World junior championship: Team Canada coffee talk; predictable outcome obscures issues

Canada's opener vs. Germany at the world junior championship essentially unfolded as expected, with the Maple Leaf winning 7-2.

The tournament is about peaking during the medal round and, suffice to say, Team Canada has plenty to tweak and fine-tune. Among the few half-conclusions that can be drawn is that, for one, the mind reels at how hat-trick scorer Anthony Mantha ever could have been a bubble candidate for the final squad. Secondly, the youngsters registered, with Connor McDavid getting two assists in his international debut and receiving at least three gold-hued chances that were denied by Team Germany goalie Marvin Cüpper.

The result was predictable, but there is always plenty of fodder for the untold millions of armchair coaches across this country. Talk amongst yourselves:

— The six-man defence corps, that will not have Griffin Reinhart until the New Year's Eve game vs. Team USA, had just a handful of panicky peccadilloes. Here one thinks of Adam Pelech fanning on a first pass out of the corner on the second German goal, which led to a quick pass and a deflection by Janik Moser into a wide-open cage. Aaron Ekblad also had Germany's offensive ace, Leon Draistail, get behind him for a breakaway. By the same token, Ekblad might have got away with it if he had managed to knock down a lead pass. Draisaitl, the Prince Albert Raiders star and projected top-15 NHL draft pick, was held scoreless, which is a credit to the Ekblad-Derrick Pouliot pairing.

As a unit, Canada also did an awful lot of puck-watching on the sequence that led to a Bo Horvat hooking penalty with 6:45 left in the second. A mightier team would have made Canada pay for that inertness.

— Scoring chances were 34-8 for Canada by Cam Charron's calculation: 12-2 in the first, 10-5 in the middle frame and 12-1 in the third. Overall, the chances were 27-7 at even strength.

— Connor McDavid, as noted, had two assists and was denied by Cüpper on at least three chances, including one helper on his patented wraparound. That can be fairly considered a microcosm of his season with Erie, where he has 11 goals among his 50 points over 31 games.

"I missed a whole bunch of chances, which was pretty embarrassing," McDavid told TSN.

The Bo Horvat-McDavid-Sam Reinhart line combined for 12 chances and members of the line factored into three goals, with the former and latter each tallying.

Keep an eye peeled for whether McDavid can finish on Saturday vs. the Czech Republic (Saturday, TSN/BTN livechat, 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 PT).

— Goalie Jake Paterson (22 saves on 24 shots) faced perhaps one Grade-A chance and came up with a sprawling kick save during the second period. Neither marker was on the 19-year-old. The first came on a redirected point shot off a faceoff that Petan won. The second was after that aforementioned Adam Pelech giveaway.

There is still time to give 18-year-0ld Zach Fucale a start, although that would go against Brent Sutter's tendency to ride one goalie.

— Canada has now given up the first goal in all four of its games since arriving in northern Europe. Not really a concern, the second goal has more impact on whether a team wins. You could look it up.

— Canada was whistled for only three stick fouls, so it stayed one under its self-imposed limit.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.