Team Canada

Just 18 hours ago team Canada hit the ice for their first game in the World Junior Championship tournament. They started out strong, defeating the Czech Republic 3-0 with Jonathan Bernier earning the shutout and player of the game honors.

Team Canada also set a record in that win—it was their 19th straight World Junior victory dating back to the coaching days of Brent Sutter.

During their next game against Slovakia, Steve Mason didn’t see as much action as Bernier, but he stood just as strong between the pipes stopping all 22 shots for Team Canada recording the second shut out of the tournament between the two goaltenders. It now seems that these goaltenders are competing against each other for the number one position through the rest of the IIHF tournament.

Up to this point Team Canada has not let an even strength goal in 375 minutes, dating back to past World Junior tournaments.

In the game against the Czechs it was the story of the 17 year olds as Tavares had two goals and Steven Stamkos assisted on all three goals for Team Canada. In today’s match up against Slovakia it was Kyle Turris stealing the show helping his team to a 2-0 victory.

Turris is currently playing for the University of Wisconsin, but in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes selected him third overall.  Gretzky certainly had reason to be proud of his future NHL star, as Kyle Turris had a huge game for Canada netting both goals on the powerplay past Slovakian goaltender Julius Hudacek. Turris was also named the Canadian player of the game. 

At this point in the tournament one thing stands out like it has throughout past tournaments is the referring. Even though the IIHF has added a second referee to each international game, it doesn’t seem to have improved anything as we have seen many bogus calls being made against all teams. Slovakia was the team in this matchup that seemed to take the brunt of most of these bad calls.

Canada came into this tournament knowing it would be refereed differently from when they play with their respective teams back home. It seems like no matter how much head coach Craig Hartsburg drills into the juniors' heads, there are still way to many penalties being taken by Team Canada. Today they took a total of six penalties—three less then their previous game, but still could be less.

Team Canada will now have Thursday off but surely Hartsburg will be putting his national team through a strenuous practice as there are a few things they could be doing better. This break will also give both goaltenders some time to rest, as well as Brandon Sutter who seems to be suffering from an upper body injury but is still out on the ice shift after shift.

Team Canada’s next game will be against Sweden, a team that also beat Slovakia in their tournament opener.  They will be playing their second game Friday against Denmark.

The Vancouver Canucks won 5-0 last night in a lopsided affair against the usually stingy defense of the New Jersey Devils.

The Canucks earned the win largely because Roberto Luongo was back in the lineup after returning from a rib injury. Luongo, who had not played since December 8th, was very solid as he posted a 32 save shutout for the 37th of his career and the 5th of the season.

Martin Brodeur on the other hand, was not so solid in net as he struggled in a performance that matched his season high of 5 goals allowed while only facing 24 shots from an offense not normally known for its explosive play.

Judging by Brodeur's career numbers and his current standing in the All-Star voting, it doesn't make much sense to write him off just yet. But this game that showcased two of the league's marquee goaltenders leads one to question whether or not Luongo is emerging as the future face of goaltending in the NHL, as Brodeur's career enters its twilight years.

There is no question that Brodeur remains an elite goalie in the league right now, and undoubtedly will go down in history as being one of the best ever—especially since his career shutout numbers recently started to push the legendary Terry Sawchuk's aside. However, as the "New NHL" is evolving into a faster game with more goals, and more talented shooters finding more ways to score, good goaltending is going to always be at a premium. And goalies with game-changing abilities like Luongo are becoming harder and harder to find.

Luongo is still a ways off from establishing himself as being an NHL legend like Brodeur. But his career .920 save percentage is a good indicator of his potential for success, especially considering most of his career to this point was spent guarding the nets for a pathetic Florida Panthers team.   

This debate is likely to re-emerge in the future, when Team Canada has to reach into its incredibly deep talent pool and decide which of its many goalies to go with for the 2010 Olympics.

The popular choice for the last few Olympics has been Brodeur, but after Luongo out-duelled him last night in Vancouver, it appears as though his monopoly on the national goaltending job may be coming to an end. While others like Marty Turco will certainly be in the mix, last night's performance by Luongo, both statistically and symbolically, would seem to have put Luongo into the running to take over the job.

It's maybe a bit early to be determining things like this for the 2010 Olympics, and to take one game as the determining factor would be ridiculous. But Brodeur's struggles last night, accompanied by Luongo's stellar play, was certainly an indicator that Team Canada and the NHL are about to experience an inevitable change in their goaltending futures.