Time for meaningful games at the WJC

You may have heard some of the blowout scores in the preliminary rounds of the 2009 World Juniors against some of the lesser teams like Kazakhstan and Latvia. Those might be fun for padding stats, but those kind of games don't show you much about the players on either side.

From Jason Menard at Hockey's Future:

"Games like those blowout games, you have to be careful in your evaluations," Montreal Canadiens director of player recruitment and development Trevor Timmins said. "You have to be there more as a fan than as a scout. The games against Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Russia -- those are the ones that count."

Tonight we have a meaningful game with Canada vs. USA. Now we see how players play when it really matters. Game 1 of the playoffs, if you will.

NHL Network has employed Matt McConnell for the USA games. This saves us from having to listen to Pierre McGuire, which is a a win, but they could have done a lot better.
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