to two Blues prospects, Alex Pietrangelo and Brett Sonne, who were on the Canadian team and took home gold.
The Blues had six prospects representing three countries, including Aaron Palushaj, Cade Fairchild and Ian Cole on the U.S. team and Simon Hjalmarsson on Sweden.
You can read about how all six fared at the St. Louis Blues website.
But for the thoughts of Blues President John Davidson on the prospects, you can read those right here:
DAVIDSON:
“Hjalmarsson did well with the Swedes. He’s a small guy that’s growing, that wasn’t intimidated, that made some plays and was very close to making a lot of very good plays.
“I thought that Sonne, even in making the team, was remarkable. What he’s done this year leading the Western League in scoring, making Team Canada (and) had a role with that team was remarkable. We give him full marks.
“I thought Pietrangelo, we have to understand that you’re younger than most of those players. Last night, two things that I noticed was the ice time he got, he did very well with. His passing skills were terrific, he didn’t hurt them anywhere. Sometimes it’s hard to get into a flow if you’re not getting a lot of ice time. Remember, he can still play there next year and if he ever did play next year, he would be a key guy. The other thing that I really liked about it, he celebrated as much as any player on that team. That’s part of the experience of this thing. He’s now gone on a huge stage. That’s one of the biggest sporting events of the year in that country. That’s like the NCAA basketball, playing in the championship game and playing in it, so he’s been though it. He’s been through the pressure of it, the team apsect of it, the winning aspect of it. It’s fabulous.
“I thought that Fairchild played pretty well, I thought that Cole played pretty well, I thought Palushaj played pretty well. I think that in watching Palushaj, he almost tried too hard sometimes and yet made some great plays. Fairchild is a guy that we talked about this morning, there’s a lot there. He’s a young guy that is out of the second year of college (Minnesota). And Cole, he played pretty well for most of the tournament. He got twisted around for one of the late goals the other day but good experience for all those guys.
“I thought that with Team USA, the experience for all three of those guys was very good. This is going to sound silly too, but the experience of losing is something that you learn not to enjoy, you learn that that’s part of it.
“We had six guys and that whole experience factor is really important.”
JR
How come Lars Eller did not get to play in the tournament?