Calgary Flames prospects at World Juniors 2018: Day one update

With four Calgary Flames prospects in action on the first day of the World Juniors tournament, let’s see how everything went down.

The first game for Calgary Flames prospects was Linus Lindstrom and Team Sweden battling vs. Team Belarus. Sweden beat Belarus 6-1 and while Lindstrom remained off the scoresheet, another Lindstrom found his way on it so that should count for something.

Lindstrom was named the player of the game for Team Sweden (yay!). While he had no points, he had 12:00 minutes of ice-time, 11 faceoff wins, 0 losses. Lindstrom gets the day off on the 27th and faces the Czech Republic on Thursday, Dec. 28.

Next, we have Juuso Valimaki, captain of Team Finland who went head-to-head vs. Dillon Dube, the captain of Team Canada. Two prospects of the same team who are captaining their respective countries that face off against each other on the opening day of the World Juniors? How often do we see that? Probably as often as Troy Brouwer scoring. Sorry, bad joke. Let’s move on.

Related Story: Six Flames prospects ready to go at WJC

Prospect Eetu Tuulola was initially named to Finland’s team, but it seems like he’s been cut or he’s remaining a scratch because he’s not listed on their roster.

Valimaki assisted on Sweden’s opening goal of the tournament which cut the lead to just one for Canada. Canada ended up winning the game 4-2. Valimaki had one shot and 18:57 TOI. Dillon Dube remained off the scoresheet, but he led all forwards with TOI 17:46 and had three shots on net. Watching the game, the most impressive thing about Dube was his skating abilities. And his eyebrows.

But honestly, the true player of the game was this guy:

Finland gets a day off and will head back in action vs. Team Denmark on Thursday, Dec. 28 and Canada plays again Wednesday evening vs. Team Slovakia.

The final Calgary Flames prospect who played Wednesday evening was Adam Fox for Team USA who had a dominating win, beating Team Belarus 9-0 with five goals in the first period. Adam Fox had one assist and him and his defensive partner Quinn Hughes were quite the duo. They both led all defensemen on the team with shots, with Hughes getting three and Fox getting two. Fox had 17:33 minutes of ice-time which was second in defensemen after his partner Hughes.

He had some nifty little plays too…

USA gets the day off on Wednesday and will be back in action on Thursday when they face Team Slovakia.

Adam Ruzicka will play in his first game for Team Slovakia as they take on Team Canada on Wednesday evening.

Next: 2018 New Years resolutions: Players

World Juniors is exciting. But let’s all remember: these guys are all kids so let’s try not to be too angry.