Outside the KHL, Podkolzin was the captain of the Russia team.
At this point, the Vancouver Canucks would normally be in the NHL season for a month. There would be a lot to talk about or discuss for Canucks fans: a winning streak or a loss, a few controversial line-up decisions, or a goal recalled after a video review that didn’t make sense. You know, normal NHL stuff.
Instead, the 2020-21 season won’t start until 2021, with the NHL targeting a January 1 start date, while other sources suggest it could be postponed to February.
For those looking for a Canucks fix, there is at least one Canucks player to watch: Vasily Podkolzin, the team’s best prospect.
Podkolzin is in action in Finland this week and plays for Team Russia in the Karjala Cup. Their first game of the tournament was Thursday morning, but you can watch the entire game on YouTube where it was streamed by Russia Hockey.
For Podkolzin it must have been a nice change from his season in the KHL with SKA St. Petersburg. In the KHL, Podkolzin has problems collecting points, mainly because he has only a minimal ice age. He’s got an average of only 11:58 per game, but that average is higher than a handful of games where he had more ice age because half of his teammates were quarantined with COVID-19.
More recently, Podkolzin was promoted to the VHL, Russia’s second-rate men’s league, and when he returned to the KHL he only got 3:52 in the Ice Age.
Podkolzin’s KHL season has hit Canucks fans, albeit for two different reasons. Some are concerned that his lack of point production in the KHL means he won’t have a top 6 offensive in his NHL future. Others fear that his lack of Ice Age in the KHL will affect his development.
Hopefully Podkolzin will solve both problems with Team Russia. On Thursday he led all Russians forward in the Ice Age and collected two assists in the process.
Podkolzin was named captain of Team Russia, which entered the Karjala Cup, which was a bit of a surprise, but only because the cup is supposedly a men’s tournament as part of the Euro Hockey Tour. The Euro Hockey Tour is normally used by the four participating countries – Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic – to prepare for the World Cup or the Olympic Games or to evaluate players for the men’s national team.
Instead, Russia attracted a completely young squad and played the games to prepare for the Junior World Cup, which begins this Christmas.
The reasons for sending a U20 team to Finland were simple: other U20 tournaments were canceled or their format changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to send a junior team was obviously not popular in Finland A Finnish hockey writer described it as “outrageous”.
Maybe Finland should have sent its U20 teams to the Karjala Cup too. Your U20 teams should also play three games this week to prepare for the World Juniors. However, two Swedish players tested positive for COVID-19, which led to the event being canceled.
Finland head coach Jukka Jalonen certainly didn’t seem impressed with Russia’s decision.
“To be honest, we’re not interested in playing against a U20 team.” he said. “We’ll play if we have to, but we couldn’t care less.”
Perhaps he said this because he wasn’t expecting much from teenagers playing against his men’s team, but Russia quickly got him to eat his words and take a 1-0 lead within the first two minutes of the game. They never looked back and beat Finland 6-2.
Podkolzin was the leader with his two assists and the typically high rate of work on the foredeck and in the neutral zone. He played in every situation, killing penalties and working at the top of the net in the power play. He was clearly one of the best players in Russia.
Picking up his first assist for the 3-0 goal, he tossed the puck past a Finnish defender with just one hand on his stick, set down the bouncing puck and sent a pass through traffic to Ilya Safonov to target the goal to reach.
Vasily Podkolzin gets control of the puck in the offensive zone and prepares the 3-0 for Russia with the cross-ice pass. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/w9Y9DzaDVb
– Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) 5th November 2020
Podkolzin’s second assist came in the power play, but it had a lot more to do with the goal than the setup.
He simply moved the puck to Yegor Afanasyev on the right boards and then parked in front of the net while Afanasyev played catch with Danil Chayka at the head of the zone. When Chayka finally let go of a shot from the top, Podkolzin was there to check the goalkeeper and almost flipped the puck in on him.
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Podkolzin played the net front role well in the power play, occasionally stepping aside to offer a pass option or create scoring opportunities. He used his large frame and quick hands to protect the puck.
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As is typical for Podkolzin, his play in the defensive zone and the neutral zone was just as good as his work in the offensive zone. He did some nice break-ups on penalties, but I wanted to highlight that sequence in the third period.
Podkolzin starts the breakout with a smart game on the boards: instead of trying to force a pass through the middle, he lets a smooth backhand pass off the boards to trigger a Russian onslaught. He follows the game, takes the puck along the nearby boards and drives it deep down to Afanasyev.
If Afanasyev loses the puck, Podkolzin makes his way to the best place to get the puck back. He steals the puck from a Finnish player on the blueline and makes a clever toe to evade a check. He was then able to bring the puck back into the Finnish zone to allow a line change.
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The game did not result in a goal, although Russia scored a couple of shots on goal after the onslaught Podkolzin caused, it nonetheless shows how Podkolzin is doing the right things on the ice to steer puck possession in the right direction. There’s a reason coaches love him, other than maybe his coach in the KHL with SKA.
In any case, it seems clear that Podkolzin will get the ice age with the Russian U20 team, which he doesn’t get in the KHL. Now it’s up to him to deliver the dot production.
The Canucks have another perspective with Team Russia, 2020 6th round choose Dmitri Zlodeyev. As an unannounced 18-year-old, Zlodeyev is likely to have a hard time forming the World Junior Team and has only played against Finland for a few minutes. He didn’t get on the ice until the third stage, when the game was out of reach, and then only in special teams that worked shifts on both penalties and power play.
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