Monday Morning Ramblings featuring the week in review including WJC and developments in the crease.

On Thursday, David Rittich had an uncharacteristic bad game making only 9 saves (0.643%). He was pulled after allowing 5 goals to Utah.

Dylan Guenther filled the Isles net, collecting 3 goals and an assist. Marcus Hogberg came on in relief, stopping 5 of 7 shots (0.714%). Rittich rebounded Saturday with an OT win against the Leafs. Sorokin backed up against the Leafs, and will likely start against the Devils on Tuesday.

In the same game, Karel Vejmelka made his return from an injury and got the easy 7-2 win, making 20 saves (0.909%). 

Eric Comrie got the start against the Maple Leafs, and his teammates gave him a 4-1 lead to work with, but it was downhill during the 2nd period, as Comrie gave up 5 more goals (24 saves on 30 shots, 0.800%) in a 6-5 loss.

A.Matthews notched 3 goals and an assist that game. The former 1st overall pick has awakened from his slumber with 10 points in his last 4 games.

Leevi Merilainen's save percentage in the 4 games since Ullmark went on personal leave: 0.889%, 0.818%, 0.897%, and 0.913%. The first two were losses (Leafs, Blue Jackets), but the last two - come from behind wins: 4-3 against Washington, and 4-2 against Winnipeg.

Before this, Merilainen's last game where his save percentage was over 0.900%? That would be back on Nov.24 in a loss to the Kings (0.909%). No one knows how long Ullmark is on leave for, so Merilainen is a good volume pickup at least in the short-term, and maybe longer term as well.

C.Talbot picked up a loss vs the Penguins earlier in the week, but the teams had a rematch on Saturday. John Gibson hosted his hometown team and played well, stopping 27 of 29 shots (0.931%).

Unfortunately the Penguins put on a defensive clinic only allowing 12 shots on goal to the Red Wings. S.Skinner picked up the easy win stopping 11 shots (0.917%). Chinakhov scored on a breakaway for his first as a Pen. 

Everyone thought Buffalo's win streak would come to a crashing halt against the Dallas Stars, but the Sabres took care of the Stars 4-1. U. Luukkonen made 28 saves on 29 shots (0.966%). He has 3 of the wins in the 10 game win streak. Alex Lyon has the other 7. Lyon has returned to Buffalo to be evaluated for a lower body injury. Lindy Ruff says that Lyon will miss 'a bit of time'. Colten Ellis was activated off injured reserve (concussion) and backed up Luukkonen.

Everyone was expecting Buffalo's win streak to continue against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but alas all good things must come to an end. UPL (30 saves on 34 shots, 0.882%) was saddled with the loss, his first since Dec.8.

Jet Greaves was the winner here stopping 32 of 33 shots (0.970%). That made it 5 straight games of 0.909% or better, and he has taken over the starter role. Greaves has played in 12 of the last 13 Blue Jackets games, including back to back starts this weekend.

If you are still hanging on to Elvis Merzlikins, you are snoozing! Greaves was given a 4-1 lead in Sunday's game but blew it as the Pens mounted a comeback. Against his former team, Chinakhov assisted on Crosby's OT winner, giving Greaves (38/43, 0.884%) the loss.

Coach Dean Evason had this to say about Merzlikins before that game: 'We just feel that Jet is giving us an opportunity to win each and every night and we're gonna stay with that for now'.

However, after Greaves blew a 4-1 lead, and shouldered a heavy workload recently, I would guess that Merzlikins gets the next game against San Jose on Tuesday, followed by Greaves getting the tougher opponents: Vegas (Jan.8) and Colorado (Jan.10).

Freddie Andersen was thrown to the wolves, and by wolves I mean the Avalanche. Things looked promising after 2 periods, as the Canes were up 3-1, but the Avs scored 4 in the 3rd to take the game 5-3.

Andersen finished this game with a 0.882%, his last win coming 2 months ago on Nov.6. He hasn't had a save percentage greater than 0.889 % in his last ten games! 

Several 5 point games this past week, with Aho, Zibanejad, and Kucherov all performing the feat.

Let's take a look at stats from the World Junior Championships at the end of round robin (4 games played for all teams):

Canada scored the most goals (25), followed by Sweden (21). The best defensive teams were Sweden and Switzerland, only allowing 8 goals in the round robin. In terms of goal differential Canada led the way (+14), followed by Sweden (+13), Finland (+8), Czechia (+6), USA (+2), Switzerland (+2), and Slovakia (0).

One of the youngest players at the WJC, Viggo Bjorck had 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists) just like his Swedish teammate Anton Frondell (also 3 goals, 2 assists).

Viggo Bjorck will go in round 1 of the 2026 NHL Draft; he is ranked 7th by Dobberprospects, 16th by Sam Constentino, and 22nd by Craig Button. He has 8 points in 24 games with Djurgardens of the SHL. His Team Sweden buddies that also play for Djurgardens include Viktor Eklund (11 pts in 25 games, more on him later) and Anton Frondell (15 pts in 25 games).

Frondell led the round robin with 21 shots on goal and did his damage on the power play (4 of his 5 points). He scored the first goal of the round robin (vs Switzerland), as well as the first goal of the knockout stage (vs Latvia).

Frondell (3rd overall at the 2025 draft) turned out to be the unprotected pick that Chicago offered to Columbus and Montreal at the 2024 NHL entry draft because they wanted to draft Demidov at 4 or 5 after taking Levshunov at 2.

This offer was shunned by Columbus (who picked Cayden Lindstrom) as well as Montreal (who picked Ivan Demidov). Lindstrom was left off of Team Canada. He has struggled at the NCAA, with 3 points in 13 games for Michigan State University. In retrospect, perhaps Columbus should have accepted that Blackhawks offer, or taken Demidov at 4th overall instead.

Gavin McKenna and Brady Martin both scored 3 goals on 7 shots during the round robin, meaning their shooting percentage was quite high (42.9%). Their linemate Michael Hage led the round robin with 6 assists, benefitting from their elevated shooting percentages.

Team Canada's power play was firing at 53.8%! It led to these bloated numbers by the top power play unit: Z.Parekh 1g 4a, G.McKenna 1g 3a, Hage 1g 2a, B.Martin 1g1a, C.Reschny 1g1a. 

Cole Reschny, who is also good at faceoffs, has 18 points in 16 games with NCAA's University of North Dakota. His teammates there include American forward Will Zellers (15 points in 18 games), Canadian defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (11 points in 16 games), and American defenseman EJ Emery (4 points in 17 games). 

Reschny (18th overall, 2025) and Parekh (9th overall, 2024) were both picked by the Flames in Round 1.

Speaking of future NHL duos, the back to back first round picks the Islanders received for Noah Dobson, also took part in the tournament. Victor Eklund (Sweden, 16th overall) and Kashawn Aitcheson (Canada, 17th overall) both had 1g 2a for 3 points. Each had a power play goal and finished the round robin at -1.

Since I mentioned Noah Dobson, here is an impressive tidbit: he is tied for 9th in even strength points by a defenseman with 22. Werenski (33), Makar (31), and Hutson (31) are in their own stratosphere, followed by Bouchard, D.Raddysh, Chychrun, Morrissey, and Carlson with 23 each. At 22 even strength points we have OEL and the aforementioned N.Dobson. Heiskanen, Ghost, M.Rielly, and S.Malinski are right behind them with 21 points each. Every single one of these defensemen averages between 20-25 minutes of ice time, except Sam Malinski (15:56).

Adam Fox would have cracked this list, had he not missed so many games due to injury. Adam Fox's PTS/60 this season is at 2.5. Only 5 defenders have a higher rate: Ghost (2.9), Makar (2.7), Werenski (2.7), Raddysh (2.7), and Hutson (2.5).

The closest matchup in the quarter finals was Finland vs USA. Although the Americans were the higher seed, it was Finland that scored more goals (19 vs 17), and allowed fewer goals (11 vs 15).

It ended up being the best match of round one, with momentum swinging back and forth in the 3rd period. Finland got their revenge for last year's gold medal game by eliminating USA, 4-3 in overtime.

Petteri Rimpinen, a 5th round pick of the Kings in 2025, stopped 28 of 31 shots (0.903%) for the win. USA and Finland both have 20 wins against each other in all time head to head WJC history. 

In the semi finals against Finland, V.Bjorck (mentioned earlier in the article) had 4 breakaways in overtime, but failed to score on P.Rimpinen (30/33, 0.909%). He got the first crack in the shootout as well and was stopped AGAIN, but Sweden prevailed in a 16 round shootout. Sweden will play for gold against Czechia.