Montreal Canadiens: Five Best World Junior Performances by Current Habs

The Montreal Canadiens are finally back in action tonight, though it will be with a depleted lineup when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning.

There are also some top prospects in action at the World Junior Hockey Championship.

Kaiden Guhle and Canada will take on Austria tonight after winning their opener over Jan Mysak and Czechia on Sunday. Mysak’s team also lost yesterday to Germany, though it was in overtime so the have one point after two games.

There is a third Canadiens prospect in the tournament, as Oliver Kapanen and Team Finland are off to a 2-0 start with wins over Germany and Austria. Though Czechia is off to a disappointing start, Finland and Canada certainly have medal hopes in this tournament. Guhle is playing a top four role on the blue line and has shown to be a physical presence on the ice against Czechia.

We have seen some great performances over the years by current Habs players at this event. It doesn’t always translate to immediate NHL success or else Martin Reway would have become a start after his ten points in five game performance back in 2014.

Of course, Reway dealt with some serious health issues that derailed his career, and he is still playing pro in Czechia.

Last year, Cole Caufield helped the United States win a gold medal while Guhle was on the Canadian team that took home silver. Neither player completely dominated the event, but a handful of current Canadiens did dominate when they played at the World Juniors.

Let’s take a look at the top five performances by current Canadiens players at the World Juniors over the years.

Joel Armia

At first glance, Joel Armia’s performance at the 2013 World Juniors looks incredible. He played six games for Finland at that year’s event and scored six goals and six assists to finish second in scoring behind Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who had already played an NHL season and would have been playing in the NHL if not for a lockout that was still going on.

However, a closer look at Armia’s numbers show he had a great tournament, but he didn’t exactly light it up against top competition.

Finland started the tournament with a 5-1 win over Latvia and Armia had a pair of assists. He was shutout in a 3-1 loss to Czech Republic. Armia then had an assist in a 5-4 shootout win against Switzerland. He completed the preliminary round with a pair of goals against Sweden in a 7-4 loss for Finland.

This dropped his team’s record to 2-2-0 and then finished fourth in their division which pushed them into the relegation round. Armia had two goals and three assists in those four games, which is solid production but nothing spectacular.

Armia then went to the relegation round where Finland won both of its games by a combined score of 19-4. He scored four goals and three assists for seven points in those two games which helped Finland finish 7th in the ten team tournament. He did help them avoid an embarrassing relegation, but piling up points against the two of the weakest teams in the tournament isn’t exactly the same as scoring big goals in the medal round.

Cayden Primeau

Cayden Primeau was not supposed to be the starter for USA at the 2019 World Juniors. Kyle Keyser started the opening game and won 2-1 over Slovakia.

Primeau got the call in the second game but it was against Kazakhstan and the USA won 8-2. Primeau stopped 11 of 13 shots, but then Keyser was back in the net for their third game. He allowed five goals in an overtime loss to Sweden which opened the door for Primeau.

Primeau took full advantage. He started the team’s final preliminary round game and stopped 27 of 28 shots he faced against a tough Finland team. The net was then Primeau’s for the medal round games.

USA beat Czech Republic in the quarterfinals 4-1 and Primeau stopped 18 of 19 shots. USA faced a tough test in the semifinals against Russia, and pulled ahead 2-1 in the second period. Primeau turned aside all 15 shots he faced in the third period and allowed just one goal on 35 shots in the game to lead his team to the gold medal game.

USA would fall to Finland in that final game, with Kaapo Kakko scoring with less than two minutes to play to give Finland a 3-2 win. Primeau faced 31 shots in that game and made 28 saves.

Primeau was not named the top goalie or MVP of the tournament, but he put up terrific numbers. He played five games for USA, and had a 1.61 GAA and a .937 SV%, helping the team win a silver medal and fall just one goal short of gold.

Alexander Romanov

Alexander Romanov was a much hyped prospect by his own NHL teams managerial staff. Marc Bergevin was not one for tooting his own horn or talking about the good moves he made, but he was not afraid to talk about how proud he was of the Alexander Romanov pick at the 2018 NHL Draft.

Romanov was not ranked that high, but the Canadiens found themselves with an extra second round pick after trading Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise to the Chicago Blackhawks for Phillip Danault and this pick. They used it on Romanov, who they really liked, but was not a well known prospect around the world.

He would change that perspective at the 2019 World Juniors.

Romanov was just 18 years old at this tournament, but he was better than any 19 year old. In fact, he won the Best Defenceman Award at the end of the tournament and was named to the All-Star team.

The Habs draft pick opened the tournament with a goal and two assists in a 4-0 Russia win over Denmark. He was fourth among Russian defenders in ice time but that wouldn’t last long. Russia’s second game was a tightly contested 2-1 victory over Czech Republic and though Romanov didn’t have any points, he was paired with Alexander Alexeyev and they were first and second on the team in ice time.

Romanov once again played over 20 minutes and had one assist in a 7-4 win over Switzerland. Then, in the preliminary round finale, Romanov was once again second on the team in ice time and set up the winning goal in a 2-1 Russia victory over Canada.

Romanov had two assists and played over 23 minutes in Russia’s decisive 8-3 quarterfinal win over Slovakia. Russia lost in the semifinal, 2-1 to USA, on a strong goaltending performance from Primeau (as mentioned earlier). Romanov played 21:36 and brought that physical style and two-way presence we have come to know.

He then added an assist in the bronze medal game, finishing the tournament with one goal and eight points in seven games. This put him just one point back of Grigori Denisenko and Aleksi Heponiemi for the tournament lead in scoring.

Romanov really put his name on the map in the hockey world with this performance. He showed to be a two-way player and a fierce physical presence on the ice and won the top defenceman award for his terrific play.

Carey Price

Carey Price was already a top five pick when he arrived in Leksands, Sweden for the 2007 World Juniors. Canada was a veteran team, bringing back 11 players from the previous year’s team that won a gold medal, but they really were not a star studded team that you might expect from a Canadian Junior team.

Their top scorer was Jonathan Toews who has obviously gone on to have a tremendous career, but he finished tied for 10th in tournament scoring with eight points. It was a defensive team, and was carried by Price.

Price opened the tournament by shutting out a strong Swedish team on its home ice. A 2-0 victory for Canada gave them the confidence they needed to get the event started on the right foot. The next day, Canada beat USA 6-3 and allowing three goals that day would be the toughest outing for Price in the whole tournament.

Price continued to play every minute of the tournament as Canada beat Germany 3-1 and closed out the round robin with another shutout, this time over Slovakia.

This gave Canada a bye to the semifinals where they would meet up with USA once again, which is where Price really made his mark. Canada went to overtime with USA and would take a penalty as well, giving USA a 4 on 3 power play. However, Price made several huge saves to keep the game tied and eventually steered it to a shootout where Jonathan Toews would prove to be the hero by scoring on all three of his attempts. Price stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced in regulation and overtime.

Canada would beat Russia 4-2 in the gold medal game with Price once again shutting down a high powered offensive team.

Price played every minute of Canada’s six games and only allowed seven goals. He finished the tournament with a 1.14 GAA and an incredible .961 SV%. He was named the tournament’s MVP for his unbelievable performance in goal for Canada.