Martin Pospisil is impressing in Czechia (and other Calgary Flames notes from the Worlds)

Pospisil plays a physical brand of hockey, and the challenge for him is probably going to be figuring out precisely what he can get away with at the international level, with the IIHF officiating typically being a bit more restrictive on physicality. He’s off to a good start. Slovakia still has games against Group B’s big guns, the United States and Sweden, remaining on their schedule.

Andrew Mangiapane (Canada)

Mangiapane’s representing Canada for the second time, following on the heels of his breakout performance at the 2021 World Championships. Based on that performance, where he was named tournament MVP and helped Canada win gold, expectations are fairly high for him.

So far, Mangiapane’s been quiet offensively. He’s been playing on a line with Dylan Cozens and Dylan Guenther, and he’s been named one of the club’s alternate captains.

He has zero points and three shots across to games, wins over Great Britain and Denmark. He had a bit of a down offensive year for the Flames, and the hope is likely that he can get his mojo back with the maple leaf on his chest. So far, it hasn’t materialized on the scoresheet, but there’s still a lot of round robin play remaining.

The top four teams in each group, A and B, following round robin action advance to the medal round. The lowest-placing teams in each group in round robin get relegated out of the championship division for next year’s tournament.