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Toki Wartooth Discusses WJC so far and the World Prospects Room for Improvement
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(This post was last modified: 01-24-2020, 03:46 PM by Pickle Juice. Edit Reason: The site word counter told me 1300 but I checked on a different program and it said 1174, so I took the lower number to avoid a fine )

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Toki Wartooth Discusses WJC Performance so far and the World Prospects Room for Improvement
By Lillehammer News-channel 4 

As the initial nine exhibition games of the World Junior Championship come to an end, we were able to catch up with World Prospects defenseman Toki Wartooth to gather his thoughts on how the tournament has gone so far and what his predictions are.  
(I= Interveiwer)
I: Toki, it is good to be able to talk to you today, how are you feeling?
Toki: Hey good to be here.  Physically I’m feeling great, it’s been a physical tournament so far but camp really got us into shape so it hasn’t been too draining just yet.  It’s a long tournament though, I imagine I will feel a bit more drained by the end of it.
I: That’s good to hear from you and I’m sure your coaches and teammates are happy to hear you feel ready to go for the round robins as well.  Since you mentioned the physicality of the tournament, would you like to discuss the differences in physicality between the WJC and other leagues you’ve played in?
Toki: Yeah y’know I’ve really only played at a competitive level like this for these nine games.  The players on my team and the players on opposing teams are top notch.  I know I’m on a prospects team but still it’s a great group of guys and some great hockey being played. 
I: It definitely has been entertaining hockey, and speaking of the physicality did you know you were tied for ninth in the tournament so far with 24 hits?
Toki: *laughing* yeah I’ve been throwing the body around mostly just to slow these guys down.  They’re so fast! I need to do some serious skating drills before the end of this tournament.  It’s too hard to keep up with these guys without throwing the body against them. 
I: How do you feel about the overall performance of the team so far?  We were actually able to catch up with teammate Jimmy Wagner earlier today who gave us this quote:

"We're a bit undersized and undermanned, yeah. We don't have a lot of traditional defenders so we've had a hard time playing that kind of game. I'm dropping down to defense with a few more of the wingers for these next games and we're going to come out swinging. We can't sit back and let the older guys get settled in against us, so hopefully we can control the tempo."

Toki: I love Jimmy! Talk about a guy who plays smart hockey, man.  He just knows where that puck is going to bounce.  Anyway, just looking at the record, what are we 2-6-1? Yeah that’s pretty disappointing.  Just like Jimmy said we have a few players stepping out of their traditional roles to help out in different spots and while I think they’re putting the work in you have to admit that’s quite a big change for a tournament of this caliber.  I know the kind of players we have in the locker room and we all know we are capable of doing better.  It starts with me y’know, I know I’m better than how I performed in the first nine games.  I found myself out of position too many times to get away with at this level.  We do need to do a better job of controlling the tempo, we can’t be playing catchup the entire game and expect to win. 
I: You ended the exhibition round with nine games played, a total of two points (both assists), minus four, and twenty-four hits.  In fact, only two players on your team ended up with a positive +/-, so how are you guys looking to improve come these next few rounds?
Toki: Obviously the team defense needs a lot of work and like I said, its starts with me.  Minus four is nothing to be proud of and I know my job is to do more than just hit.  We’ve been working on a lot of drills practicing getting into passing lanes, better zone breakouts, clearing the garbage in front of the net, all that stuff y’know.  It’s frustrating to know you can do better and still underperform.  It feels like we’re consistently hanging our goalies out to dry and as a team it needs to change. 
I: On the positive side, your team has the all-around best special teams so far in the tournament, capitalizing on forty percent of your powerplay chances and killing over ninety percent of your penalties.  Any secret to the success there?
Toki: The powerplay guys have been communicating really well on the ice so far, it’s nice to see and we’re aiming on keeping it that way.  Veinbergs, Harrington, and Skallagrimsson have all come through for us on the powerplay so far and they don’t look like they’re slowing down.  It’s really the same thing on the penalty kill y’know, we’re just out there communicating and breaking up plays.  Off the glass and out then quick line changes until those 2 minutes are over. 
I: Speaking of the penalty kill, you actually tied with two other players on the team for the most PIMs with six total.  Are you a victim of the seemingly zero-tolerance officiating so far this tournament?
Toki: No I wouldn’t go that far just yet.  There have been some close calls and calls I disagree with but that’s just part of the game y’know?  I play with a certain physicality and sometimes it’s hard to avoid borderline hits especially with the speed we’re playing at.  It’s a gritty game and you have to be with the program if you’re going to make it out on the ice, some calls just weren’t going my way.
I: What do you have to say to the people ready to count you out of the WJC tournament?
Toki: I would say don’t count us out just yet! I know it’s hard to believe but we as a team really are better than 2-6-1.  Of our seven total losses, four were by one goal and one of those four was in a shootout, which is not a team event.  We know the expectations set for us aren’t very high because we’re all prospects, but even if that is the case we still defeated the North American Prospects four to nothing.  We shut them out!  We really just have to get the little things down and I think we can make a deep run in this tournament.  We need to work on winning those face-offs, winning the 50/50 puck battles, and just earning those lucky bounces.  Once we iron a few things out I know our record will be much better than it was after the exhibition games.



So while the World Prospects may have had a poor record throughout their first nine games, they definitely do not have poor spirits.  Look for them to have a winning record through the round robins and maybe even make a decent run into the tournament. 


(Jimmy Wagner quote courtesy of @sve7en)

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#2

good stuff!!  Norway Norway

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thanks @Carpy48 and @frithjofr and @rum_ham and @Julio Tokolosh and @Briedaqueduc for the sigs
Armada Inferno Norway
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#3

Nice work Pickles Falcons

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#4

SKREEEE

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#5

Yeeeee. Nice work man

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