There are tournaments this week, and league play doesn’t resume for most players until around the middle of next week.

Sweden

SHL

Carl Grundström

Frölunda played three games, won two and lost one, and finished the week second in the standings. Grundström is 56th in the overall points standings, with six goals and one assist, but he is first in U20 players and eighth in U24, and he is still 18 for another month.

In their first game, Grundström got his first assist of the season and generally played well as the team had a fairly easy 3-1 game against Malmö.

In the second of the week, they lost 2-1 to Karlskrona, and Grundström had the only goal on a play where Karlskrona, to a man, thought the play was about to be blown dead offside. That never happened, and the goal stood up on review.

The third game was another try at last year’s semifinalist Skellefteå.  Grundström scored once in a 4-2 decision, and you can see that goal at the 1:58 mark of the highlight video.

He has stuck on the second line with centre Johan Sundström, and despite some defensive weaknesses, his tough forecheck and aggressive offensive style is creating chances and creating goals.  His net-front screen is  very effective, and he has a hand in a lot of goals he has no points on.

Frölunda plays again on November 10 for SHL action and November 1 and 8 in Berlin and then back at home to face Eisbären in Champions Hockey League round of 16 action.

Grundström, however, will be busy in the WJC tuneup competition, the Four Nations Cup, held in Gothenburg this year on November 4-6.  He is likely to miss the first CHL game, but might be in the second.  Barring an injury, he is a lock for Sweden’s World Junior team though.

Allsvenskan

Jesper Lindgren

MODO played twice and lost both, one in a 7-4 blowout.  Lindgren got on the board for one assist in the first loss.  He is playing good ice time, but the team increasingly looks to be falling to the bottom of the pile and won’t be challenging for a return to the SHL unless they suddenly reverse their fortunes dramatically.

The Allsvenskan does not stop playing like the SHL does, but Lindgren is on the Four Nations roster, and will likely miss some games. He is less of a sure thing for the WJC than Grundström is, so he needs a good tournament.

Pierre Engvall

Mora played three games this week, splitting the decisions on the first two.  Engvall is not moving off the top line wing, but he only managed one assist in the two games.

On Sunday’s game, he had a bit of a breakout performance, scoring two goals and adding an assist.  One goal was into the empty net, but they still count.  His assist on the tying goal is his best play of the game, I think. The highlights are available here, and you need to watch out for #10 in red.

Russia

KHL

Vladimir Bobylyov

Spartak played twice, one win and one loss, and Bobylyov finally got back in the lineup for the first game, played third line minutes and failed to register a point.   The second game he played only eight shifts and never showed up after his first one in the second period.

The team plays again on November 8, but Bobylyov is on the preliminary roster for the Russian team for the Four Nations Cup. Playing back at the junior level for a few games might be exactly what he needs.

Yegor Korshkov

Lokomotiv finished up their road trip in Shanghai for a game against Kunlun Red Star in their temporary home rink.  The stands were nearly totally empty, the team was tired, and they gave in lazily to defeat 3-1.

They came back home and buckled down to put up two very convincing wins against much better teams than the one in China.  First they beat Dinamo Minsk 6-3 in a game in which Korshkov’s line was uncharacteristically quiet.  Next, they decisively beat Jokerit 4-1.

Korshkov opened the scoring against Jokerit with a classic, be in the right place goal:

Lokomotiv plays next on November 9, but in the meantime Korshkov is on the Russian team for the Karjala Cup, the first event in the Euro Hockey Tour, where the men’s teams of Russian, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic compete in tuneup events for the World Championships. The Russians have chosen a very young team for this event, leaving the veterans to take a break for a few days.

VHL

Nikolai Chebykin

Chebykin played in three games for Dynamo Balashikha and gradually climbed in minutes until he was playing third line time in the most recent game, a 5-1 win over a much weaker team.  He didn’t add any points to his totals, however.

He was named to the preliminary rosters for the Four Nations Cup and the CIBC CHL Canada-Russia Series which takes place right after the tournament in Sweden.  If he makes the cut for that second event, he will be playing against Canadian junior team all-star teams in various cities in Canada.

Maple Leafs Prospects