From: golchowy@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Gerald Olchowy)
Subject: Re: 1992 World Junior Hockey Championship (WJHC) 
Organization: University of Toronto Chemistry Department
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 07:45:16 GMT

In article <9301012146.AA01472@booth.usask.ca> glc39@booth.usask.ca (Glenn Chin) writes:
>
>In fairness to the Russians, they were playing without:
>
>	Alexei Kovalev		(NY Rangers)
>	Sergei Krivokrasov	(Chicago or IHL)
>	Alexei Yashin(Ott)	(Europa(sp?) Cup)
>	Andrei Nazarov(SJ)	(probably Europa Cup).
>
>Due to the financial crisis experienced by the Russian hockey
>federation, they sent Dynamo Moscow, which is the club team for Yashin
>and Nazarov, to the richer Europa Cup.  Yashin and other Dynamo Moscow
>players arrived on New Year's Eve to join the Russian junior team.
>

Off the top of my head Canada was without Eric Lindros, Pat Poulin,
Scott Niedermayer, and Richard Mativchuk.  The Russians were also
missing Valeri Bure, the Czech and Slovak team was missing Petrovicky
and Hamrlik...missing talent was not exclusively a Russian problem.

>Ottawa director of player personnel John Ferguson stated that he is
>willing to listen to offers for the Senators' first pick in 1993.  He
>made reference to Peter Forsberg whose NHL rights belong to the
>Nordiques.  In my opinion, the Nords would be foolish to trade Forsberg
>(in order to get Alexandre Daigle?), who showed the ability to dominate faceoffs
>in addition to his great playmaking ability and good speed.  I would guess
>Forsberg won at least 80% of his faceoffs against Canada.  In the same game,
>Forsberg showed good upper body strength and strength on skates.

But Peter's name isn't Pierre...

...it's a tough decision, Forsberg right now is the better player, but
Daigle may still have more potential...we're sort of comparing apples
and oranges, by comparing a 19-year old with a 17-year old.  Looking
at the Nordiques current line-up non-politically, I think Forsberg
would not only help a lot sooner because of his age, but his skills
are probably more necessary to current roster than Daigle's...but
Quebec nationalism being what it is, this one may be a political
decision and not a pure hockey decision.  The Nordiques have it
within their power to have the next great French-Canadian superstar...
can they afford to let him slip away...and especially to Ottawa,
which is a divisional and marketing rival.

>
>In the 5-2 victory by Canada over Germany on New Year's Day, Daigle saw very
>little ice time.  Daigle is a defensive liability, but the amount of ice time
>he and his wingers, Dawe and Martin Gendron, saw was so limited
>that coach Perry Pearn must be unhappy about the performance of the
>line.  The line, which was the number two power play line against Russia after
>a neck or shoulder injury to Jeff Shantz, performed well against Russia;
>they might have played themselves into disfavour against Finland.  The
>two power play lines against Germany were:
>
>	Paul Kariya-Chris Gratton-Martin LaPointe
>and	Dean McAmmond-Shantz-Nathan Lafayette.
>
>Shantz was the player of the game for Canada, although Lafayette played
>a strong game.  Lafayette is a cousin of Rueben Mayes, the former
>running back with the New Orleans Saints.
>

I don't think it was so much that Daigle was considered a liability,
but that the other centers and lines were playing so well.  Shantz's
line has probably been the best Canadian line of the tournament, even
offensively, and they were really the prime checking line on the team.
Intranuovo's line was sort of the number 2 checking line, and
Kariya and Lapointe were 2 of the three Canadian "veterans".

With all the penalities in the game, the fourth line (Daigle's), which was
constructed primarily as a offensive line really never had a chance,
especially since the checking lines were also playing so well
offensively.  This is a case of Daigle's relatively poor training
camp leaving him on a low rung on the ladder, and the centers above him
continued to play so well once the tournament started, that they
didn't give Pearn a reason to change.

Gerald
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