2021 World Championships

[Blackbeard]

Curl also has an edge as well.

If you are referring to Roque, I believe it goes a bit beyond an edge. Watching her play often enough has caused me to think that she has a bit of a mean streak.

[Blackbeard]

The international rules are just plain sad. Wait over two years to play this tournament, and then we have to conduct the championship like we’re double parked.

Do you know why Decker got that penalty in the face off circle in the 3rd period? I didn't see it and didn't hear Rod Black explain what happened. I heard later that it was a face off violation. Spoke to my daughter in law tonight who gave me an explanation that didn't seem to make sense...something to do with new rues in the NHL in the last few years...instead of getting waived out of the playoff circle you can get penalized. The most dangerous player in women's hockey in my opinion. But maybe age, as Lindsay was alluding to with respect to Knight, might be taking its toll on all these older tremendously talented players.

[FONT=Calibri]Jenner is a player in the tradition of Piper and Apps, who is far more effective in the international game than she ever was in college. To a certain extent, that is true of Poulin as well, although she definitely had her moments as an NCAA player. [/QUOTE]

Re: Poulin, watching this tournament I recalled thinking more than once while watching her play for BU, "what's the big deal, I don't get it" because she struck me as being an average player. And that was after her headline making performance in the Olympic Gold Medal Game in Vancouver in 2010. But as I watched this tournament I just chalked it up to her stepping up her game when the caliber of players that she is playing with (and sometimes against) is ratcheted upwards a few steps. The old adage that playing with people who are more talented than you will cause you to raise the level of your game to attempt to match theirs is certainly true. In sports, music and many other instances. And while the "more talented" part might not be the most accurate wording as applies to Poulin's situation I think the rest fits. Maybe this is what you were describing re: Jenner as well. Jenner seems to have a nose/talent for being in big game changing plays and capitalizing often.

When I saw both her and Poulin on the game winning 2 on 1 I thought, if you are a Team Canada fan, those are absolutely the two players who you want to be in those skates at that moment. The odds were dramatically bent in Canada's favour on that play by virtue of who those two skaters were.

[Timothy A]

If you are referring to Roque, I believe it goes a bit beyond an edge. Watching her play often enough has caused me to think that she has a bit of a mean streak.

She played with boys up to her college career, so she had to stand up for herself.

[DDad16]

She played with boys up to her college career, so she had to stand up for herself.

My son played against her when she was a Freshman in High School (he was a Senior). There were times she just made them look silly, even as a Freshman. She killed a penalty practically by herself. A small caveat: we weren't a very good team, but we had some good players. She was as good as our better players at that time. It's been fun watching her progress in her career. Disappointed she didn't play in the final.

[Timothy A]

My son played against her when she was a Freshman in High School (he was a Senior). There were times she just made them look silly, even as a Freshman. She killed a penalty practically by herself. A small caveat: we weren't a very good team, but we had some good players. She was as good as our better players at that time. It's been fun watching her progress in her career. Disappointed she didn't play in the final.

Great insight. I wonder how many other schools were interested in her besides UW since she was not coming up the traditional pipeline. ARD also came up the boy's pipeline.

[Lindsay]

https://kencampbell.substack.com/p/a...ngs-usas-roque

I thought this was a nice profile on Roque. It sounds like at age 14 her family realized girls hockey was a thing, and got her into the USA Hockey camps, but she kept at it on the boy side. She was 14 and didn’t know any girls who played hockey. No different than quotes we’ve seen from ARD or Abigail Levy about their obliviousness as kids to the fact that other girls play hockey.

Not an ideal situation for numerous reasons, but missing talent on the recruiting scene is one of them. Sure hope we see Abby on the ice soon, her game is just so fun to watch.

[Timothy A]

https://kencampbell.substack.com/p/a...ngs-usas-roque I thought this was a nice profile on Roque. It sounds like at age 14 her family realized girls hockey was a thing, and got her into the USA Hockey camps, but she kept at it on the boy side. She was 14 and didn’t know any girls who played hockey. No different than quotes we’ve seen from ARD or Abigail Levy about their obliviousness as kids to the fact that other girls play hockey.

Not an ideal situation for numerous reasons, but missing talent on the recruiting scene is one of them. Sure hope we see Abby on the ice soon, her game is just so fun to watch.

She was so good on the Dream Gap Tour I am still shocked she didn't play in the crunch time in the tourney. Maybe she's being Watts'ed, though then they would just ignore her enormous talent. You being a Canadian fan, Watts your take on Watts?

[Lindsay]

You being a Canadian fan, Watts your take on Watts?

I like watching Watts play so I'm disappointed she can't make the Hockey Canada roster, similar to Gabel and to a lesser extent Giguere (or at least one of the 3). she's great. Her stats speak for themselves. A person could go on in arguing the case, but what's the point?

The rest of this is not about Watts specifically. tl;dr i like watts but if a viable pro league doesn't get going it looks like 1 more year until her career is unplugged, and it's lights out on watts been a brilliant college career.


We are to a point where really high caliber players can't make a roster in both US and Canada, and to a lesser extent Finland. Meanwhile players like Mueller, they better win in college because it's not going to happen at the int'l level, despite her being one of the best in the world. Jincy Dunne and Roque can't get off the bench. Pankowski.....Aerin Frankel....and in a nod to history that it's been this way for a long time: Nicole Corrierro. I mean even Angela James couldn't make Canada's Olympic roster! Maybe we should have started building a viable pro league 20 years ago....

On the int'l scene, teams 1 and 2 are lost at sea together, 3 doesn't fit anywhere, 4-10 play competitively against each other. Teams 1-3 have loads of talent dying on the vine because they have nowhere to play. I hope changes happens, especially as both the NW and PW are working hard to create it. There are parity issues in the NW (Boston and Minn dominate), in the PW when you break it up by country (Montreal and Minnesota better than the rest), and on the int'l scene (above). Maybe getting the best in one league together would help.

It's years past time for the parties involved to sit down and figure out a pro league. A true best on best, with equal # of teams in Canada and USA. I'm not suggesting USA Hockey and Hockey Canada bank roll the whole thing, but at a minimum an endorsement of a league to give it credibility as the league pitches to sponsors, and then acting as partner in ways that are tbd. It's kind of weird that they rarely if ever talk about the women's pro scene, from a developmental need perspective. Especially since they both partner with the NHL.

I wouldn't mind if this is the last Olympic residency we ever see IF a viable pro league gets going. I think this one especially is going to be interesting because some people seem burned out on isolation already thanks to covid, and presumably the residency means a different kind of isolation and stress after 1.5 years of the same.

Maybe in the future it makes more sense for the federations to spread that residency financial support over more players in a viable pro league, and pull your players for a month or so from college and the pro league for Olympics and be done with it. Instead of looking at roster decisions from a standpoint of "if we invest in this player for ten years is it worth it" , inevitably giving some players disproportionate support over a decade and others none; get them going in a pro league and then just evaluate based on: can they help me win this short term tournament coming up. Maybe we'd see different faces in the tourneys, and still get to enjoy the ones that don't make it, while they play in a viable and visible pro league.

just thinking out loud, don't have the answers but hope to see real progress post Olympics which to me means a true best on best league.

[Blackbeard]

I was waiting to find out what happened to Turnbull at the end of the game but there was little mentioned.

Turns out she broke her leg in her initial celebration with Desbiens after the the buzzer went off signaling the winning goal. She jumped up in the air with Desbiens and looked as though she came down awkwardly with the little that you can tell from the video. Daoust ended up pushing Turnbull like a sled on the ice away from the dog pile and any further injury.

How many athletes has this happened to in football, hockey, baseball? Post game victory celebrations have made a reputation for themselves as being potentially dangerous...acl's, ankles, knees, legs.

https://www.tsn.ca/blayre-turnbull-b...eeks-1.1688488

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/cana...ld-celebration

https://calgarysun.com/sports/hockey...-womens-worlds

[slapshot willy]

I was waiting to find out what happened to Turnbull at the end of the game but there was little mentioned.

Turns out she broke her leg in her initial celebration with Desbiens after the the buzzer went off signaling the winning goal. She jumped up in the air with Desbiens and looked as though she came down awkwardly with the little that you can tell from the video. Daoust ended up pushing Turnbull like a sled on the ice away from the dog pile and any further injury.

How many athletes has this happened to in football, hockey, baseball? Post game victory celebrations have made a reputation for themselves as being potentially dangerous...acl's, ankles, knees, legs.

https://www.tsn.ca/blayre-turnbull-b...eeks-1.1688488

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/cana...ld-celebration

https://calgarysun.com/sports/hockey...-womens-worlds

I’m surprised there haven’t more more injuries in post game hockey celebrations. You have sticks on the ice that can be tripped on, helmets and gloves are off, skate blades all over the place (some pointing up) in the pile of players , etc.

Coaches these days should be telling players of all ages ‘hey….celebrate like crazy if we win, but no pileups on the ice’. I know it’d be tough as emotions run high, but bad things can happen in celebrations like this.

[Lindsay]

It’s the fingers that I worry about. Poulin fell also and slid with her bare hands across the ice. Total mom move by Daoust to be the one to haul Turnbull out of there. I feel bad because I keep laughing when I see the footage of Turnbull... either the Adrenalin or the medicine they gave her but she seemed quite unfazed by her broken leg.

The other time I’ve seen a celebration injury was Ted Ginn Jr in the 2007 National Championship game for football, for Ohio State. In his case though he injured himself after a touchdown on the first play of the game, oops.

[ARM]

Legend has it that Noora R?ty was concussed in the postgame pileup from the 2012 NCAA Championship and another player was similarly injured by a mom later that evening. In the NFL, there was a kicker for the Cardinals that hurt himself celebrating an early FG and was unable to kick off for the rest of the game.

I wonder what a broken leg at this stage does to Turnbull's Olympic prospects.

[robertearle]

I wonder what a broken leg at this stage does to Turnbull's Olympic prospects.

The internet says a clean fracture of the fibula; back on skates in 6-8 weeks.

If you're gonna break something, fibula isn't all that bad; less "weight bearing" than other bones. sometimes people are allowed a walking boot during healing.

[ARM]

So for a player like Poulin or Jenner, a broken leg wouldn't be that bad. For a player on the bubble, given that rosters are typically announced some time in December, missing six weeks would roughly cut in half the number of weeks where she could make a favorable impression (beyond intangibles like being a good teammate or working hard during rehab).